Published: October 11, 2008 09:18 pm            

Squeezed

Devine is devine in WVU win

MORGANTOWN — With Pat White out of uniform, the West Virginia Mountaineers turned to Devine inspiration on homecoming day at Milan Puskar Stadium.

Noel Devine closed out a 188-yard rushing day with a 92-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter Saturday to carry West Virginia to a 17-6 win over Syracuse, their seventh straight victory against the Orange.

White was held out because of a concussion suffered in the win over Rutgers last weekend. Mountaineer coach Bill Stewart said that he originally thought the injury was not serious, and that on Thursday, he had expected White to start on Saturday. But “his equilibrium was a little out of line and he had a low-grade headache,” Stewart said.

He said “a neuro-psychological test” showed that White “hadn’t fully recovered as of Friday.” The coach said, “It threw me a terrible curve.”

The Syracuse defense threw complications at Jarrett Brown, the redshirt junior who made his second start as WVU quarterback. Though he completed 14 of 20 passes, almost all were flare passes at or behind the line of scrimmage. He averaged 3.7 yards per completion.

“Jarrett was struggling, but he will get better,” Stewart said. “The kid just couldn’t get in rhythm.”

“We came out very slow,” Brown said. “It was an ugly win, but we pulled it out.”

Syracuse quarterback Cameron Dantley, son of former basketball star Adrian Dantley, was 8-for-9 passing in the Orange’s first series, an eight-minute march that produced a 3-0 lead on a 26-yard field goal by Morgantown High graduate Patrick Shadle.

In the first quarter, the Mountaineers held the ball for only 3:55 and seven plays, excluding two punts.

The WVU defense played the receivers soft and the Orange exploited the tactic for 126 yards in the initial quarter.

The tables turned in the second period. Sparked by big runs from Devine and an end-around to Jock Sanders, West Virginia drove 63 yards in seven plays. Brown passed to Sanders for the 12-yard touchdown, setting up a 7-3 lead.

Shadle continued celebrating his own personal homecoming with 1:03 left in the first half, booting a 53-yard field goal – the longest in the history of “new” Mountaineer Field. West Virginia clung to a 7-6 halftime lead.

The Mountaineers earned their only first down of the third quarter on the last play of the period. The crowd, increasingly restive after a series of ineffective short gains, responded with a mock cheer.

In that quarter, West Virginia produced 37 yards of net offense and lost 36 in penalty yards.

Pat McAfee converted a 33-yard field goal for WVU early in the fourth quarter to end a 12-play drive.

With 333 points, he became the team’s all-time scoring leader, passing Steve Slaton’s previous mark of 330.

More importantly, he extended the lead to 10-6.

“It was good for us to get on the board again,” McAfee said. “It (let) our defense know that they (Syracuse) would have to score a touchdown. They couldn’t kick a field goal (to go ahead). It was a pretty big kick; I’m just glad I knocked it through.”

“The ref gave me the game ball at the end,” McAfee said.

The significance of the four-point lead became clear with five minutes left in the game, as Syracuse penetrated to the West Virginia 5. Faced with fourth down and 3, the Orange went for the touchdown. Dantley rolled left and fired a ball under pressure toward two receivers at the back of the end zone.

The pass was tipped to the ground by Anthony Leonard, who had gone off the field with a hurt shoulder early in the half. Leonard said, “We were in a zone coverage, dropping eight and only rushing three. … I read the quarterback’s eyes. I saw him stare a man down, and I broke on the ball. I dropped it; if I’d caught it, I might have given our offense better field position, but they did what they had to do.”

The game’s biggest play came less than a minute after Leonard’s pass breakup. On third down, Devine turned the corner and raced past the WVU sideline for his game-clinching run. McAfee’s extra point increased the lead to 17-6.

Brown said Devine’s touchdown was “a big relief – like a big burden was lifted off my shoulders. It was great for him. Great for me. Great for all of us.”

Stewart saw improvement in the defense as the game played out, and said they were trying to counter a variety of Syracuse tricks.

“They quick-counted us, they play-actioned us, they naked-ed us. It was a clinic out there, and our defense still hung in there. … They’d bend, bend, bend, but they never broke. Tremendous job by our defense.”

Leonard said, “We did start out pretty slow. I felt like we definitely got in a groove in the second half … . I’m not real proud of how we played overall, but when the time counted, we stepped it up. I feel as though we showed character today – great character.”

The Mountaineers used five- and six-man blitzes at times in the second half, Leonard said, to counter the Orange’s maximum-protection blocking.

Orange (1-5, 0-2) senior Curtis Brinkley ran for 144 yards. “He was a shifty dude,” Leonard said. Dantley was 24-for-40 passing for 204 yards. Syracuse outgained West Virginia 346 to 268 yards and had a time-of-possession advantage of more than 10 minutes.

The contest appeared to be a punting showcase until its latter stages.

The two teams combined for 12 punts. McAfee averaged 47yards on his seven punts, and another of the Big East punting leaders, Rob Long, had five boots for a 44.8-yard average.

West Virginia (4-2, 2-0) hosts Auburn a week from Thursday in an ESPN night game.

—Contact Tom Bone

at tbone@bdtonline.com

        

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