All UVa
December 28, 2002 01:00 PM | General
December 28, 2002
CHARLOTTE – Wali Lundy had 203 combined yards and scored four touchdowns to lead Virginia to a 48-22 victory over West Virginia in the inaugural 2002 Continental Tire Bowl Saturday at Ericsson Stadium in Charlotte, N.C.
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| West Virginia running back Avon Cobourne wrapped up his career with 117 yards and two touchdowns Saturday against Virginia. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
The 48 points scored by the Cavaliers were the second most ever allowed by West Virginia in a bowl game. Coach Bobby Bowden’s Mountaineer team lost 49-13 to N.C. State in the 1972 Peach Bowl.
“I think this game kind of went the way we tried to sketch it out,” said Virginia coach Al Groh.
“Obviously I’m very disappointed in how we played,” said West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez. “We had breakdowns in all three phases. We had special teams breakdowns, defensively we never made them punt and offensively we made a few critical errors. We played a pretty good football team and you’ve got to give them a lot of credit.”
Virginia punted once and scored touchdowns on five straight possessions to boost its lead to 35-10 early in the third quarter.
West Virginia actually led 3-0 after a Todd James field goal, but Virginia reached into its bag of tricks to take its first lead.
On second and 10 at the West Virginia 14, Cavalier quarterback Matt Schaub threw a pass out into the flat to wide receiver Marques Hagans, who tossed the ball to a wide-open Lundy in the corner of the end zone for Virginia’s first score.
“It was a good play call,” said Lundy. “I was just hoping I would catch it. When you’re that wide open sometimes you don’t focus but I caught it.”
UVa spent the entire day keeping West Virginia off guard with fake reverses, mis-directions and quarterback draw plays.
“We had those plays in mind and we tried to use them early as the opportunities presented themselves,” said Groh.
“We knew they were going to run a lot of trick plays and they ran the whole gamut I guess,” Rodriguez said. “They executed them well and they kept us off balance.”
West Virginia’s one attempt at a trick play went awry when Phil Braxton’s reverse pass was intercepted by linebacker Darryl Blackstock and was returned to midfield.
“On the trick play we missed a block and we had the guy put pressure on Phil that forced the bad pass,” said Rodriguez.
After Virginia took its 7-3 lead, the Mountaineers answered with a nine-play, 78-yard drive that culminated with an Avon Cobourne six-yard touchdown run.
Virginia responded with a 15-play drive that covered 70 yards. On fourth and goal at the WVU one, Schaub rolled out looking to pass the ball into the flat, but was forced out of the pocket and fought off a Mountaineer tackler on his way into the end zone.
Virginia’s 14-10 lead sooner got bigger following a backbreaking special teams play by Hagans, who took a Mark Fazzolari punt and juked three would-be tacklers on the way to a 69-yard return for a touchdown.
“The punt return took a little wind out of our sails but there was still a lot of football to be played,” said Rodriguez. “It’s a shame because we’ve had that happen to us a couple of times. It was a low kick that was not covered very well.”
The Cavaliers expanded their lead to 18 points right before halftime when Lundy scored on a four-yard touchdown run.
“By the second quarter it started to look like a track meet and we weren’t going to win a track meet against a team that passes,” said West Virginia offensive tackle Lance Nimmo. “We grind teams out and once we got down a couple of scores it’s not our style.”
Virginia was content to settle for three points on fourth and two at the West Virginia nine, but WVU was flagged for an offsides penalty on a Connor Hughes 27-yard field goal attempt that hit the goal post.
Instead of a 21-10 Virginia lead at halftime, the Cavaliers went into the locker room with a commanding 18-point advantage.
“Our guys thought the pushed the ball a little bit, but again that shouldn’t happen – it was a mental breakdown,” said Rodriguez.
If West Virginia entertained any hopes of getting back into the game, it had to score on its opening possession of the third quarter. Instead, the drive got off to a bad start when the Mountaineers’ were whistled for holding on Phil Braxton’s 18-yard punt return to the 19, and the ball was placed on the WVU 10.
Virginia ultimately forced West Virginia to punt and took over the football at its own 25.
A pair of Schaub passes moved the football to the 44, and Schaub hit Brandon Isaiah for seven yards to the WVU 49 on third and six. Three plays later on third and nine at the WVU 48, Schaub hit Lundy on a screen pass and the freshman turned the play into a 48-yard touchdown.
The Cavs tacked on three more following a Rasheed Marshall interception and led 38-10 with 6:48 left in the third quarter.
West Virginia got two scores on long drives of 80 and 81 yards, but Virginia managed to keep a safe distance thanks to a Hughes 30-yard field goal and a Lundy 31-yard touchdown run.
Schaub was an efficient 16-of-22 for 182 yards and a touchdown and the Cavaliers finished the game with 391 total yards. Lundy rushed for 127 yards and caught five passes for 76 yards to earn game MVP honors.
Virginia made nine of 15 third-down conversions and two of two fourth down tries and played on a short field the entire day. Virginia’s average field position was its own 42-yard line.
“It was a players game and we tried to put them in a position where they could make plays and they stepped up to that,” said Groh.
West Virginia had 459 yards of total offense including 244 on the ground. “I thought we moved the ball well at times, we just had a couple of bad drives,” Rodriguez said. “Offensively we have to earn a lot of things because we don’t make a lot of big plays. We’re more of a team that has to have 12-13 play drives.”
Cobourne had 117 yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries to finish his career with 5,039 yards to rank ninth on the NCAA all-time rushing list.
“He didn’t break any long runs or get loose as much, but he’s brought an awful lot to the program and he’s represented us very well,” said Rodriguez of Cobourne.
Marshall completed 12 of 18 passes for 215 yards. It was the second-best passing performance of his career.
Phil Braxton caught four passes for 108 yards and Miquelle Henderson had two catches for 75 yards.
The win snapped Virginia’s four-game bowl losing streak. Virginia finished the year with a 9-5 record.
West Virginia finished its season with a 9-4 record.
“I don’t want to take anything away from what our seniors did this year,” said Rodriguez. “There are some things we’ve got to learn from this game and get better – coaches, players and everybody – for the future.”
Scoring Summary
WV – James 27 FG
VA – Lundy 14 pass from Hagans (Hughes kick)
WV – Cobourne 6 run (James kick)
VA – Schaub 1 run (Hughes kick)
VA – Hagans 69 punt return (Hughes kick)
VA – Lundy 4 run (Hughes kick)
VA – Lundy 48 pass from Schaub (Hughes kick)
VA – Hughes 27 FG
WV – Marshall 1 run (Kick failed)
VA – Hughes 30 FG
WV – Cobourne 1 run (Run failed)
VA – Lundy 31 run (Hughes kick)
Individual Statistics
Rushing: VA – Lundy 22-127, Schaub 7-39, Johnson 2-23, Isaiah 3-13, Weeks 3-minus 3, team 2-minus 4, Total 39-195; WV – Cobourne 25-117, Marshall 12-48, Wilson 10-38, Neal 1-22, Braxton 2-12, Embick 2-7, Total 52-244.
Passing: VA – Schaub 16-22-0-182-1, Hagans 1-1-0-14-1, Total 17-23-196-0-2; WV – Marshall 12-18-1-215-0, Embick 0-1-0-0-0, Braxton 1-0-1-0-0, Total 12-20-2-215-0.
Receiving: VA – Lundy 5-76, Sawyer 4-41, Miller 3-54, Isaiah 3-10, McMullen 1-8, McGrew 1-7, Total 17-196; WV – Braxton 4-108, Henderson 2-75, Smith 2-9, Glover 1-14, Nastasi 1-5, Johnson 1-5, Wilson 1-minus 1, Total 12-215.
Attendance: 73,535
