Mountaineers run away from Knights, 41-28, to snap shedding skid

West Virginia’s offense scored on all seven of its purple zone journeys, its protection compelled 4 turnovers and the Mountaineers snapped their two-game shedding streak with a 41-28 win at UCF Saturday afternoon.

Per week after being outscored 28-10 within the fourth quarter, WVU (5-3, 3-2) pulled away from the Knights (3-5, 0-5) with a 17-7 benefit within the remaining body.

“Actually happy with the workforce, gamers and employees your complete manner round,” WVU coach Neal Brown mentioned. “We’ve received a resilient group. When you’ve been listening to us all yr, we’ve been a gaggle that even when dangerous issues occur, we’ve at all times responded.”

WVU scored on seven of its 10 significant drives, discovering the endzone 5 occasions whereas solely punting twice and shedding a fumble. 

“I feel this offense could be pretty much as good as I let it,” quarterback Garrett Greene mentioned. “Quite a lot of it falls on my shoulders. We scored 41, however there have been so many performs on the market and so many factors left on the board.”

Greene started the scoring when he capped off an efficient opening drive with a six-yard speeding landing. 

UCF answered with a landing of its personal to tie the sport 7-7, however the Mountaineers kicked a 24-yard area objective on its subsequent possession and by no means relinquished the lead once more.

Greene received into the endzone 3 times, ending with 55 speeding yards and three scores, bringing his season whole as much as eight. The junior accomplished 14 of 23 passes for 156 yards and didn’t flip the ball over.

“He’s an amazing quarterback,” left sort out Wyatt Milum mentioned. “Having him as a quarterback, as a frontrunner, he will get us going. You by no means see him down, he’s at all times pushing us, main us.”

It was the primary sport in a few weeks that Greene didn’t must do all of it himself as WVU working backs CJ Donaldson and Jaheim White have been dynamic. Donaldson, who didn’t begin for the primary time this season, ran 17 occasions for 121 yards and a fourth-quarter landing that put WVU up 38-21. 

“CJ had a distinct mentality this week, so I had quite a lot of confidence in him,” Brown mentioned. “I assumed this was CJ’s greatest sport since Pitt. When he runs like that, he’s a load. The factor (Saturday) was he was so good after contact. Even on that final drive, he was so good after contact.”

White ran for 85 yards and a landing on simply 9 carries. His second-quarter landing gave the Mountaineers a 17-7 lead.

“He gave us a spark,” Brown mentioned. “If you play true freshmen, it’s at all times a belief deal. He’s taken care of his physique higher, however he’s not making errors that may very well be completely crucial.”

UCF’s offense was simply as efficient however made the errors that WVU averted. Quarterback John Rhys Plumlee accomplished 25 of 36 passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 45 yards and one other rating, however he additionally threw three interceptions and misplaced a fumble.

The Knights out-gained WVU 463-450, however these 4 turnovers proved expensive because the Mountaineers scored 21 factors off takeaways. 

“That was the explanation we received the sport,” Brown mentioned. “We scored 21 factors and that was the story of the sport.”

Cornerback Beanie Bishop grabbed two interceptions and security Marcis Floyd had the opposite. 

“Beanie’s performed at a excessive stage, he’s been across the ball rather a lot,” Brown mentioned. “These have been enormous, particularly the primary one as a result of they have been driving down the sector and we turned that right into a landing.”

Bishop is as much as 4 interceptions this season, matching WVU’s total whole from final yr.

“Throughout the two video games that we dropped, we all know we’ve received to take the ball away,” Bishop mentioned. “We haven’t actually been capable of create takeaways so we sort of harped on that.”

Linebacker Lee Kpogba sacked Plumlee to power the fumble that Jalen Thornton recovered. That arrange Greene’s third landing run that put the Mountaineers up 31-21 as they began to tug away late. WVU went on to attain 17 unanswered factors earlier than UCF managed a landing within the waning minutes.

West Virginia returns house subsequent week to face BYU. UCF will take its five-game shedding streak to Cincinnati.