West Virginia never trailed Saturday in its first meeting with Arizona.
That didn’t prevent the Mountaineers from having to survive tense moments late as the Wildcats battled back from an 18-point fourth-quarter deficit to draw within one score, before West Virginia generated two late first downs to secure a 31-26 victory at Arizona Stadium.
“You all have heard me talk about the character of our team, and the character of our team is really good,” WVU head coach Neal Brown said. “Our season hasn’t gone exactly the way we’ve wanted. Part of that is because we’ve played really good people and that story continues to unfold, but we’ve had a tough stretch. In between the bye weeks, this four-game period has been really tough. We wanted to be better than 2-2, but we went 2-2 and now that sets us up for a November stretch.”
With redshirt sophomore quarterback Nicco Marchiol making his first start this season and the second start of his career in place of an injured Garrett Greene, WVU’s offense operated at a high level throughout, scoring four touchdowns on nine possessions and putting forth a balanced effort with 203 rushing yards and Marchiol’s 198 passing yards on 22 attempts.
“I was really pleased with how we played,” Brown said. “We left maybe a touchdown out there, but we did some good things offensively and really controlled the game.”
Yet it was a non-scoring series that may have meant the most to the Mountaineers (4-4, 3-2). After two Arizona (3-5, 1-4) touchdowns in a span of 4:19 dwindled WVU’s 31-13 lead to five, the visitors took over at their own 25-yard line with 4:35 remaining.
Jahiem White accounted for a 3-yard run on third-and-2 allowed West Virginia to pick up one first down, before it faced third-and-7 from its 39 with 2:08 to play.
Marchiol threw a swing pass to running back Jaylen Anderson, who made the most of his first and only touch in the contest by gaining 9 yards on a reception to seal the outcome. Anderson’s pass led into the 2-minute warning, and with the Wildcats out of timeout, WVU took a knee three times to run out the clock.
“I didn’t call the play going ‘man, Jaylen is in.’ We called a zone beater, they played man and we checked to a man beater,” Brown said. “I think Nicco made the right progression. We made the same play earlier in the game and he bypassed an open guy. But I think he made the right progression. I was happy for Jaylen. He’s been a good teammate.”
For the eighth time in as many games, West Virginia received the opening kickoff, and its first drive amounted to Michael Hayes’ 45-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead. The Mountaineer offensive line, playing without standout left tackle Wyatt Milum, was flagged three times on the first series, including a pair of infractions on right guard Ja’Quay Hubbard.
On Arizona’s first possession, the Mountaineers came up with a rare takeaway when KK Tarnue forced a Quail Conley fumble that Garnett Hollis recovered at the WVU 19.
The Mountaineers then moved into the red zone and faced fourth-and-2 from the Arizona 14. Brown brought the field goal team on, but had no intention of kicking. Instead, punter Leighton Bechdel, utilized as the holder, fielded the snap and got around the edge for a 14-yard touchdown run on a successful fake that made it 10-0 with 31 seconds left in the opening quarter.
“He’s a really good athlete. He played lacrosse,” Brown said. “We ran that fake in [last year’s Duke’s Mayo Bowl] and we came up short [of a touchdown]. I said, ‘we’re going to run it man, you have to score.’”
Arizona answered with a 14 play, 75-yard drive and scored its first points on Conley’s 1-yard touchdown run 4 seconds shy of the midway point in the second quarter.
The Mountaineers answered right back, however, and White’s 55-yard run marked the team’s longest play this season and positioned WVU at the Arizona 8.
Four plays later, faced with fourth-and-goal from the 3, Marchiol connected with Hudson Clement on a touchdown pass that saw the southpaw fit a pass into a tight window to the Martinsburg native, who made a quality catch that left his team with a 17-7 lead 2:55 before halftime.
“Hudson is a guy that if you give him a chance, he’s going to be special,” Marchiol said. “That’s something we wanted to improve on is efficiency in the red zone and if I give him a chance, then he can be special.”
The teams exchanged punts late in the first half, and after the Wildcats got the ball back, they couldn’t generate offense before time expired, leaving West Virginia with the 17-7 halftime lead.
Defensive lineman T.J. Jackson’s sack of Fifita on the second play of the second half helped lead to an immediate Arizona three-and-out, and quality field position for the Mountaineers, who started their first second-half series at the Wildcats’ 44.
“This week, I practiced more than what I did last week and knew I was going to have more snaps than I did last week,” said Jackson, who’s battled an injury for several weeks. “I came into the game knowing I’d have to gut it out even more.”
Marchiol’s 8-yard pass to Justin Robinson on fourth-and-3 from the Wildcats’ 37 prolonged WVU’s next possession, and four plays later, tailback C.J. Donaldson burst through the line for a 20-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-1. It marked WVU’s third touchdown on fourth down to that point, and left the Mountaineers leading 24-7 with 7:59 left in the third quarter.
Fifita found an uncovered Sam Olson for a 23-yard touchdown with 1:18 to play in the third, though Tyler Loop missed the first point-after kick of his career immediately after, keeping the Wildcats’ deficit at 11.
Marchiol’s 54-yard touchdown pass to wideout Traylon Ray 1:20 into the fourth allowed the Mountaineers to lead 31-12, and it marked the third time this season that duo has connected for a score.
“They finally gave us a single high safety look,” Ray said, “and when we called the play we called, it’s history after that and I know I just have to go get the ball.”
Brown was impressed with Marchiol’s pass on the play.
“That was a great throw he had downfield to Traylon Ray,” Brown said. “We really needed it and that proved to be kind of the deciding factor, too.”
Then came tense moments for WVU, starting with a pair of fourth down conversions for Arizona on its ensuing series, which ended with Fifita finding standout receiver Tetairoa McMillan for a 34-yard touchdown pass. McMillan, who gave the Mountaineers fits all night, was working against linebacker Trey Lathan, who fell down on the play, allowing the Wildcats to pull to within 31-19 with 8:52 left. Fifita’s two-point pass was incomplete, leaving the deficit at 12.
A holding penalty on tight end Kole Taylor helped lead to a three-and-out for West Virginia on the ensuing series, and shortly after, McMillan’s 49-yard reception positioned Arizona at the Mountaineers’ 6.
Fifita reached the end zone moments later on a 3-yard run to cut the deficit to five, before the WVU offense did what it couldn’t in an earlier loss this season at Pitt — put the game away by gaining first downs and maintaining possession.
Marchiol was efficient and effective, completing all but four of his 22 throws and tossing a pair of touchdowns without a turnover.
Nine different Mountaineers caught at least one pass and Ray’s 78 receiving yards were a team best.
“This game was entirely different for me from a mental perspective,” Marchiol said. “Getting a full week of reps against our defense and scout team, I logged around 100 reps this week of the stuff we’re going to run, and it shows how big of a difference that makes.
“Last week, I missed a full day of practice and it shows in our efficiency in the pass game and run game. Going 18 for 22 in the pass game is a credit to our receivers being where they need to be. Timing and location are so crucial in our pass game and we executed on all fronts with that.”
White, who missed the second half of last week’s loss to Kansas State, rushed for a game-high 92 yards on 12 carries. Donaldson added 41 yards on eight carries, though he rushed only once after his third-quarter TD.
Marchiol added 39 yards on 11 rushes.
“We did a lot of perimeter plays tonight and read stuff,” Brown said. “Nicco made a couple mistakes in the read game, but he also made some really good decisions and we hit some explosive runs doing that stuff.”
Fifita completed 21-of-32 passes for 294 yards. He also caught a 14-yard pass on a trick play reception thrown by McMillan, who hauled in 10 passes for 202 yards in the loss.
Conley rushed 16 times for 72 yards.
The Mountaineers now enter their second and final bye week this season ahead of a November 9 matchup at Cincinnati.
“Winning heals it all. It heals a lot of things,” Brown said. “Anytime you put the effort and time that you invest, you want to get the reward, and the reward is winning. Our guys prepared well. The games are fine. The hardest thing to do is drown out the negativity during the week.
“Two things happen when you have adversity within a season — you can splinter or come together. It’s helpful when you do these things, because you go on the road and you spend two entire days together. That’s really good for team continuity. That was beneficial to us. When you travel a long way, you spend a lot of time together. That helps. Now we need some time off. We have a critical four-game stretch and a couple of those teams are playing well. We need some time off to kind of regroup and hopefully we get some of these guys back and then get ready for a really strong stretch run.”