WEST LIBERTY - The resurgent West Liberty University football team snapped No. 25 Shepherd's five-game winning streak Saturday, hanging on for a 17-16 victory before a Homecoming crowd at Russek Field.

Leading 17-10 at halftime, Coach Roger Waialae's Hilltoppers (4-3 overall, 3-2 WVC) had held the nationally ranked Rams (5-2, 4-1) at bay throughout the second half with a strong defensive effort but had to survive a wild finish.

Shepherd had taken over at the West Liberty 34 with 1:59 remaining following a short Hilltoppers punt. A 19-yard pass from Bobby Cooper to Larry Lowe gave the Rams a first down at the 15 but two incompletions and an intentional grounding flag left the visitors facing a fourth-and-23 from the 28.

With no timeouts remaining, Cooper lobbed a desperation pass into a crowd at the back of the end zone. The ball was batted away by a WLU defensive back but fell right into the hands of Shepherd's Billy Brown for a touchdown, igniting a wild celebration on the Rams' sideline.

That celebration proved short-lived, however, as Ryan Earls' PAT kick twisted wide left, preserving West Liberty's 17-16 lead with just 1:33 to play. The Hilltoppers' Marco Ricchetti recovered an onside kick and the WLU offense ran out the clock to a standing ovation.

"I'm very proud of every one of my players and coaches," Waialae said. "After what we went through last year and some of our struggles early this season, this shows our program is headed back in the right direction. We told the guys all week that it was going to be a war out there and every play would be a battle. We weren't perfect and we didn't win them all but we won enough battles to win the war and that's all I care about."

The West Liberty defense, which leads the nation in interceptions and turnovers, opened the scoring with one of the most exciting plays of the season before the game was three minutes old.

Ricchetti intercepted a Cooper pass at the Shepherd 48, reversed his field twice and picked up a wall of blockers down the right sideline. The Rams appeared to have him hemmed in inside the 10 but the junior safety lateraled the ball to a trailing Rod White at the 6 and the Hilltoppers cornerback dove into the end zone for the score.

"Marco's runback set the tone," Waialae said. "Shepherd has been one of the top teams in this league for a long time but that showed we weren't going to back down and be conservative. We were going to make things happen."

Earls and WLU's Jeff Hoak traded field goals later in the first quarter and the Hilltoppers took a 10-3 edge into the second quarter.

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West Liberty Stuns No. 25 Shepherd