OT Thriller
September 18, 2004 05:20 PM | General
September 18, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Rasheed Marshall found Chris Henry for a seven-yard touchdown in overtime to lift West Virginia to a 19-16 victory over No. 19 Maryland Saturday afternoon in Morgantown.
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| West Virginia's Chris Henry gets past Maryland defensive back Domonique Foxworth in the end zone for the game-winning touchdown.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Marshall, 0-3 against the Terrapins heading into today’s game, got a big monkey off his back.
“As a player you can’t look ahead to a game like this because you’ve got two other games ahead of this that you need to worry about, but I always knew inside that I had to get this game,” said Marshall. “You don’t want to go 0-4 against a team that you feel inside you can beat every season.”
In past games Marshall was criticized by Mountaineer fans for his play against the Terrapins but Saturday he proved much more effective than his Maryland counterpart Joel Statham, who had a miserable day completing just 9 of 20 passes for 108 yards with three interceptions. Maryland turned the ball over five times but remained in the game because of a stiff defense the continually turned back West Virginia scoring opportunities.
“I’m really proud of our team,” said West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez. “They fought all the way to the end.
“I knew that we had blown some opportunities,” Rodriguez added, “and I knew it was going to come down to the fourth quarter but I didn’t think overtime.”
West Virginia’s Kay-Jay Harris, bouncing back from a hamstring injury that limited him to just two carries for seven yards last weekend at UCF, ran 33 times for 142 yards and scored the game’s first touchdown.
West Virginia (3-0) literally spent most of the first half in Maryland territory, but could only come up with seven points following Pac-Man Jones’ second interception of the day that placed the ball at the Terrapin six. The next play Harris streaked through a big hole untouched to pay dirt.
Maryland’s score came midway through the second quarter and was set up by a Sammy Maldonado 40-yard run on a second-and-three play from the Maryland 40 that placed the ball at the Mountaineer 20. Three straight Terrapin runs netted nine yards, forcing Nick Novak to hit a 31-yard field goal.
Two possessions later, West Virginia had its best drive of the half, taking the ball from its own 22 and marching 56 yards to the Maryland 22. On third and seven with less than 50 seconds left on the clock, Marshall lofted a pass into the end zone to Chris Henry that was deflected at the last minute. The Mountaineers had to settle for a 39-yard field goal that Brad Cooper pushed to the right.
West Virginia doubled up Maryland in total plays in the first half (46-23) and held a 170-92 advantage in total yards, but the Terps were able to escape four first-half turnovers including three Statham interceptions.
Both quarterbacks had a tough time through the air; Statham finished the first half completing just 2 of 8 tosses for 20 yards while Marshall was only 3 of 9 for 40 yards.
Kay-Jay Harris was West Virginia’s most effective first-half offensive weapon running 19 times for 98 yards. Jones put the Mountaineers in great position with two interceptions and an opening kickoff return that he took 53 yards to the Maryland 47.
After stopping Maryland on its opening possession of the third quarter, West Virginia expanded its lead to 10-3 when Cooper kicked a 37-yard field goal with the wind. Cooper’s kick culminated an 11-play, 52-yard West Virginia drive.
Maryland (2-1) finally reached the end zone with 1:21 left in the third quarter when Derrick Fenner beat Jones on one-on-one coverage in the far corner of the end zone for a 27-yard touchdown.
“I didn’t even see the ball,” said Jones. “When I turned back the only thing I saw was the sun. But he beat me on that play. I can’t take one: I’m going to make more plays than I get beat on.”
Maryland scored again with 9:23 left in the game when Novak booted his second field goal, this time from 46 yards to take a 13-10 lead. At this point it appeared Maryland’s offense was taking over the game.
But West Virginia responded with a critical nine-play, 61-yard drive that moved the ball to the Terp 19. On third and three, West Virginia rolled the dice and tried to go for the touchdown, but Marshall’s pass to Brandon Myles in the corner of the end zone was knocked away by Maryland’s Reuben Haigler.
“We weren’t executing our deep balls for a variety of reasons,” said Rodriguez.
The missed pass forced West Virginia to try a 37-yard field goal into the wind that Cooper managed to punch through to make it 13-all.
Both Maryland and West Virginia had chances to take the lead in regulation, but Novak’s 49-yard field missed wide right and Cooper’s 39-yard field goal attempt with five seconds left in the game was blocked by Maryland’s Kevin Eli.
It was Cooper’s second try after having missed to the right on his first chance. West Virginia got a second opportunity after Maryland was whistled for offsides.
Maryland then took a knee to take the game into overtime.
West Virginia won the coin flip and opted to go on defense first. A Statham to Jo Jo Walker eight-yard pass on second and 10 moved the ball to the WVU 17, but an Allen third-down carry was stopped a yard short of the first down.
Novak came on and kicked a 33-yard field goal to give the Terps a 16-13 advantage after its overtime possession.
West Virginia took over and got a quick five from quarterback Rasheed Marshall and then another seven yards on the ground from Harris. A Marshall keeper pushed the ball to the Terrapin and a Harris short gain gave West Virginia a third and four from the Terp seven.
Marshall then found Chris Henry on a quick slant into the end zone for the game-winning score. Henry described his game-winning catch: “I think (Domonique) Foxworth was waiting for me to run the fade and it was a stick move that got me wide open.”
“The slant opened up a little bit and at the end we had our best wideout against their best corner,” said Rodriguez. “Rasheed made a great throw; he really persevered throughout the whole ballgame.”
It was Henry’s fifth catch of the game for 72 yards.
Rodriguez said he presented game balls to Marshall and defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel for their performances Saturday. West Virginia’s defense produced five turnovers and held Maryland to just 295 yards of offense.
“Going into it I thought our kids were ready to go and we played really well on defense and all of the credit goes to the kids,” said Casteel. “They hung in there and we just asked them to be able to take (Maryland’s) best shot and be able to play the next two or three snaps. Maryland is a great football team, great program; powerful, downhill physical football team and our kids answered the bell today.”
West Virginia’s victory snapped a four-game Maryland winning streak in the series and was the Mountaineers’ second overtime victory in school history.
“We didn’t take very good care of the ball today, but I still think we did some good things,” said Friedgen. “We ended up with a chance to win. It’s amazing that we had four turnovers at halftime and we were only down seven.”
Scoring Summary
WV – Harris 6 run (Cooper kick)
UM – Novak 31 FG
WV - Cooper 45 FG
UM – Fenner 27 pass from Statham (Novak kick)
UM – Novak 46 FG
WV – Cooper 37 FG
UM – Novak 33 FG
WV – Henry 7 pass from Marshall
Individual Statistics
Rushing: UM – Maldonado 13-69, Allen 18-66, Statham 6-39, Suter 2-0, Team 2-0, Walker 1-minus 2, Total 41-187; WV – Harris 32-142, Marshall 15-47, Colson 13-39, Team 1-minus 8, Total 61-220.
Passing: UM – Statham 9-20-3-108-1; WV – Marshall 10-20-0-132-1.
Receiving: UM – Fenner 2-42, Walker 2-17, Weatherly 1-18, Parson 1-11, Abiamiri 1-8, Suter 1-8, Davis 1-4, Total 9-108; WV – Henry 5-72, Henderson 3-30, Colson 2-30, Total 10-132.
Attendance: 60,358
