Can't 'Touch' This!
November 20, 2002 10:54 PM | General
November 20, 2002
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Quincy Wilson ran for 125 yards and a touchdown and the West Virginia defense came up with a fourth quarter goal line stand to lead the Mountaineers to a 21-18 upset victory over No. 13-ranked Virginia Tech Wednesday night in Blacksburg.
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| West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez leads the cheers in the locker room after WVU's 21-18 win at Virgnia Tech. |
"It's a tribute to these young men and the seniors who have taken this team on their shoulders and carried us," said West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez.
Wilson's teammate Avon Cobourne finished with 80 yards on 19 carries as West Virginia ran all over Tech's nationally ranked run defense that came into the game giving up just 80 yards per game. The Mountaineers finished the game with 263 yards rushing and 387 yards of total offense.
The Hokies more publicized duo of Lee Suggs and Kevin Jones, referred to as the "Untouchables", finished the game with a combined 107 yards.
"I know Virginia Tech has a great pair of running in Suggs and Jones but I think our two in Cobourne and Wilson can stack up with just about anybody," said Rodriguez. "Quincy has had a really good year and he's a powerful young men. With those two guys back there we're pretty confident in our run game."
It was West Virginia's first victory over a nationally ranked team on the road since defeating Boston College 17-14 in 1993, and the first win over a ranked team since defeating Syracuse 35-28 in 1998.
"I told them earlier that it was probably going to be a 60-minute game and by Gosh if it didn't go all the way down to the end," said Rodriguez. "The thing I'm proud of is that there were a lot of times when the had momentum our guys kept fighting and battling, made a few plays at the end and got a big win."
Virginia Tech drew first blood on its second possession by driving 72 yards in six plays.
Bryan Randall completed a 21-yard pass to Ernest Wilford to move the ball to the West Virginia 46 and two plays later on third and three, he ran for 11 yards to the Mountaineer 28. Lee Suggs then took an option pitch from Randall and outraced the West Virginia defense for a 28-yard touchdown -- the 24th straight game he's rushed for a touchdown for an NCAA record.
The Mountaineers answered on its next possession with a pretty five-play drive that covered 80 yards. Travis Garvin got things going with a 15-yard reverse to the West Virginia 35. Two plays later on third and 10, West Virginia caught Tech in an all-out blitz and Rasheed Marshall hit Derrick Smith over the middle for a season-long 56-yard pass that moved the ball to the Hokies nine yard line.
Avon Cobourne finished the drive with a nine-yard run for his 14th touchdown of the year.
After stopping Tech, West Virginia took the lead with 14:21 left in the second quarter when Marshall scored on a seven-yard run. West Virginia got into scoring position on two long runs by Quincy Wilson and a Hokie personal foul that moved the ball to the nine.
Right after that, West Virginia stopped a Tech drive when James Davis forced a Kevin Jones fumble that Grant Wiley recovered at the Mountaineer 40, but WVU could only manage one first down before being forced to punt.
Wilford put the Hokies in business with 8:16 left in the second quarter when he came up the middle untouched and blocked a Mark Fazzolari punt that he recovered at the WVU 16 yard line. It was the fourth blocked punt of the year for the Hokies.
However, West Virginia's defense tightened and forced Virginia Tech to settle for a Carter Warley 34-yard field goal.
It looked like West Virginia had things going on its next possession driving all the way to the Tech 31, but a pair of West Virginia penalties moved the ball back to midfield. WVU wasn't able to convert its third down attempt and backup quarterback Danny Embick came in in an offensive formation and punted the ball beautifully to the Hokie two yard line.
Tech moved the ball to midfield before its drive stalled.
Penalties aside, West Virginia played a solid first half gaining 238 yards of total offense including 138 yards on the ground.
West Virginia was looking to at least tack on three points when it took the opening kick of the second half and drove the ball deep into Hokie territory. But on third and eight at the Tech 14, Marshall threw an ill-advised pass in the middle of the end zone that was intercepted by Hokie backup linebacker Blake Warren. It was just Marshall's fourth interception thrown this year.
The Hokies appeared to have regained the lead on their ensuing possession when Suggs burst up the middle for a 27-yard touchdown run, but it was called back because of holding. Another holding call and an Angel Estrada sack of Randall forced Virginia Tech to punt the ball back to the Mountaineers.
Sensing a momentum change, West Virginia drove 86 yards on six rushing plays culminated by a 42-yard touchdown run by Quincy Wilson on third and short. The run was set up by a beautiful block by right guard Ken Sandor.
"We were running against the numbers sometimes and Quincy and Avon did a great job of running. And again our offensive line keeps plugging and trying to get a hat on a hat," said Rodriguez.
Going primarily with the option, Virginia Tech ran right down field to answer West Virginia's score. Randall covered 34 yards on one option play and five plays later, scrambled free of the WVU defense and found tight end Keith Willis wide open for a five-yard touchdown.
On the two-point conversion try, Randall's pass was intercepted by linebacker Grant Wiley to make the score 21-16, West Virginia.
From this point on, the West Virginia defense took over and won the game. The Hokies moved the ball 71 yards all the way to the West Virginia goal line. On first and goal at the nine, Suggs went seven yards to the Mountaineer one. Tech tried Suggs again over left guard for no gain. A Randall sneak was stopped. Then on fourth and goal, Adam Lehnortt came underneath and Grant Wiley jumped over the pile to stop Suggs short of the end zone for a terrific goal line stand.
"It's funny because we haven't been in goal line too many times and when we have we haven't been very good at it," said Rodriguez. "We just have one base goal line and a couple of variations off our base defense. Three times in a row our front four got a great job of penetration and our linebackers have great instincts and they read right."
West Virginia could not move the ball and instead of punting away at its own goal line, the Mountaineers decided to take a safety to make the score 21-18.
The objective was to give West Virginia kicker Todd James room to kick the ball from the 20, but his free kick went out of bounds giving the ball to the Hokies at midfield. Two short passes by Randall and a 14-yard scramble put the ball on the West Virginia 11 with 21 seconds left.
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| Running back Avon Cobourne reaches around the goal for West Virginia's first touchdown of the game. |
Easily in field goal range, Randall tried two shots at the game-winning touchdowns and on the second try was picked off by Brian King with 12 seconds left.
West Virginia went into its victory formation and celebrated one of the more memorable wins in school history.
Randall finished the game completing 18-of-30 passes for 168 yards and a touchdown. Marshall hit 13-of-20 passes for 124 yards. Smith caught a career-high four passes for 93 yards.
Unbelievably, West Virginia still has a shot at winning the Big East championship if Pittsburgh can upset Miami tomorrow night.
Tech has now dropped three straight and falls to 8-3 on the season. West Virginia improves to 8-3, 5-1 and wraps up its regular season at Pitt on Saturday, Nov. 30.
The game the game time will be announced on MSNsportsNET.com Friday.
Scoring Summary
VT -- Suggs 28 run (Warley kick)
WV -- Cobourne 9 run (James kick)
WV -- Marshall 7 run (James kick)
VT -- Warley 34 FG
WV -- Wilson 42 run (James kick)
VT -- Willis 5 pass from Randall (Conversion failed)
VT -- Safety Fazzolari steps out of the end zone
Individual Statistics
Rushing: WV -- Wilson 11-125, Cobourne 19-80, Marshall 12-43, Garvin 2-22, Fazzolari 1-minus 3, Team 1-minus 4, Total 46-263; VT -- Randall 18-125, Suggs 15-71, Jones 9-36, Easlick 2-11, Total 44-243.
Passing: WV -- Marshall 13-20-1-124-0; VT -- Randall 18-30-1-168-1, Team 0-1-0-0-0, Total 18-31-1-168-1.
Receiving: WV -- Smith 4-93, Wilson 3-12, Cobourne 3-12, Page 1-5, Neal 1-5, Marshall 1-minus 3, Total 13-124; VT -- Wilford 5-58, Witten 3-45, Suggs 3-22, Easlick 2-17, Johnson 2-6, Shreve 1-7, Humes 1-7, Willis 1-6, Total
