MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — By every sense of its definition, a tale of two halves is what West Virginia’s season opener was Saturday afternoon against Coastal Carolina.
The Mountaineers did just about anything everything they set out to through two quarters, building a 24-0 lead in the process.
From that point forward, it was a struggle and then some. The Chanticleers outgained WVU 311-77 over the final two quarters and fought until the bitter end, pulling to within one possession in the final minute, before the Mountaineers hung on for a 31-24 victory at Milan Puskar Stadium.
“First half, played well in all three phases,” WVU coach Rich Rodriguez said. “Second half, we stunk and didn’t do anything good. Not happy about that, but it’s hard to win. Credit to those guys. They played hard and their quarterback made a lot of plays for them.”
West Virginia couldn’t have scripted a better start as tailback Cam Cook ripped off a 72-yard run from scrimmage on the first play and reached the end zone via a 3-yard run on the second.
“I’m expecting to go in there, pound away and get 4 yards, but I trusted what my coach had been praising the whole week in practice,” Cook said. “We had seen what they were running and I was prepared to be in that moment and take advantage of it. It happened the way it was supposed to.”
Coastal was in position to pull even on its second series, but on fourth-and-2 from the WVU 8, quarterback Deuce Bailey threw a catchable pass to Cyrus Ellison that fell incomplete in the end zone.
“In a game like this, you’ve got to score points, touchdowns,” said first-year Chanticleers’ coach Ryan Beard. “I think that showed our players we are going to be aggressive, and I think that’s what we’ll do again. If you watch the play, we had an open look, decent ball. Just got to come down with it, and all of a sudden we’re telling a different story.”
The Mountaineers then moved off their goal line and just beyond midfield before quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. found an uncovered Armoni Weaver-Bomar for a 49-yard touchdown pass, allowing the home team to double its advantage at the 2:14 mark of the opening frame.
WVU began its fourth possession at the Chanticleers’ 41-yard line and upped its lead to 17 points on a 38-yard field goal from Jack Cassidy, who was impressive in his Mountaineer debut.
After Ashton Woods forced a fumble that teammate Matt Sieg recovered, the Mountaineers were in position to add to their lead, but as Hawkins stretched for a touchdown on a second-and-8 run from the Coastal 9, the ball came free and went out of bounds through the end zone for a touchback.
“Just can’t do that. You don’t need to reach,” Rodriguez said. “Unless it’s fourth-and-goal, you don’t need to do that. That’s seven points there and we’ll learn from that.”
Instead, the Mountaineers had to wait to add to up their lead. After regaining possession, WVU did just that, marching 86 yards on 17 plays, the last of which was Cook’s 1-yard plunge into the end zone to make it 24-0 with 1:21 left in the first half.
At the intermission, the Mountaineers had 336 total yards to the Chanticleers’ 114 and were 8-for-10 on third down as opposed to Coastal, which was 0-for-5. Hawkins was 6-for-6 with 94 yards and a touchdown on third down through two periods.
Both teams punted to start the second half, before Coastal moved 99 yards on a penalty-aided drive that helped the visitors produce their first points when Bailey connected with Clayton Coppock on a 34-yard pass at the 3:57 mark of the third quarter.
During that series, Harper Holloman was flagged for holding to negate a third-and-8 stop with Coastal up against its own goal line, and later on, Geimere Latimer committed a pass interference penalty, before Nick Taylor was called for holding. In the first half, a false start on freshman left tackle Kevin Brown was West Virginia’s lone penalty.
WVU failed to produce a first down in the third quarter on two possessions, but got the ball back early into the fourth when Nate Gabriel sacked Bailey and forced a fumble that was recovered by Ezekiel Durham-Campbell, who was making his WVU debut after transferring from Coastal. However, the celebration was subdued as Mountaineer defensive lineman Darius Wiley suffered what appeared to be a significant lower body injury on that play — one that required him to be taken off the field on a cart.
“That was a tough injury there, ut he’s in great hands with our medical staff,” Rodriguez said. “I haven’t heard anything.”
The Mountaineers went three-and-out for a third straight possession, and after the Chanticleers got the ball back on their 29, they needed only three plays to produce their second touchdown — Bailey’s 13-yard pass to Colton Hinton, which followed the signal-caller’s 58-yard pass to Robby Washington where all but 1 yard came after the catch.
Leading by 10, the Mountaineers added to the advantage when Cassidy made a 47-yard field goal, but those points were taken off the scoreboard as a result of a roughing the kicker penalty. Instead, WVU wound up with its fourth touchdown two plays later when Hawkins got into the end zone on an 11-yard run that made it 31-14 with 2:58 left.
Bailey’s 37-yard TD pass to Coppock with 1:58 to play made it a 10-point game, and after the Chanticleers forced a three-and-out to get the ball back, they worked their way into the red zone when Bailey found Jaden Allen-Hendrix on a 33-yard pass play to convert fourth-and-10. Electing to save time and make it a one-score game, Coastal immediately kicked a field goal, which Nico Alta Cavanillas made from 32 yards with 27 seconds left.
The Chanticleers then tried their second onside kick of the game, but just like the first attempt, it went directly out of bounds to seal the result.
“We have to have more of an urgency to fix things,” Rodriguez said. “Nothing is easy to fix, but some things should be relatively easy to fix and we did not do that in the second half.”
Hawkins finished 11-for-14 with 132 yards and rushed 20 times for 103 yards. He was 4-for-5 with 19 yards through the air after halftime.
“We came out pretty hot and really felt good going into the game,” Hawkins said. “In the second half, we had a lot of mental errors. Too many penalties as a team. Going into next week, need to stay more disciplined and eliminate those mistakes.”
Cook rushed 30 times for 142 yards, though he was limited to 70 yards on 29 attempts after his first carry.
WVU had 223 of its 281 rushing yards in the first half.
“The biggest thing you saw was efficient tackling,” Beard said. “We probably pressured a little more and just made the ball go on the perimeter. And really, we just fit things better. I think we just kind of settled into the game, and I think that was the biggest thing. When you have running backs like that and especially a running quarterback, you have to make the layups. When you get a chance to get them down, you’ve got to get them on the ground.”
Bailey was electric in defeat and completed 21-of-37 passes for 373 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.
Coastal finished with a 425-413 edge in total yards.
“We’ll get what we demand,” Rodriguez said. “There’s a couple things that stick out at the top of my head in the second half that we did not get corrected.”