Box Score Kenny Hill's 3-yard touchdown run with 2:53 remaining in the fourth quarter lifted eighth-ranked TCU to a 31-24 victory over No. 23 West Virginia Saturday afternoon at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
 
The game turned into a back-and-forth affair in the second half after the two teams were locked in a tight defensive struggle.
 
The Horned Frogs (5-0, 2-0) led 7-3 at halftime primarily on Adam Nunez's terrific punting and a big special teams miscue when Jovanni Stewart blocked TCU's Innis Gaines into Marcus Simms, jarring the ball loose from him and the Horned Frogs recovering the muffed punt at the WVU 33.
 
A Hill 14-yard pass to Desmon White gave TCU a first down at the 19, and four plays later, 235-pound running back Sewo Olonliua scored from the three.
 
West Virginia's lone first-half score came on its opening possession when the Mountaineers marched from their own three to the TCU 16 where a holding penalty on center Matt Jones ended up stalling the drive. Mike Molina was able to sneak his 37-yard kick inside the left upright, but later missed a 29-yard chip shot when WVU was stopped at the TCU 12.
 
The starting field position for West Virginia's five first-half drives were the three, five, 25, one and five in a repeat of how Virginia Tech beat it in the season opener in Landover, Maryland.
 
"If you want to be considered one of the better teams in the conference or one of the better teams in college football this isn't good enough - it's the same exact thing that happened against Virginia Tech," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said.
 
After stuffing the Mountaineers on their opening possession of the third quarter, TCU scored twice to build its lead to 17-3.
 
The first Horned Frog score came on Jonathan Song's 37-yard field goal, culminating a nine-play, 59-yard drive.
 
TCU turned West Virginia's other turnover into more points when Simms appeared to stop on Will Grier's deep pass down the middle of the field that Nick Orr easily picked off at the 21 and returned 34 yards to the West Virginia 45.
 
On the next play, Hill tossed a high-arching pass down the near sideline that Jalen Reagor hauled in at the one where he was able to get his foot inside the pylon for a touchdown. Replay confirmed the scoring play and the conversion kick gave TCU a 14-point lead.

"Coming off a turnover, everyone in America knows they are going to take a shot, we tell our guys right before that and they take a shot and we're in cover three," defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said. "Unless they let us play with 12 there is no better coverage for a deep ball than that. That's the one that broke our back because they had zero momentum and they couldn't do anything offensively"
 
But West Virginia answered twice in rapid-fire succession on long Grier passes, one going for 64 yards to David Sills V as a result of a blown coverage, and the second one coming one possession later for 76 yards to Ka'Raun White when he beat single coverage against Orr and outran him to the end zone.
 
That tied the game at 17 with 1:37 left in the third quarter.
 
TCU immediately answered when Hill scored on a throwback screen pass from KaVontae Turpin from the TCU 48. Turpin took the ball from Hill on an end around, stopped, then flipped the ball across the field to Hill, who had a convoy of blockers in front of him.
 
The only WVU defender who recognized the play was linebacker David Long Jr., but he couldn't slow down Hill and the quarterback followed his blockers down the near sideline for the touchdown.
 
Two possessions later, West Virginia got its best starting field position of the game when Nunez's short punt was fielded by Simms at the Horned Frog 49.
 
WVU, aided by one TCU penalty but not a second one when another flag was picked up on Sills' third-down catch to the 32, got a big fourth-down conversion when Grier hit White for 11 yards to the 15 on fourth and four.
 
Justin Crawford ran 11 yards to the five, and two plays later, Grier lofted a soft pass to the back of the end zone where Sills ran under it for their second TD hookup of the afternoon.
 
Prior to TCU's game-winning touchdown, West Virginia's Elijah Battle appeared to pick off Hill's deep pass down the near sideline that was intended for Reagor, Battle dragging his foot down at the one. However, replay officials ruled Battle did not have possession of the football when he caught it and the Horned Frogs were given a reprieve at the WVU 34.
 
Two plays later, Hill's third-and-seven pass to John Diarse went for 23 yards when Diarse evaded Hakeem Bailey out in the flat and was knocked out of bounds by Xavier Preston at the WVU eight, setting up Hill's TD run.
 
Still, the Mountaineers had a chance to either tie or go ahead with a two-point conversion in regulation.
 
Grier completed a fourth-and-five pass to Sills for 10 yards to the WVU 40, but on the very next play Sills was called for an offensive pass interference penalty, which moved the football back 15 yards to the 25.
 
A replay clearly showed Tony James grabbing Sills before he made the catch, but the official behind the play ruled that it was Sills who initiated the contact. Incidentally, four of TCU's five infractions were pass interference or defensive holding calls, so instead of being in TCU territory with a new set of downs, West Virginia was facing a deep hole at first and 25.

Holgorsen was asked about that call and others that didn't go his team's way.

"I won't talk about the officials, ever," Holgorsen said. "I'd like to, but I don't want to."
 
Grier completed a short pass to Gary Jennings Jr., but his next three attempts fell incomplete.
 
TCU took over the ball at the WVU 32 with 1:13 left and ran out the clock.

It's was West Virginia's 15th straight loss to a top 10 team on the road since defeating No. 9 Oklahoma in Norman on Sept. 11, 1982. WVU has defeated a top 10 team on the road just twice in its history, the other happening in 1954 at No. 9 Penn State.
 
"I'm proud of the way the guys kept fighting and we had a chance to score and potentially tie the game or go for two and win," Holgorsen said. "We felt like me missed an opportunity in game one and we had an opportunity to do it tonight and we didn't.
 
"When the game's on the line you've got to stop people and get off the field, and you've got to finish the job and we didn't do that for two out of the first five games," he added.
 
As it did in its season-opening loss to Virginia Tech by the same score, West Virginia dominated the stat sheet but lost the hidden yardage, field position and turnover battle.
 
The Mountaineers outgained the Horned Frogs 508-406 and had a 28-16 edge in first downs, but two of TCU's five scoring drives were from 45 yards or less.
 
Meanwhile, West Virginia had to drive the length of the field for three of its four scoring marches.
 
Grier had another fabulous statistical afternoon, completing 25-of-45 passes for 366 yards and all three touchdowns, two of those going to Sills, who finished the day with seven catches for 116 yards.
 
Ka'Raun White led all receivers with a career-high 138 yards on six catches; Jennings caught a game-best 10 passes for 80 yards.
 
Justin Crawford ran for 53 yards on West Virginia's opening possession of the game and finished with a game-best 111 yards on 19 carries - his fifth straight, 100-yard rushing performance of the season.
 
TCU's Hill had 264 yards by all methods, completing 15-of-28 passes for 188 yards and one touchdown, catching a 48-yard touchdown pass, and finishing with 28 yards rushing and another score.
 
TCU temporarily assumes sole possession of first place in the Big 12 standings following Oklahoma's stunning home loss to Iowa State earlier today.
 
The Horned Frogs are at Kansas State next Saturday.
 
West Virginia, which drops to 3-2/1-1 with the loss, returns home to face Texas Tech on Homecoming Saturday at noon at Milan Puskar Stadium. The Red Raiders pounded Kansas, 65-19, earlier this afternoon in Lawrence to improve to 4-1/1-1.
 
The game has already been announced a sellout.