MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Garrett Greene threw three touchdown passes and ran for another in leading West Virginia to a 49-14 victory over UAlbany Saturday evening at Milan Puskar Stadium.
 
Greene completed 17 of his 23 pass attempts for 236 yards while running seven times for 68 yards before giving way to backup Nicco Marchiol early in the fourth quarter with the Mountaineers leading 42-14.
 
CJ Donaldson Jr. rushed 14 times for 125 yards and Jahiem White contributed 100 yards on just 10 carries, becoming the first double-100-yard rushers since last year's Baylor win when White went for 133 and Greene added 103.
 
Ten different players caught passes for the Mountaineers, led by Hudson Clement's four receptions for 39 yards and a touchdown.
 
Overall, West Virginia accounted for 553 yards of offense, and Oliver Straw was only required to punt once in the second quarter. The Mountaineers' only other unsuccessful offensive possession ended when White fumbled at the conclusion of his 36-yard run.
 
That was the only turnover of the game.
 
West Virginia (1-1) averaged an impressive 9.5 yards per play.
 
"A little different setting than a week ago," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. "It's always good to win. Offensively, we only had three bad plays. We were 5-for-5 in the red zone. We had two 100-yard rushers, and I thought we threw and caught the ball much better than we did a week ago."
 
WVU scored touchdowns on its first three possessions and ended the first half with a Greene 40-yard touchdown run, but in between, UAlbany quarterback Myles Burkett used his arm and his feet to keep the Great Danes hanging around.
 
Burkett zipped a 33-yard touchdown pass to Jacari Carter with 1:54 left in the second quarter, three minutes after his passing and scrambling put UAlbany in position for Griffin Woodall to run it in from the 7.
 
All four of UA's third-down conversions in the first half were third and 9 or longer, including a third and 16 that led to its first touchdown. For the game, the Great Danes converted seven third downs and were 2-for-5 on their fourth-down tries.
 
The Mountaineers appeared to be in complete control of the game at the start of the second quarter, scoring touchdowns on long drives of 90, 76 and 69 yards.
 
Beginning at its own 10 after Traylon Ray dropped the opening kickoff, WVU moved 5 yards closer to its own goal line when center Brandon Yates was flagged for being downfield on Ray's 15-yard reception. But that was just a temporary setback as Greene's running and passing took West Virginia right down the field. White's 14-yard touchdown run culminated the drive.
 
Following a quick UAlbany possession, Greene's passing quickly got the Mountaineers back into the end zone. He hooked up with Rodney Gallagher III for 21 yards, hit Justin Robinson for 18 more and then went back to Robinson in the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown.
 
Two plays into the second quarter, Greene flipped a pretty pass to Kole Taylor over the middle of the field and the tight end raced 39 yards into the end zone for his first touchdown of the season. Michael Hayes II's third conversion kick gave the Mountaineers a 21-0 lead.
 
Hayes kicked his fourth conversion with 39 seconds left after Greene broke loose for a 40-yard touchdown scamper.
 
UAlbany (1-1) took the third-quarter kickoff from its 15 all the way to the WVU 1 with Burkett completing passes of 41 and 49 yards before hitting a wall near West Virginia's goal line. Two incomplete Burkett passes, and a 1-yard Burkett run left the Great Danes with a fourth and goal at the 1.
 
UAlbany chose to go for the touchdown instead of kicking the field goal, but Burkett's pass to Seven McGee in the corner of the end zone landed harmlessly on the ground.
 
The Mountaineers immediately got out of the shadow of their own goal post with Donaldson Jr. runs of 7 and 12 yards. Another White 11-yard burst put the ball at the WVU 31, and then Greene went back to the air for 14 yards to Ray and 17 yards to Clement, who completed the 99-yard drive with his 10-yard, quick-slant touchdown reception.
 
West Virginia benefited from two UAlbany defensive penalties and converted a fourth and 1 when Donaldson Jr. plowed 3 yards to the UA 26. 
 
The Mountaineers' next offensive possession began with a bang when Greene withstood heavy pressure to complete a 44-yard pass to Jaden Bray down the far sideline. A roughing-the-passer penalty called on Sean Morris tacked on 15 more yards to the UA 11. Three Donaldson runs covered the remaining 11 yards, including a fourth-down plunge from the 2 to get into the end zone.
 
The Mountaineer defense, again giving up chunks of yardage in the passing game and assisting with a couple of pass interference penalties, stiffened at its 13. On fourth and a long 1, Burkett tried a fade pass to Levi Wentz that was incomplete.
 
Backup quarterback Nicco Marchiol came into the game and kept the offense rolling. Two short Marchiol passes, a 48-yard Donaldson Jr. run and a pass interference penalty on Marchiol's pass to Preston Fox in the end zone got the ball to the UA 12.
 
Two plays later, Marchiol called his own number and skirted into the end zone. Backup kicker RJ Kocan made the PAT, making the score 49-14.
 
The game ended with UAlbany possessing the ball at West Virginia's 12 and the Mountaineers playing most backups.
 
UAlbany, which began the season with a 27-21 victory over LIU last Saturday that included just 255 yards of offense and 10 first downs, fared much better tonight, particularly through the air.
 
Burkett misfired on 21 of his 39 pass attempts, but he did throw for 306 yards and completed several passes of 20 yards or longer against WVU's secondary.
 
"We've got to play the ball downfield better; I think that's evident," Brown said.
 
WVU only managed to get to Burkett twice, but did control the Great Danes' rushing attack. UA ran 35 times for just 68 yards for an average of 1.9 yards per rush.
 
Anthony Wilson Jr. was West Virginia's top tackler with six stops while linebackers Trey Lathan and Ben Cutter contributed five stops each.
 
Sean Martin and TJ Jackson Jr. registered sacks.
 
With tonight's win, West Virginia improves to 22-0 against FCS competition, including a 6-0 mark under Neal Brown.
 
"I was proud of our guys for bouncing back," Brown said. "Albany is a good team, and they are going to win a lot of games in the CAA (Colonial Athletic Association).
 
"It was a fast game, and I would have liked to play more people," Brown said.
 
An announced crowd of 50,073 attended tonight's game.
 
WVU takes to the road for the first time this season when it travels to Pittsburgh to face the Panthers in the "Backyard Brawl" at Acrisure Stadium.
 
The game will kick off at 3:30 p.m. and will be televised by either ESPN or ESPN2. An announcement of television coverage is forthcoming.
 
Pitt rallied from 14 points down in the fourth quarter to defeat Cincinnati 28-27 on a last-second field goal.