Sep 14, 2007, 3:20 GMT
College Park, MD - Steve Slaton ran for 137 yards and three touchdowns to lead fourth-ranked West Virginia over Maryland, 31-14.
Noel Devine added 136 yards on just five carries and Pat White ran for a score for the Mountaineers (3-0), who have won 10 straight non-conference games. White completed 8-of-13 passes for 95 yards and ran for 22 yards for West Virginia, which scored 24 straight points to secure its fourth consecutive win against the Terps.
Keon Lattimore ran for 80 yards and a TD for Maryland (2-1), which suffered its first loss of the season. Jordan Steffy completed 16-of-23 passes for 180 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions for the Terps, who had trouble stopping the vaunted rushing game of the Mountaineers.
With the game tied 7-7 late in the second quarter the Mountaineers took the lead for good. Slaton capped a seven-play, 78-yard drive with a 22-yard TD run that went along the left sideline with 5:02 left in the half.
Then, in the third quarter, West Virginia took control thanks to a pair of Slaton rushing TDs. Slaton ended the first drive with a one-yard TD run and then added another one-yard score with 1:53 left after Devine broke off a 76- yard run that brought the ball to the one-yard-line.
Pat McAfee added a 32-yard field goal with 10:39 left in the fourth quarter to end the string of 24 straight points by WVU.
Steffy later connected on a 22-yard TD pass to Danny Oquendo with 5:50 left and the Terps recovered an ensuing onsides kick, but failed to do anything with it, turning the ball over on downs and the Mountaineers literally ran out the clock from there.
'Obviously, I'm disappointed with the loss. West Virginia's obviously a very good football team with a lot of speed,' said Maryland head coach Ralph Friedgen. 'I think our kids played hard and they kind of got worn down. I think I can do a better job as a coach. We just have to keep working and trying to get better and try to grow from this experience.'
The Mountaineers finished with 353 rushing yards.
'I'm very happy to get out of here with a win,' WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez. 'We knew it was going to be a tough environment. Both teams played extremely hard. We were disappointed at halftime with the execution offensively. Since we had the ball first, we knew that we had to get that first drive in there and fortunately we were able to do that. We didn't have a lot of possessions, only two in the first quarter. Our guys hung in there, and we made a few big plays.'
West Virginia wasted little time jumping on top. After Steffy fumbled the snap on the Terps' first play of the game, WVU took over on the Maryland 20-yard- line. Two plays later, White ran in untouched from 22 yards out.
'After we got the first drive, it got our confidence up,' said Rodriguez. 'The defense made a couple of big stops, and we were running the ball consistently the whole game. Pat wasn't as sharp as he normally is. He was almost trying to do too much in the first half. He calmed down in the second half and let the offense flow.'
The Terps appeared poised to make this a shootout when they responded by taking their next possession 75 yards for a touchdown. Lattimore, who rushed for 29 yards on the possession, ran in from four yards to tie the game 7-7. The big play of the drive was a 3rd-and-10 completion from Steffy to Darrius Heyward-Bey that brought the ball in WVU territory.
Game Notes
WVU amassed 448 yards of offense...Maryland came into the game allowing just a total of 350 yards...The Terps had just 89 yards rushing...Maryland lost despite winning the time of possession battle, 31:25-28:35...Steffy's TD pass was the first of his career...Lattimore needs 105 yards to reach 1,000 for his career...Heyward-Bey has caught a pass in each of the Terps' last 15 games, the longest active streak on the team.
© 2007 The Sports Network
Game Notes.
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