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WVU Wins OT Thriller
September 10, 2010 08:45 PM | Football
Somehow, some way, West Virginia pulled this one out. Just how the Mountaineers did it will be talked about for years to come from Morgantown to Huntington.
West Virginia (2-0) got two length-of-the field drives in the fourth quarter to erase a 15-point Marshall lead with less than eight minutes to play to send the game into overtime, and then in the extra session, got a 20-yard field goal from Tyler Bitancurt and a 39-yard miss by Marshall’s Tyler Warner to win 24-21 and spoil Doc Holliday’s home debut Friday night before a record-setting crowd of 41,382 at Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
“These fans needed that win and we didn’t get it and that just kills me,” said Marshall’s first-year head coach Doc Holliday.
For a vast majority of the game, it looked like Holliday was going to be the toast of the town on the back of a strong defensive effort and what really amounted to two big offensive plays. The first one, a 55-yard run by Martin Ward, led to Antavious Wilson’s 8-yard touchdown reception from Brian Anderson on the game’s opening possession.
The second big play, Aaron Dobson’s 96-yard touchdown catch from Anderson, came after West Virginia failed to pick up a fourth and 1 at the Marshall 9. Anderson saw man coverage and hooked up with Dobson on a deep post when Keith Tandy gambled and couldn’t knock down Anderson’s well-thrown ball. That pass play matched the longest scoring play against the Mountaineers since Donovan McNabb hooked up with Marvin Harrison for a 96-yard score in the Carrier Dome in 1995.
Marshall (0-2) led West Virginia 14-3 at halftime – the third halftime lead the Herd has had against WVU since 2007, but each time they couldn’t close out the deal in the second half. In 2007 after trailing 13-6 at halftime in Huntington, West Virginia erupted for 42 second-half points in a 48-23 victory. And last year after trailing 7-3 in Morgantown, the Mountaineers scored 21 unanswered second-half points to pull away with a 24-7 triumph.
“I told them at halftime that this reminded me of ’07 when we were down 13-6 here,” said West Virginia coach Bill Stewart, now 3-0 against Marshall and 5-6 in road games at WVU. “Things weren’t going very well then, and they certainly weren’t going very well tonight, either.”
In fact, in the last five games since the series resumed on an annual basis in 2006, West Virginia has outscored Marshall 111-20 after halftime, including a 60-7 margin in the fourth quarter.
And the fourth quarter was when this football game was decided.
The game turned with 8:28 remaining when freshman Tron Martinez fumbled at the West Virginia 6. Martinez’s miscue came three plays after Geno Smith was hit from behind by Vinny Curry and fumbled at the West Virginia 16 (Curry seemingly spent the entire game in West Virginia’s backfield, compiling 11 tackles, two sacks, three tackles for losses and forced two fumbles). After Smith’s fumble it appeared the Mountaineers’ offense was in total disarray.
But Smith rallied the troops on his next possession, completing passes of 26 yards to Jock Sanders, 16 yards to Will Johnson and 30 yards to Stedman Bailey. Actually, the biggest play of the drive came from Smith’s legs as he managed to get past heavy Marshall pressure and scrambled 17 yards to the 46 on third and 11 to keep the sticks moving.
Noel Devine finished the drive with a nifty 4-yard touchdown run when he appeared to be boxed in along the far sideline before darting to end zone to pull WVU to within eight, 21-13.
Once again, Marshall’s offense couldn’t put the game away at midfield after Ward’s 28-yard first-down run got the ball to the 48. On third and 10, Andre Booker was stopped a yard short of the sticks, forcing Holliday to punt the ball back to WVU with a little more than three minutes still remaining on the clock.
Kase Whitehead’s 41-yard punt was down at the WVU 2, where Smith took over with 3:09 remaining and needing a touchdown and the two-point conversion to extend the game.
On first down Smith got an 11-yard pass out in the flat to Devine to create some breathing room, and then back-to-back short passes to Bailey netted 13 yards to the 20. Once again, Smith used his legs to escape heavy pressure, running 20 yards to the West Virginia 46.
After a pair of false starts set West Virginia back 10 yards and an incomplete pass presented the Mountaineers with a third and 14, Smith was able to get 13 of that back with a pass to Tavon Austin. Smith then hooked with Devine for a 7-yard gain on fourth and 1 to get the ball to the Marshall 38. A 14-yard Austin reception, a 4-yard Devine run, a 6-yard Austin catch and pass interference called on Marshall gave West Virginia first and goal at the 2.
Two plays later, a scrambling Smith was able to find Will Johnson for a 5-yard touchdown in the right side corner of the end zone to make it a 21-19 game. Smith hit Sanders for the two-point conversion in the back of the end zone to tie the game with 12 seconds remaining.
“I looked up and there was eight minutes to go and we were down 21-6 and we go 96 yards and 98 yards and score a two-point conversion,” said Stewart. “That just shows you how we grew in the fourth quarter.”
“Geno Smith is an excellent quarterback, he makes good decisions and manages the game well,” added Holliday. “Then you put Noel Devine and Jock Sanders and Tavon Austin out there and they’ve got the best talent in the Big East Conference.”
In overtime, West Virginia was able to avert disaster on its opening play when Smith was able to fall on his fumble after being sacked for a 9-yard loss. Smith recovered with passes of 9 yards to Devine and 13 yards to Austin to give West Virginia first and 10 at the 12. Eventually, the Mountaineers were stopped at the 3 where Bitancurt punched through a 20-yard field goal.
Marshall’s overtime possession began when Booker was thrown for an 8-yard loss. Dobson got 11 of those back to the 22, but Anderson’s third down pass was broken up by J.T. Thomas to set up Warner’s 39-yard miss.
“It’s a 60-minute game and unfortunately we didn’t play all 60 minutes,” said Holliday.
Smith, making his first career road start, performed admirably in the face of consistent pressure by completing 32 of 45 passes for a career-high 316 yards.
“I was pleased with how he responded because not many young football players in the country in their second complete could have done what he did,” said Stewart of Smith’s performance.
Devine, who ended up running for 112 yards on 23 carries, caught a career-high 10 passes for 62 yards to finish the game with 185 yards from scrimmage.
Austin caught nine passes for 85 yards, Bailey had five catches for 72 yards and Sanders showed five catches for 57 yards as the Mountaineers rolled up 469 total yards.
Marshall got 101 yards on just 11 carries from Ward, while Anderson finished the night 20 of 29 for 229 yards and three touchdowns.
“I’ve got to give West Virginia credit, they’re a good football team and they found a way to win at the end and we didn’t find a way to win it,” said Holliday.
Now, West Virginia has a long bus ride back to Morgantown to consider all that happened tonight – the good, the not-so-good, and the really-not-so-good.
“I told the guys after the game that there are going to be bumps in the road in life that will be a lot tougher than this and maybe this experience will help you get through something that is traumatic, or what you think might be traumatic,” said Stewart.
Next up is Maryland on Saturday, Sept. 18 in a noon game that will be televised on ESPNU. The Terps take on Morgan State tomorrow in College Park.
West Virginia (2-0) got two length-of-the field drives in the fourth quarter to erase a 15-point Marshall lead with less than eight minutes to play to send the game into overtime, and then in the extra session, got a 20-yard field goal from Tyler Bitancurt and a 39-yard miss by Marshall’s Tyler Warner to win 24-21 and spoil Doc Holliday’s home debut Friday night before a record-setting crowd of 41,382 at Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
“These fans needed that win and we didn’t get it and that just kills me,” said Marshall’s first-year head coach Doc Holliday.
For a vast majority of the game, it looked like Holliday was going to be the toast of the town on the back of a strong defensive effort and what really amounted to two big offensive plays. The first one, a 55-yard run by Martin Ward, led to Antavious Wilson’s 8-yard touchdown reception from Brian Anderson on the game’s opening possession.
The second big play, Aaron Dobson’s 96-yard touchdown catch from Anderson, came after West Virginia failed to pick up a fourth and 1 at the Marshall 9. Anderson saw man coverage and hooked up with Dobson on a deep post when Keith Tandy gambled and couldn’t knock down Anderson’s well-thrown ball. That pass play matched the longest scoring play against the Mountaineers since Donovan McNabb hooked up with Marvin Harrison for a 96-yard score in the Carrier Dome in 1995.
Marshall (0-2) led West Virginia 14-3 at halftime – the third halftime lead the Herd has had against WVU since 2007, but each time they couldn’t close out the deal in the second half. In 2007 after trailing 13-6 at halftime in Huntington, West Virginia erupted for 42 second-half points in a 48-23 victory. And last year after trailing 7-3 in Morgantown, the Mountaineers scored 21 unanswered second-half points to pull away with a 24-7 triumph.
“I told them at halftime that this reminded me of ’07 when we were down 13-6 here,” said West Virginia coach Bill Stewart, now 3-0 against Marshall and 5-6 in road games at WVU. “Things weren’t going very well then, and they certainly weren’t going very well tonight, either.”
In fact, in the last five games since the series resumed on an annual basis in 2006, West Virginia has outscored Marshall 111-20 after halftime, including a 60-7 margin in the fourth quarter.
And the fourth quarter was when this football game was decided.
The game turned with 8:28 remaining when freshman Tron Martinez fumbled at the West Virginia 6. Martinez’s miscue came three plays after Geno Smith was hit from behind by Vinny Curry and fumbled at the West Virginia 16 (Curry seemingly spent the entire game in West Virginia’s backfield, compiling 11 tackles, two sacks, three tackles for losses and forced two fumbles). After Smith’s fumble it appeared the Mountaineers’ offense was in total disarray.
But Smith rallied the troops on his next possession, completing passes of 26 yards to Jock Sanders, 16 yards to Will Johnson and 30 yards to Stedman Bailey. Actually, the biggest play of the drive came from Smith’s legs as he managed to get past heavy Marshall pressure and scrambled 17 yards to the 46 on third and 11 to keep the sticks moving.
Noel Devine finished the drive with a nifty 4-yard touchdown run when he appeared to be boxed in along the far sideline before darting to end zone to pull WVU to within eight, 21-13.
Once again, Marshall’s offense couldn’t put the game away at midfield after Ward’s 28-yard first-down run got the ball to the 48. On third and 10, Andre Booker was stopped a yard short of the sticks, forcing Holliday to punt the ball back to WVU with a little more than three minutes still remaining on the clock.
Kase Whitehead’s 41-yard punt was down at the WVU 2, where Smith took over with 3:09 remaining and needing a touchdown and the two-point conversion to extend the game.
On first down Smith got an 11-yard pass out in the flat to Devine to create some breathing room, and then back-to-back short passes to Bailey netted 13 yards to the 20. Once again, Smith used his legs to escape heavy pressure, running 20 yards to the West Virginia 46.
After a pair of false starts set West Virginia back 10 yards and an incomplete pass presented the Mountaineers with a third and 14, Smith was able to get 13 of that back with a pass to Tavon Austin. Smith then hooked with Devine for a 7-yard gain on fourth and 1 to get the ball to the Marshall 38. A 14-yard Austin reception, a 4-yard Devine run, a 6-yard Austin catch and pass interference called on Marshall gave West Virginia first and goal at the 2.
Two plays later, a scrambling Smith was able to find Will Johnson for a 5-yard touchdown in the right side corner of the end zone to make it a 21-19 game. Smith hit Sanders for the two-point conversion in the back of the end zone to tie the game with 12 seconds remaining.
“I looked up and there was eight minutes to go and we were down 21-6 and we go 96 yards and 98 yards and score a two-point conversion,” said Stewart. “That just shows you how we grew in the fourth quarter.”
“Geno Smith is an excellent quarterback, he makes good decisions and manages the game well,” added Holliday. “Then you put Noel Devine and Jock Sanders and Tavon Austin out there and they’ve got the best talent in the Big East Conference.”
In overtime, West Virginia was able to avert disaster on its opening play when Smith was able to fall on his fumble after being sacked for a 9-yard loss. Smith recovered with passes of 9 yards to Devine and 13 yards to Austin to give West Virginia first and 10 at the 12. Eventually, the Mountaineers were stopped at the 3 where Bitancurt punched through a 20-yard field goal.
Marshall’s overtime possession began when Booker was thrown for an 8-yard loss. Dobson got 11 of those back to the 22, but Anderson’s third down pass was broken up by J.T. Thomas to set up Warner’s 39-yard miss.
“It’s a 60-minute game and unfortunately we didn’t play all 60 minutes,” said Holliday.
Smith, making his first career road start, performed admirably in the face of consistent pressure by completing 32 of 45 passes for a career-high 316 yards.
“I was pleased with how he responded because not many young football players in the country in their second complete could have done what he did,” said Stewart of Smith’s performance.
Devine, who ended up running for 112 yards on 23 carries, caught a career-high 10 passes for 62 yards to finish the game with 185 yards from scrimmage.
Austin caught nine passes for 85 yards, Bailey had five catches for 72 yards and Sanders showed five catches for 57 yards as the Mountaineers rolled up 469 total yards.
Marshall got 101 yards on just 11 carries from Ward, while Anderson finished the night 20 of 29 for 229 yards and three touchdowns.
“I’ve got to give West Virginia credit, they’re a good football team and they found a way to win at the end and we didn’t find a way to win it,” said Holliday.
Now, West Virginia has a long bus ride back to Morgantown to consider all that happened tonight – the good, the not-so-good, and the really-not-so-good.
“I told the guys after the game that there are going to be bumps in the road in life that will be a lot tougher than this and maybe this experience will help you get through something that is traumatic, or what you think might be traumatic,” said Stewart.
Next up is Maryland on Saturday, Sept. 18 in a noon game that will be televised on ESPNU. The Terps take on Morgan State tomorrow in College Park.
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