West Virginia passed and ran its way to a 38-0 halftime lead over Maryland this afternoon at Milan Puskar Stadium.
Skyler Howard completed 14 of his 20 pass attempts for 230 yards and three touchdowns, and the Mountaineer ground game churned out 197 yards in a totally dominating first-half performance for WVU.
Howard’s touchdown passes covered seven yards to fullback Elijah Wellman on West Virginia's opening possession, 15 yards to Shelton Gibson and then 41 yards once again to Gibson streaking down the far sideline midway through the second quarter.
Wendell Smallwood tacked on a four-yard scoring jaunt in the first quarter and Rushel Shell contributed a two-yard scoring plunge when he bounced off a Terrapin tackler at the line of scrimmage and bulled his way into the end zone.
Josh Lambert completed a dominating first half by kicking a 48-yard field goal as time expired.
Maryland quarterback Caleb Rowe, who replaced starter Perry Hills last weekend against USF, had a miserable first half completing just five of his 24 pass attempts for 24 yards with two interceptions.
The Terps nearly tripled their passing total in penalty yardage with 65 yards on seven infractions.
Here’s how bad things got for Maryland in the first half: tailback Brandon Ross broke free for a 55-yard run down the near sideline to the West Virginia one late in the second quarter, setting the Terps up for an apparent score. But as he was tripped up by cornerback Terrell Chestnut, he fumbled the football out the end zone, giving the Mountaineers a first and 10 at their own 20.
Ross ended the first half with 12 carries for 129 yards to lead all rushers. Smallwood had 115 for the Mountaineers, while Shell contributed 64 yards on 11 totes.
The only negative for the Mountaineers was Skyler Howard’s streak of consecutive passes thrown without an interception ended with his 174th attempt when freshman Jovon Durante could hold on to a catchable pass, the ball bouncing into Anthony Nixon’s arms.
More details to come.
