Showing posts with label West Virginia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label West Virginia. Show all posts

Thursday, December 28, 2023

West Virginia Tops Tar Heels in Mayo Bowl

12:46 PM


CHARLOTTE – In a stadium that looked like Morgantown South, the West Virginia Mountaineers gave their dedicated fans a resounding 30-10 victory at the Duke’s Mayo Bowl on Wednesday night at Bank of America Stadium. Game MVP Garrett Greene led his team in rushing and passing as the Mountaineers improved to 9-4 on the season.


The Mountaineers wasted no time getting on the scoreboard as Greene hit a streaking Traylon Ray down the sideline on the game's first play. The freshman wide receiver raced past Tar Heel defenders for a seventy-five-yard touchdown. Just as the Tar Heels offense looked poised to even the score, West Virginia safety Aubrey Burks picked off an errant pass in the end zone, giving the ball back to the Mountaineers.


The Tar Heels finally got on the scoreboard with a Noah Burnette field goal halfway through the second quarter. The rest of the quarter was a rollercoaster of emotions for both teams. West Virginia extended their lead with a 78-yard punt return touchdown by Beanie Bishop Jr., only for the Tar Heels to respond with a 16-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Conner Harrell to JJ Jones. However, West Virginia closed out the half with a field goal, heading into the locker room with a 17-10 lead.


The second half witnessed a continuation of West Virginia’s dominance. Kicker Michael Hayes added two more field goals, further solidifying the Mountaineers’ lead. Running back Jaheim White’s eleven-yard rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter served as the final blow, sealing West Virginia’s decisive victory, and began a chorus of “Country Roads” by the thousands of Mountaineer faithful who had made the trip south. The postgame "Mayo Dump" had an equally raucous cheer.


Although the stat line was close, with West Virginia gaining 379 total offensive yards compared to North Carolina’s 353, the Mountaineers’ defense recorded two interceptions and consistently disrupted the Tar Heels’ offensive plays. The limited Tar Heels fans in attendance were left stunned, wondering how a season that began with so much promise ended with three straight losses and a bowl loss for the fourth season in a row.

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

ECU Makes Trek to Morgantown in Week 2

9:08 PM
ECU will open its 2017 road schedule when the Pirates travel to Morgantown Saturday to meet West Virginia at Milan Puskar Stadium. The tilt against the Mountaineers will also represent the second of four non-league games on ECU’s slate, following a 34-14 setback against defending FCS champion James Madison last week and preceding home meetings with Virginia Tech (Sept. 16) and BYU (Oct. 21). The Pirates will also try to improve to 1-1 for the fourth time in the last six seasons and avoid their first 0-2 start since 2011.

Saturday’s meeting against West Virginia will be ECU Head Coach Scottie Montgomery’s first-ever matchup against the Mountaineers - both as a player, assistant coach or head coach. The last time Duke and WVU faced off was in 1985, well before Montgomery’s playing (1996-99) and coaching days (2006-09, 2013-15) with the Blue Devils.

While Dana Holgorsen has never faced the Pirates as a head coach, he did square off against ECU on a combined three occasions as a member of the Texas Tech and Houston staffs. Two of the three meetings were post-season encounters in which the Pirates recorded high-scoring victories: the 2000 Galleryfurniture.com Bowl (Astrodome) and 2009 C-USA Championship Game (Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium).

ECU will try to snap a three-game road opener losing streak when it travels to West Virginia Saturday. After defeating North Carolina 55-31 in 2013, the Pirates followed by falling to South Carolina (2014), Florida (2015) and the Gamecocks again (2016) in successive “away” game lid-lifters. Since 2000, ECU is 4-12 in road openers.

ECU featured 11 first-time starters in its lineup against James Madison Saturday – four on the offensive side of the ball (LT D’Ante Smith, LG Cortez Herrin, RG Austin Lee, RB Derrell Scott), six more on defense (DT Tyree Owens, DE Gaelin Elmore, ILB Ray Tillman, CB Travis Phillips, FS Korrin Wiggins, PIR Tim Irvin) and one on special teams (P Austin Barnes).


Kickoff is set for noon.