The Hilltoppers hit the road against UTSA for a rematch of last year's conference championship, as they tried to put last week's home loss behind them. This was a huge one for WKU to take control of C-USA and move to 2-0 in conference play, but they ultimately fell short to the Roadrunners.

Austin Reed with yet another great performance, as he completed 36 of his 50 pass attempts for 387 yards and two passing touchdowns. Reed also added a touchdown run to put his touchdown total to three, with no interceptions. He's not only looking like one of the best quarterbacks in the conference, he's looking like one of the best in the entire country.

All three of WKU's losses have been one-score games, and if they correct a couple of miscues, this team could easily be undefeated. WKU made too many mistakes on critical downs to come out with a victory, and they'll have to clean up their self-inflicted wounds if they're going to continue to win games.

Both teams had a pretty good half, as they both scored on their opening drives. UTSA opened it up with a 12-yard touchdown run from quarterback Frank Harris, who had an all-around day with 273 passing yards and one touchdown while rushing for 61 yards and one score.

WKU answered back quickly with a touchdown drive of their own, as Austin Reed ran it in from two-yards to even the game up. After both defenses settled in and got some stops, WKU put together a great drive that was capped off with an 18-yard touchdown to Daewood Davis to put the Tops up 14-7 with 8:45 remaining in the second quarter.

UTSA finally got out of their slump to even the score at 14-14 after a three-yard touchdown rush by Brendan Brady, which was followed up by a stop and a quick field goal to put UTSA up 17-14 at the break.

The third quarter was when the momentum shifted right back into the Roadrunners favor, as they scored the only touchdown of the entire period. A lot of mental mistakes plagued the drives for the Hilltoppers as they never seemed to find their footing when they came out of the locker room.

After an eight-yard run, UTSA running back Chris Carpenter fumbled on the play, but it was recovered by his teammate Joshua Cephus in the end zone to extend UTSA's lead to 24-14. This was a missed opportunity from WKU and it came back to bite them in the end.

Just when it looked like WKU had no offensive rhythm, Michael Mathison scored an 18-yard touchdown from Austin Reed, after his defender fell down. Coach Helton tried to catch UTSA slipping, kicking an onside kick out of nowhere, but it was recovered by UTSA.

The Roadrunners went on to score two plays later with a 12-yard touchdown pass from Harris to De'Corian Clark to put UTSA back up by ten, 31-21. They were gifted great field position and they wasted no time to score again.

WKU's offense looked back to normal with a balanced run and pass game, which resulted in a 33-yard touchdown run from Kye Robichaux to bring the Hilltoppers within three at 31-28 with 8:58 remaining in the game.

WKU's defense played solid all game, not allowing the Roadrunners to have too many big plays, but they were unable to give the offense one more shot on a big fourth and two, but Harris' pass to Joshua Cephus was just enough to convert the critical down and secure the win for the Roadrunners.

Along with Reed, Western Kentucky also had impressive performances from wide receivers Malachi Corley (11 catches for 131 yards) and Daewood Davis (8 catches for 120 yards and 1 TD).

JaQues Evans led the Hilltoppers with 11 tackles while Derrick Smith recorded 10 tackles, one tackle for loss, and a forced fumble.

With the win, UTSA improves to 4-2 overall, 2-0 in Conference USA play while Western Kentucky drops to 3-3 overall and 1-1 in conference play.

The Hilltoppers will now turn their attention to another conference rivalry just down the road, as they travel to Middle Tennessee next Saturday.

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