West Virginia 31, Maryland 21
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Wide receiver Tavon Austin, who spurned a full court recruiting blitz by Maryland after setting nearly all the state offensive rushing and scoring records as a high school player at Baltimore Dunbar High, continued to torment the Terps as he caught three touchdown passes Saturday in a hard-fought 31-21 West Virginia victory.
Austin caught 13 passes from quarterback Geno Smith, who had his toughest game of the season, for 179 yards. The final touchdown, a 34-yard pass which broke the game open in the fourth quarter, was the 206th catch of his career, tying the school record set by Jock Sanders. Austin later broke the record.
Against Maryland, which actually flew to one of his high school games in a helicopter trying to recruit him, he has caught 30 passes for 401 yards and 5 touchdowns in his career.
Smith, one of the top early-season leading in the Heisman race, completed 30-of-43 passes for 338 yards and the three touchdowns.
Maryland's freshman combination of quarterback Perry Hills and wide receiver Sheldon Diggs combined on two touchdowns, one of 42 yards and another of 56.
West Virginia found itself involved in a battle for the first time this season in the first half, as Maryland controlled the ball and the clock.
In fact, the vaunted West Virginia offense was having problems and it took the defense to give them a lead, with safety Darwin Cook timing a blitz perfectly, hitting Hills from behind and jarring the ball loose.
Linebacker Doug Rigg was at the right spot at the right time, scooped the ball up and running 51 yards for a touchdown. It was his second long return of the year, as he took a pass interception 46 yards to the one-yard-line in the opener against Marshall.
The Mountaineers' second score came when Smith hit Tavon Austin on a crossing pattern, a defender bouncing off him before he went down the sideline 44 yards for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead.
But Maryland wasn't about to spit it up, coming right back on a 42-yard touchdown pass from Hills to Diggs to make it 14-7.
When Hill hit receiver Marcus Leak with another touchdown pass, this from the 12, it was tied at 14-14, the first time anyone had been even with West Virginia this season other than at 0-0.
The Mountaineers regained the lead when Tyler Bitancurt hit his first field goal attempt of the season from 37 yards to make it 17-14 and Smith added on with a 24-yard touchdown pass to a wide open Austin to make it 24-14 at the half.
Smith went 14-for-23 in the half, meaning he threw as many incomplete passes in the first half as he had in the previous two games, while also suffering his first sack of the year.
He had to be slinging the ball, though, as Maryland stuffed the running game, holding West Virginia to four yards on the ground in the half, as Shawne Alston rode the bench because a thigh bruise.
NOTES: Quarterback Geno Smith of West Virginia broke Marc Bulger's school record for career passes with his second pass of the day, giving him 1,024 at that time. ... Running back Dustin Garrison, recovering from a knee injury, made his first appearance of the season for the Mountaineers. ... Maryland came into the game allowing only 2.58 yards per rush to rank 14th nationally and West Virginia did nothing to hurt that mark, gaining only 29 yards on the ground. ... Maryland held West Virginia scoreless in the third quarter, the first time the Mountaineers failed to score in a quarter this season. ... West Virginia inducted seven athletes into its Sports Hall of Fame, including former football greats Bo Orlando from the 1988 team that played for a national championship and offensive lineman Ben Dunkerley from the early 1950s. Also inducted was long-time athletic director Ed Pastilong. ... The Mountaineers wore grey uniforms for the first time ever.
