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Buzzer-beater: Mountaineers trip Terps 40-37

Clint Trickett was knocked out of bounds shy of the pylon on this first-half drive, but West Virginia scored on the next play.

 

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Maryland’s uniforms paid homage to history and West Virginia rewrote some, avenging last season’s loss with a 40-37 win on the final play.

Live updates will flow freely throughout the game:

— Clint Trickett’s line was eye-popping: 511 yards and four touchdowns on 37-of-49 passing. Someone, somewhere, sometime soon will mention Trickett’s name and “Heisman” in the same sentence, and it won’t be the most ridiculous thing you’ve heard.

— Kevin White made 13 catches for 216 yards, with some man-sized grabs against tight coverage.

— WVU piled up 694 yards to Maryland’s 447, but the Terps converted only 4-of-15 third downs and none in the second half.

SCORE: Josh Lambert 47-yard field goal (4th quarter, 0:00) West Virginia wins 40-37
Wow … The up-and-down day for WVU’s special teams ends with Lambert going boom in the clutch. Short passes to Alford and Dustin Garrison, and one to Shorts set up the winning kick.

— West Virginia reaches the Maryland 26 but gets no points as Josh Lambert’s 43-yard kick is blocked at the line by a leaping Darius Kilgo. That makes seven drives that ended in Maryland territory without points.

— WVU’s defense forces a three-and-out, making plays for a third straight series.

SCORE: William Lively 69-yard punt return (4th quarter, 9:43) Game tied 37-all
Yet another explosive play brought the Terps back, with Lively wiggling past punter Nick O’Toole to spring the return. Lively came in averaging 19 yards per return and boosted that number at a crucial time.

SCORE: Craddock 30-yard field goal (4th quarter, 11:14) West Virginia leads 37-30
Starting at the WVU 8 after Thompson’s fumble, Maryland lost 3 yards thanks to TFLs by Kwiatkoski and Golson. A huge stop by the defense that has given up 7.5 yards per play.

— In the span of only a couple of minutes, WVU’s Smallwood failed on a fourth-and-1, the Mountaineers stuff Maryland on a third-and-2, and Jordan Thompson let a punt squirt through his hands at the Maryland 8. So many momentum swings, I think momentum is getting dizzy.

SCORE: Trickett 11-yard pass to Daikiel Shorts (3rd quarter, 3:53) West Virginia leads 37-27
Starting at its 44 after the free kick, West Virginia’s offense kept rolling—and actually finished off the drive. Shell had a 10-yard run and Kevin White drew an obvious pass interference flag after beating Alvin Hill deep. The scoring play came on a third-and-1 call where Trickett had time to go through his progressions before finding Shorts crossing in the back of the end zone.

SCORE: Jarrod Harper blocks punt for safety (3rd quarter, 6:30) West Virginia leads 30-27
With momentum against them, the Mountaineers special teams delivered a pick-me-up. Harper squirted through the line’s left side and laid out to swat Nathan Renfro’s punt, which rolled out of the end zone.

West Virginia goes 42 yards on 10 plays, leading to a fourth-and-1 at the Terps 8. Field goal schmield goal, says Holgorsen, who sends out a three-back set of Smallwood, Buie and Wellman. But it produces nothing as Trickett rolls left and is buried for a 4-yard loss.

On the heels of a terrific 42-yard leaping catch by White and a 15-yard third-down conversion by Shorts, West Virginia drove to the Terps 16. But that’s where Shell fumbled while trying to juke a defender, and Darius Kilgo recovered. That’s a killer for WVU—its second red-zone fumble and third turnover in Maryland territory.

  SCORE: C.J. Brown 75-yard run (3rd quarter, 14:46) West Virginia leads 28-27
Apparently recovered from that jarring first-half hit, Brown broke through some congestion at the line and raced 75 yards for the longest run of his career. Brandon Golson couldn’t close on him and cornerback Terrell Chestnut couldn’t shove him out of bounds.

END OF FIRST HALF
West Virginia has 382 yards against Maryland’s 29, putting us on pace for more than 1,300 today. … Trickett has gone 20-of-26 for 307 yards, with Kevin White hauling in eight for 116 and Alford grabbing five for 86. … C.J. Brown is 15-of-25 for 207, which isn’t bad for a running quarterback.

SCORE: Caleb Rowe 26-yard pass to Jacquille Veii (2nd quarter, 5:52) West Virginia leads 28-20
The drive started with a weird punt-return score that was disallowed, and somehow turned weirder. The return was touched by WVU’s Al-Rasheed Benton in a collision with the Terps returner, then picked up by blocker and returned 60 yards for a score. However, the fair-catch signal nullified everything, leading Randy Edsall to get upset. (Paging Pat Haden!). Edsall only became more animated when C.J. Brown had to leave the game after Shaq Petteway knocked his helmet off after an 8-yard scramble. But it all worked out for Maryland when Rowe delivered a pinch-hit touchdown pass to Veii over tight coverage by WVU’s Dillon.

— With WVU threatening at the Terps’ 39, Clint Trickett threw into what looked like sextuple coverage and was picked off by William Lively. It was the first interception for Trickett in 109 passes this season.

SCORE: Brown 77-yard pass to Stefon Diggs (2nd quarter, 5:52) West Virginia leads 28-13
West Virginia blew the coverage and allowed Maryland’s most dangerous receiver to run free. Perhaps K.J. Dillon was supposed to run deep with Diggs, or maybe Dravon Henry was supposed to help (though the safety was being pulled toward the outside receiver running a fly.) Whatever the case, it resulted in Brown’s career-long pass and Diggs’ career-long catch.

SCORE: Trickett 36-yard pass to Alford (2nd quarter, 6:09) West Virginia leads 28-6
Shell ripped of a 22-yard run and Trickett found White for 7 yards to take care of a third-and-5, before West Virginia struck for another big score. Alford appeared to beat man coverage down the left sideline and outjumped the corner for his second TD of the day.

SCORE: Craddock 41-yard field goal (2nd quarter, 8:36) West Virginia leads 21-6
Maryland capped an 11-play, 52-yard drive with the reliable Craddock punching through his second field goals of the day. But the way WVU is moving, Craddock might have to make 15 kicks for the Terps to have a chance.

SCORE: Trickett 44-yard pass to Kevin White (2nd quarter, 11:51) West Virginia leads 21-3
Maryland couldn’t have played that much worse. A late hit on Shell’s kick return moved the ball across midfield, where three plays later, White grabs a slant pass and crosses through the secondary for a score. Trickett off to a 13-of-15 start for 219 yards, and White has six receptions for 90 yards.

SCORE: Brad Craddock 46-yard field goal (2nd quarter, 12:33) West Virginia leads 14-3
Maryland threatened again before a holding call forced a third-and-20. WVU dropped eight and allowed Brandon Ross to catch a 10-yard pass underneath, bringing Craddock into range.

END FIRST QUARTER
The Mountaineers put up 204 yards in that quarter, 29 more than they had in last year’s entire game.

Mario Alford catches a 43-yard touchdown against Maryland during the first half Saturday.


SCORE: Trickett 43-yard pass to Mario Alford (1st quarter 0:17) West Virginia leads 14-0
Alford makes up for his earlier fumble by torching Maryland’s secondary on a post route. That score capped a six-play, 80-yard drive on which West Virginia overcame a holding call by Kevin White.

— Maryland gets moving, with Brown converting a third-and-7 pass to Deon Long for 12 yards. But Malcolm Culmer had Worley torched for what should have been a 52-yard touchdown only to have Brown’s pass sail waaaaaay overhead. Big misfire there. Terps punt it away.

— After Shell converted a fourth-and-1 run, Trickett converted a third-and-8 pass to Daikiel Shorts for 19 yards. But just when it a second score seemed imminent, Mario Alford is stripped on a third-down catch while lunging for the sticks at Terps’ 4. Maryland starts at its own 11 and WVU suffers its second turnover of the year.

— On third-and-14, Brown escapes WVU’s pressure and rips off an 18-yard run. The kid can scoot! (Shouldn’t refer to him as kid—the dude’s a 23-year-old sixth-year senior.) But on the next play, Brown’s screen pass is tipped by Christian Brown into the arms of Daryl Worley, whose second interception is WVU’s second takeaway of the young season.

— K.J. Dillon gets a shot at C.J. Brown on Maryland’s first snap before Brandon Golson finishes the sack.

SCORE: Rushel 1-yrd run (11:33) West Virginia leads 7-0
Shell converted a fourth-and-goal to complete a 10-play, 75-yard drive. (A scary moment on the previous play when Clint Trickett was popped diving for the pylon and stayed down for a couple seconds.) WVU converted an earlier third-and-3 inside the 10 when Shell powered for 4 yards. The whole thing was set up by Wendell Smallwood taking the opening-play screen pass 50 yards after lining up at outside receiver.

West Virginia’s Rushel Shell scores on a fourth-and-1 run to give the Mountaineers a 7-0 lead.

— West Virginia linebacker Wes Tonkery, after sitting out practice this week, was in sweats during pregame warmups and has been ruled out for today’s game. That means lots of Isaiah Bruce at the Sam spot, which is not a worrisome thing, considering how many games he has started the past two seasons. Shaq Petteway also could see more action after his strong performance against Towson.





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