West Virginia rolls past Chattanooga
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia didn’t perform quite the way Rich Rodriguez wanted it too in his first season as coach last year when it went 3-8. The Mountaineers opened Rodriguez’ second season exactly as planned, however.
West Virginia took care of business against an inferior Chattanooga team, blasting the Division 1-AA Mocs, 56-7, in front of 54,455 fans at Mountaineer Field.
Rasheed Marshall passed for 163 and three first-half touchdowns, and Avon Cobourne rushed for 106 yards and a pair of scores as WVU improved its all-time record in home openers to 86-17-6.
West Virginia has only lost three home openers since Mountaineer Field opened in 1980.
“It was nice to win in the first game against a team we were supposed to beat,” Rodriguez said. “Next week is a completely different animal, though.”
The Mountaineers travel into Big 10 country next Saturday when they take on Wisconsin.
West Virginia took command right from the start, forcing the Mocs into a three-and-out, then driving 69 yards in 13 plays with Marshall throwing an 18-yard TD pass to Mike Page for a 7-0 lead.
“I think that set the tone for the rest of the game,” said WVU center and Albert Gallatin graduate Zack Dillow. “We were trying to get some of the rust off, but it was good to start out the way we did.”
The special teams got into the act later in the first quarter. After Chattanooga punter Travis Grubb’s 65-yard punt was nullified by a penalty, the Mountaineers’ Mo Howard blocked Grubb’s second attempt with WVU taking over at the Mocs’ three-yard line. Cobourne scored three plays later from one yard out to make it 14-0.
Chattanooga’s only threat of the first half came late in the opening quarter when it drove to the WVU 31, thanks in part to a Mountaineer roughing the punter call that kept the drive alive. West Virginia’s defense turned the Mocs away, though, when quarterback Ryan McCann’s fourth-and-one pass to Cortez Rankin was broken up by David Upchurch.
The Mountaineers then marched 68 yards in eight plays with Cobourne scoring from three yards out on the first play of the second quarter for a 21-0 lead. The big play in the drive was Marshall’s 29-yard pass to Ryan Thomas to the UTC 14.
Marshall fired his second TD pass with 7:16 left in the half when he connected with Moe Fafana from six yards out to cap an eight-play, 68-yard drive to make it 28-0.
Any remote hopes Chattanooga had of climbing back in the game went up in smoke in the final minutes of the second quarter.
After Marshall made one of his few mistakes by fumbling the snap on a fourth-and-one play to give the Mocs a first down at their own 33, McCann was intercepted on the next play by Grant Wiley at the UTC 46. Five plays later Marshall tossed a 16-yard touchdown pass to a wide open Josh Bailey for a 35-0 advantage with 30 seconds left in the half.
Marshall completed 14 of 22 throws and also rushed for 42 yards.
McCann, the highly touted former UCLA quarterback, was held in check by WVU’s defense. He completed 12 of 23 passes for just 55 yards and was intercepted three times. The Mocs’ only score came on a five-yard TD pass from back-up quarterback Justin Barnes to Joey Peters on the game’s final play.
There was no scoring in the third quarter, but West Virginia exploded for 21 more points in the fourth.
The lopsided game allowed Rodriguez to play plenty of his back-ups. Uniontown graduate Kevin McLee, a true freshman, started the game on the special teams unit, but also saw time at linebacker in the second half and made one tackle.
“I proved a lot of people wrong,” McLee said. “Everybody said I was going to be red-shirted, but I’m not.
“I was a little bit nervous, but I was ready to play. It was pretty fun out there. But now we have to keep our head’s on straight and look forward to Wisconsin next week.”
Dillow agreed.
“This game is over now,” Dillow said. “I think we’re all pretty excited about playing Wisconsin next week.”
Waynesburg Central graduate Lanfer Simpson, a red-shirt freshman fullback, saw some action in the second half. Simpson carried one time, breaking free for 19 yards in WVU’s final scoring drive of the game, a four-play, 39-yard march.
West Virginia rang up 30 first downs to just seven for Chattanooga and held a total yards advantage of 560 to 150.
“Hopefully, next week, we can go out and do the same thing,” Cobourne said.
NOTES: Cobourne now has 19 100-yard rushing games and 3,561 rushing yards in his four-year career. He trails only Amos Zereoue (4,086) on WVU’s all-time rushing list. … West Virginia senior wide receiver Phil Braxton, a Connellsville graduate, is suffering from a groin injury and did not play. … Laurel Highlands graduate Nathan Forse, a freshman, walk-on tight end, was on the sidelines but did not suit up for the game. … The game was the first at Mountaineer Field on the new “AstroPlay” artificial surface inserted for the 2002 season.