MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Skyler Howard tied a career-high five with touchdown passes to lead West Virginia to a harder-than-expected 38-21 victory over Youngstown State at Milan Puskar Stadium this afternoon.

"I give them a lot of credit for keeping it close," said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen, who improved to 6-0 at WVU against FCS schools. "If you look over the last four years, they have played FBS schools and won and were competitive in the others, so it's not surprising to me. We were prepared for this and our guys didn't panic when it was close."

A sun-drenched crowd of 56,261 saw the Mountaineers fall behind 14-7 early in the second quarter after Ricky Davis hit Alvin Bailey on a 74-yard catch and run, following Martin Ruiz's one-yard score on Youngstown State's prior possession.

But Howard, who completed a 53-yard touchdown pass to Ka'Raun White in the first quarter, tied the game with 3:15 left in the second when he hit Shelton Gibson in stride down the near sideline for a 54-yard touchdown.

WVU (2-0) had an opportunity to take the lead right before the end of the first half, Howard orchestrating a drive from his own 35 to the Penguin 13, but kicker Mike Molina's 30-yard boot hooked left as the first half clock expired, leaving the score tied at 14.

After stopping Youngstown State on its opening possession of the third quarter, the Mountaineers took control of the game by marching 86 yards in nine plays, eating 3:14 off the clock.

Running back Rushel Shell III began the drive with an 11-yard run, moving the ball out of a hole to the 25. Following an illegal procedure penalty, Howard hooked up with Gibson once again for 45 yards to the Youngstown State 29.

Four straight runs, two by Shell, one by Howard, and another by Justin Crawford, moved the ball to the Penguin 11 where Howard located Daikiel Shorts Jr. in the back corner of the end zone for a touchdown pass, which the game's replay official upstairs confirmed.

On their next possession, it looked like the Mountaineers had reached the end zone yet again when Shell crossed the goal line from the five, but guard Kyle Bosch was called for holding, moving the football back to the 15.

An incomplete pass forced West Virginia to settle for a 30-yard Molina field goal, which he converted.

WVU added more points late in the third period when Howard hooked up with Gibson on a second touchdown toss, this play going for 57 yards.

Youngstown State (1-1) got a 15-yard touchdown run from backup quarterback Trent Hosick with 8:44 remaining before Howard contributed his career-best fifth TD toss, this one going to a wide-open Kennedy McKoy for 21 yards coming out of the backfield.

The game developed just as Holgorsen indicated he felt it might go earlier in the week, the Penguins sticking around early until depth and the heat took its toll in the second half.

That happened in the third quarter when West Virginia reeled off 17 straight points.

"I thought we had a good halftime. We came in, made some good adjustments and had a good second half," Holgorsen said.

Howard finished the afternoon completing 20 of his 33 pass attempts for 389 yards, five touchdowns and one interception, while Gibson caught six of those passes for 171 yards and two scores.

Last week's leading receiver, Daikiel Shorts Jr., finished the afternoon with six catches for 93 yards and a touchdown. White made five catches for 88 yards and McKoy had the other grab for 21 yards.

Shell led all ball carriers with 84 yards on 16 carries, while Howard added 50 yards on eight attempts. The Mountaineers finished the afternoon with 235 yards on the ground, but Holgorsen thought his team left some yards out there today.

"It was a soft box and we need to be able to do a better job than that," he said. "Give them credit for holding their own. We challenged the O-line at halftime and that was something we talked about all week. We were able to rotate some guys and play some different guys and were hoping we would be able to wear them out in the second half. And we did."

Davis completed 11-of-26 passes for 189 yards and a touchdown for YSU, and he also led the team with 62 yards on 13 attempts. Bailey caught three passes for 92 yards

"I've learned a long time ago not to take wins for granted," Holgorsen noted. "There are a lot of college football teams out there that would have lost this game. Obviously we were able to play well in the second half and get the victory - a 17-point win against these guys is something I'll take.

"After we watch the video, there will probably be a lot more things we learn from this game than we did the first game," Holgorsen added.

WVU played a pretty clean game penalty-wise in last week's opener against Missouri, but this week the Mountaineers were flagged six times for 49 yards, a couple of those coming at critical times.

"The thing that got me hot was the timing of those penalties was bad," Holgorsen said. "That was one of the things I was happy with after that first game was we played a pretty clean game. Today I can't say everything was clean."

West Virginia has two weeks now to prepare for its final non-conference game of the season when the Mountaineers face BYU in Landover, Maryland, on Saturday, September 24.

The Cougars play Utah later today and face UCLA next weekend before traveling east to face WVU in the D.C. suburbs.

Youngstown State is back in action next weekend against Robert Morris.