West Virginia falls 38-24 at No. 23 BYU
West Virginia dropped their third consecutive game falling 38-24 to No. 23 BYU Friday night on the road.
Redshirt freshman Khalil Wilkins earned his first career start rushing for 89 yards and a touchdown while throwing for 81 yards and a pair of interceptions. True freshman Scotty Fox also saw time completing 3-3 passes for 54 yards and a touchdown late along with 22 yards rushing.
The Mountaineers defense forced three turnovers, but surrendered 516 yards of total offense and 38 points.
The Mountaineers started with the football but would go three and out after three straight runs by Wilkins.
On the first play for the Cougars, Bear Bachmeier completed a 47-yard pass to Chase Roberts to put the football in Mountaineers territory. The defense would then force a stop and the 48-yard field goal attempt sailed wide left to keep the game scoreless.
It wouldn’t remain that way for long as Wilkins would complete a 13-yard pass to Rodney Gallagher and on the next play was picked off by Therrian Alexander jumping the route and returning the ball inside the five. The Cougars would score on the next play to take a 7-0 first quarter lead.
The Mountaineers then moved the football into BYU territory on the ensuing possession but elected to go for it on fourth and two from the 44 and was stopped short on a Tye Edwards rushing attempt giving the football back to the Cougars.
The defense then put BYU into a third and long situation but the Cougars would dial up a perfect screen play to Parker Kingston who went untouched for a 54-yard touchdown to take a 14-0 lead.
West Virginia once again moved the ball into BYU territory after Wilkins was knocked out of the game for a few plays and backup Scotty Fox carried the ball on a 23-yard run on an option. However, the drive would stall and a 45-yard field goal would cut the score to 14-3 early in the second quarter.
BYU then put together an 11-play, 58-yard physical drive to put the ball inside the red zone but Chase Wilson ended the scoring efforts with an interception to give the football back to the West Virginia offense.
The Mountaineers would fail to capitalize on the turnover and have to put the ball back to BYU. And it only took the Cougars two plays to score with an 85-yard catch and run by Roberts to set the offense up inside the five and LJ Martin could cap off the drive with a four-yard touchdown.
After a three and out, the Mountaineers punted the football. On the next play, Fred Perry got into the backfield and forced a fumble on the pitch inside the five. Hubbard would get into the end zone on the next play to cut the score to 21-10.
That momentum wouldn’t last long as BYU would take the ensuing drive 73-yards down the field and punch the ball into the end zone on a Bachmeier run to retake a 28-10 advantage with 19 ticks left in the first half. That drive included a fourth-down conversion where the defense allowed a 14-yard run on 3rd and 15 to allow the Cougars to extend the drive and put the ball in the end zone.
The Cougars would eat up over eight minutes on their opening drive of the first half and converted two fourth downs including a fake field goal. BYU would then tack on a field goal to lead 31-10.
Wilkins then completed two third down passes to move the sticks and put a ball into Cam Vaughn down the sideline but he couldn’t corral the football and it was intercepted. BYU then returned the favor with a fumble to give the Mountaineers the football back inside the red zone. Wilkins would score on a six-yard quarterback draw to cut the score to 31-17 heading into the fourth quarter.
BYU would respond once again with a 12-play 75-yard drive capped off by a Martin one-yard touchdown run to give the Cougars a 38-17 lead with just 8:50 remaining.
The Mountaineers would then drive the ball to the BYU one-yard line but were stuffed on fourth down. West Virginia would then force their first punt of the game and Fox led the Mountaineers on a quick scoring drive in three plays capped off by a 29-yard touchdown toss to Vaughn to make it 38-24.
West Virginia will now enter their bye week at 2-4, 0-3 in the Big 12 Conference with a matchup on the road against UCF set for Oct. 18.
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