Box Score First-time WVU starter Jarret Doege threw three touchdown passes to lead two-touchdown underdog West Virginia to a 24-20 victory over 24^th-ranked Kansas State this afternoon at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
 
Doege, a Bowling Green transfer who led WVU to a late touchdown drive during last Saturday's disappointing loss to Texas Tech, completed 20-of-30 passes for 234 yards and touchdown passes for 19 and 15 yards to George Campbell and a back-breaking 50-yard heave to wide open freshman Bryce Wheaton early in the fourth quarter.
 
Doege looked composed in the pocket avoiding constant Kansas State pressure and he benefited from a running game that produced 85 yards on 28 carries – 10 more than West Virginia's season average.
 
All three Doege touchdown passes came on third down.
 
Campbell continues to be Mr. Touchdown for the Mountaineers as the senior has now registered six touchdowns on his 14 catches this season. He grabbed a team-best five today for 92 yards.
 
"Our kids battled," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said.
 
The game began ominously for West Virginia with Kansas State scoring a touchdown on its first play from scrimmage when Sklyar Thompson completed a 68-yard bomb to Dalton Schoen, who ran right by Mountaineer corner Keith Washington II.
 
WVU tied the game two minutes later on Campbell's first touchdown catch, and following a Blake Lynch 22-yard field goal, took the lead on Campbell's second score on the final play of the first quarter.
 
Doege fired a strike between a couple of defenders to Campbell, who twisted his body into the end zone from the 2.
 
Another Lynch field goal with 43 seconds left in the half reduced West Virginia's lead to 14-13.
 
The Mountaineers (4-6, 2-5) had an opportunity to get more points right at the end of the half when two Leddie Brown and a Doege pass to Isaiah Esdale moved the ball to the Wildcat 20, but Casey Legg's 37-yard field goal try was wide left.
 
Kansas State (6-4, 3-4) began the third quarter by methodically marching the football from its own 30 right down the field and into the end zone. Thompson converted a pair of third-down plays, including a third and 15 at the WVU 21 when he hit Schoen for 16 yards to the WVU 5.
 
Two plays later, James Gilbert bounced in from the 2 to give K-State a 20-14 lead.
 
Following a Kansas State punt, West Virginia took over at its own 37 with 4:05 left in the third quarter and got a big Doege third-down completion to freshman Ali Jennings for 13 yards to the K-State 46. Another Doege completion to Esdale for 8 yards moved the ball to the Wildcat 26 before Mountaineer penalties stalled the drive at the 20.
 
The second walk off, a holding penalty called on senior tackle Colton McKivitz, moved the ball back to the 39 and forced a third and 31. Doege elected to dump the ball off short to running back Kennedy McKoy coming out of the backfield to make it fourth and 26 at the 34.
 
Here, Brown elected to try a field goal with Legg, who had already missed two field goal tries today and was 1-for-4 in attempts after replacing starting kicker Evan Staley.
 
But Legg had enough leg to punch through a 52-yard field goal that perfectly split the uprights with room to spare, reducing Kansas State's lead to 20-17.
 
Following a three-and-out possession by Kansas State, a short Devin Antcil punt gave the Mountaineers the ball at their 47.
 
A pass interference penalty called against Denzel Goolsby when he made contact with Sam James running a post pattern down the middle of the field gave West Virginia 15 yards to the Wildcat 38.
 
But here, the offense went into reverse. Doege was sacked for an 8-yard loss and then Brown was thrown for a loss of 1. A false start penalty called on Chase Behrndt, who replaced freshman Briason Mays at center today, walked the ball back to the 50. That made it third and 17.
 
Once more K-State came with pressure and Doege once again calmly stepped up in the pocket to flip a soft, lofting pass to a wide-open Wheaton, who turned around and jogged into the end zone for the go-head touchdown.
 
There wasn't a Kansas State defender within 15 yards of Wheaton, who was standing with his back to the goal line waiting for Doege to throw the football.
 
"That was a huge play on the scramble where Jarret found Bryce Wheaton for the touchdown," Brown said.
 
Here, the WVU defense took over. A pair of Kansas State first downs got the football into West Virginia territory before the drive stalled at the 36.
 
On fourth and 12, Thompson's pass intended for Joshua Youngblood fell incomplete.
 
A quick three-and-out put the defense back out on the field with 7:38 left in the game. Once again, it held thanks to a 13-yard sack by Jeffery Pooler Jr.
 
West Virginia's offense was only able to burn two minutes off the clock while going backwards two yards, putting the onus back on the defense with 2:53 left in the game and the Wildcats beginning at their own 8.
 
"I would have liked to put the game away right there one of those times we had the ball and we couldn't do it, but defensively we just kept coming up with big plays," Brown said. "They had that seven-minute drive to start the half and after that we really put it out."
 
Thompson used dump-off passes to his running backs to move the ball out to the K-State 44. A Thompson 15-yard completion to Phillip Brooks gave the Wildcats a first down at the WVU 32.
 
Here, Kansas State coach Chris Klieman opted to use his second timeout with 43 seconds left. When play resumed Thompson was flushed out of the pocket and picked up 2 yards before running out of bounds at the 30.
 
His next play, a deep pass down the middle of the field was picked off by Hakeem Bailey with just 28 seconds remaining on the clock.
 
Two short West Virginia runs ended the game.
 
"I felt like we'd get one maybe we weren't supposed to I just didn't know when it was going to be," Brown said. "To come on the road, in a hard environment, and for our kids to just battle and battle and battle and our coaches too … They got beat up all week, and deservedly so because we didn't play well last week in the first half, but  we just continued to fight and I'm proud of our entire organization."
 
Thompson, who was also picked off by safety Josh Norwood earlier in the game, completed 24-of-39 passes for 299 yards and a touchdown.
 
The Wildcats, successful running the football in their upset victory over Oklahoma last month, managed just 122 yards on 38 attempts.
 
Safety Sean Mahone led the WVU defense with nine unassisted tackles, two tackles for losses and a sack. WVU got to Thompson twice and now shows 26 sacks for the season.
 
The victory over Kansas State snapped a five-game losing streak and also extended its winning streak to four straight games over the Wildcats. 
 
West Virginia returns to Milan Puskar Stadium next Saturday to face Oklahoma State on Senior Day. A kickoff time and television coverage will be announced on Sunday.