West Virginia steamrolls LIU for first win of the season

The West Virginia Mountaineers (1-1) may have exorcised some of the demons that lingered after last week’s season-opening loss to Maryland with this evening’s 66-0 win over the LIU Sharks (0-2), but if you were looking to learn anything about this team before next week’s matchup against Virginia Tech you didn’t get any real answers.

LIU won the coin toss and elected to defer, which marked the beginning of the end for the Sharks, as Winston Wright took the opening kickoff 90-yards for the touchdown.

Leddie Brown would go on to add a rushing touchdown on each of the next two West Virginia drives to go up 21-0 with just over two minutes left in the first quarter, effectively sealing the deal for the Mountaineers.

Garrett Greene took over for Doege on the third Mountaineer drive and capped off a 13 play, 69-yard drive with a three yard run off the zone read for his first career touchdown, putting West Virginia up 28-0.

Doege returned on the next drive and marched the Mountaineer offense down the field relatively easily, and found Sam James wide open in the endzone for an 18 yard touchdown. West Virginia would go on to close out the half with a 44-yard field goal from Casey Legg to go up 38-0.

Neal Brown kept Doege on the field for the first two drives in the second half, both of which were capped off by touchdown passes — a 39-yarder to Sean Ryan and a 21-yarder to Sam James, before finally pulling the starters.

Greene scored his second rushing touchdown of the evening on a 13 yard scamper to put West Virginia up 59-0.

Will Crowder took over on West Virginia’s second-to-last drive of the game, and immediately showed off his passing ability with a quick 8 yard pass to Morgantown’s Preston Fox and a 20 yard pass to Kaden Prather to set up Avarious Sparrow for his first career rushing touchdown.

Doege finished his day early in the third quarter with 267 yards and three touchdown on 14-of-22 passing. Garrett Greene finished 4-of-7 passing for 67 yards, but added 98 yards and two touchdowns on 14 rushing attempts. True freshman Will Crowder finished 2-of-2 for 28 yards. Leddie Brown finished with 23 yards and two touchdowns on 15 attempts.

Sean Ryan led the receiving corps with three receptions for 85 yards and one touchdown. Sam James finished with three receptions for 54 yards and two touchdowns. Winston Wright and Bryce Ford-Wheaton each finished with three receptions for 59 and 54 yards, respectively, with Wright adding the opening 90-yard kickoff return to his stat line.

The Mountaineers are back in action next Saturday when they take on the No. 19 Virginia Tech Hokies in Morgantown for the first time since 2005. That game is scheduled to kickoff at Noon ET and will be broadcast on FS1.