Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Will Grier completed 19-of-27 passes for 304 yards and three touchdowns in leading West Virginia to a 59-16 victory over Delaware State this afternoon at Milan Puskar Stadium.
 
In a repeat of last week's blowout win over East Carolina, Grier gave way to backup quarterback Chris Chugunov in the third quarter after leading the Mountaineers to a 13-play, 80-yard march that resulted in their seventh touchdown of the afternoon, a Martell Pettaway 12-yard run.
 
By then, a perfect sunny fall afternoon in Morgantown had turned overcast and the stadium mostly vacant.

"I know there was some sloppy stuff here and there, but you're looking at splitting hairs when you do that," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said. "We got a lot of people in the game and we got the victory and that's what counts."

In the fourth quarter, Chugunov led West Virginia into the end zone on his second drive directing the offense. The scoring drive was set up by Lamonte McDougle's fumble recovery at the Delaware State 46.
 
Freshman tailback Tevin Bush carried the ball five times during the march, once for 14 yards on fourth and three at the Hornet 39, before Chugunov's 2-yard touchdown pass to true freshman receiver Reggie Roberson Jr., the duo's first-career TD hookup.
 
Chugunov also completed a seven-yard pass to his brother Mitch for a rare brother-to-brother pass hookup.
 
Justin Crawford ran 15 times for 102 yards and scored three touchdowns in two-plus quarters of action before watching the rest of the game from the sidelines.
 
Crawford has rushed for more than 100 yards in all three games this season and now eight times for his Mountaineer career.
 
Gary Jennings Jr. led the receiver corps with six catches for 128 yards - his second 100-yard receiving performance of the season. David Sills V, who came into the game tied for the national lead in touchdown catches with five, missed an opportunity to haul in his sixth TD pass in the first quarter and finished the game with just two catches for 19 yards.

"(Grier) was a little sloppy early. Dave and Gary, two of our better players, were sloppy with him," Holgorsen noted. "It was hot and in games like this it happens. I've got all of the confidence in the world in Gary Jennings, David Sills and Will Grier. They're going to bounce back and they're going to get better. And I thought they were pretty good today."

Defensively, Al-Rasheed Benton led West Virginia's inexperienced unit with eight tackles, three tackles for losses and a sack. Junior safety Dravon Askew-Henry made his first interception of the season and the Mountaineers came up with a couple of fumble recoveries, their first two of the year.
 
True freshman Kenny Robinson got his first start at corner and Marvin Gross Jr. moved to bandit in place of Toyous Avery, out for today's game with an injury. True freshman Derrek Pitts Jr. also played a substantial number of snaps.The defense was credited with 10 tackles for losses.
 
Delaware State (0-3), making its first-ever appearance at Milan Puskar Stadium, got a late score when backup quarterback Keewan Black completed an 8-yard touchdown pass to Kwannah Kollie with 5:51 remaining.
 
That pass culminated a 10-play, 82-yard drive.
 
The Hornets finished the afternoon with 301 total yards, 161 of those coming on the ground on 44 attempts.

"We played a lot of different people. I thought they did a smart thing by shortening the game, which I'm glad that they did," Holgorsen said. "Sixty snaps compared to our 69 snaps, that gives us something to watch and it gives us some valuable snaps on a lot of different guys."

The first half was made up mostly of long Grier passes, short Crawford touchdown runs, missed tackles, fumbles and lots of Delaware State penalties.
 
The flags didn't fly quite as frequently as they did in last night's USF-Illinois game, but enough of them were dropped to make it nearly a two-hour first half.
 
An announced crowd of 51,482 had yet to get settled into their seats when Marcus Simms took the game's opening kickoff 80 yards to the Delaware State 18, setting up Crawford's 2-yard run.
 
The Hornets answered on their first possession of the game when running back Nyfease West slipped behind the Mountaineer defense, took a short pass from quarterback Jack McDaniels along the far sideline, and ran untouched into the end zone for an 81-yard touchdown.

"Toyous Avery was out and hopefully he will be back next week so we had to move Marvin to bandit and that's what happened on that long play on the third play of the game," Holgorsen said. "They got him out of position because Marvin has been playing spur ever since he's been here."
 
Delaware State's other big offensive play of the first half was a Brycen Alleyne 47-yard run on a drive that eventually ended without points. The Hornets' other first-half score came as a result of a Grier fumble at the WVU six, leading to Wisdom Nzidee's 24-yard field goal.
 
At one point in the second quarter, 128 of Delaware State's 127 total yards came on just two plays, the other 19 plays netting minus-one yards.
 
Grier's touchdown passes covered distances of 62, 28 and 16 yards - two of those going to Simms. Ka'Raun White hauled in Grier's 28-yarder early in the second quarter.
 
Crawford's other first-half touchdown runs were from three and nine yards before passing the baton to backups Pettaway and Bush.
 
WVU's No. 2 running back Kennedy McKoy did not see action today for what Holgorsen termed afterward as a one-game suspension.

"He will be ready to go for the next game," Holgorsen said.
 
West Virginia (2-1) now turns its attention to Big 12 play when it opens conference action on the road at Kansas next Saturday in a game that will kick off at noon and will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
 
The Jayhawks (1-2) lost to Ohio University, 42-30, earlier today.

"I'm excited about turning the page and moving on to Big 12 next week," Holgorsen said.