West Virginia wears down Central Florida for 41-28 road win – WV MetroNews

(Neal Brown postgame press conference)

After failing to finish strong each of its last two games, West Virginia did just that Saturday at Central Florida.

The Mountaineers rattled off 17 unanswered points to start the fourth quarter, allowing them to pull away from the Knights for a 41-28 victory at FBC Mortgage Stadium.

“It’s really who scores points off turnovers and what’s the differential? We worked a lot of it in the spring into fall camp and that was the reason we won the game,” fifty-year WVU head coach Neal Brown said. “We had 21 points off turnovers and that was the story of the game.”

West Virginia (5-3, 3-2) ended a two-game skid to prevent a winless October and handed UCF (3-5, 0-5) a fifth consecutive loss in the process.

Both teams moved the ball well, though the Knights had no answer for West Virginia’s run game, which churned out 286 yards — 60 more than the Mountaineers had rushed for in a game against Power 5 competition.

Quarterback Garrett Greene rushed for three touchdowns, the last of which came from 1 yard on the second play of the fourth quarter to give the Mountaineers a 31-21 lead.

UCF followed with a three-and-out and its only punt, and the Mountaineers followed with an ill-important seven play, 68-yard drive that tailback CJ Donaldson capped off with his team’s fifth rushing TD from 6 yards. Two plays before WVU gained the first three-score lead of the game, Greene connected with wideout EJ Horton for a 13-yard gain on fourth-and-2 out of a timeout.

The Mountaineers then put to rest rest any thought of a UCF rally by forcing a turnover on downs as cornerback Beanie Bishop Jr. continued his stellar game and season by breaking up a fourth-and-3 pass. That directly led to Michael Hayes’ 41-yard field goal with 5:15 remaining, before the Knights got a 16-yard touchdown pass from John Rhys Plumlee to Kobe Hudson with 1:46 left.

While UCF gained 463 yards, the Knights had four turnovers to the Mountaineers’ one.

“During our two games that we dropped, we haven’t been able to create takeaways and we have to be able to take the ball away,” Bishop said. “We kind of harped on that so we could get the ball back to the offense and score more points.”

A pair of third-quarter turnovers proved pivotal in the outcome, the first of which came on Bishop’s second interception of the game and fourth this season on the opening drive of the third quarter.

At that time, WVU led 17-14, and the Mountaineers went on to drive 68 yards and scored their third touchdown on Greene’s 7-yard run. Four plays before Greene reached the end zone, he threw a 28-yard pass to Preston Fox on a receiver screen.

Still, the Knights answered and pulled to within a field goal when Plumlee threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Javon Baker, who made a high-level catch and managed to narrowly get one in foot in bounds to cut his team’s deficit to 24-21 at the 5:25 mark of the third.

After the Mountaineers were forced to punt, linebacker Lee Kpogba Plumlee and forced a fumble that defensive lineman Jalen Thornton recovered, setting West Virginia up at the UCF 27 with 1:10 left in the third.

Four plays later, the Mountaineers were back on top by two possessions and in control.

“We were going to need some takeaways,” Brown said. “They’re good on offense and some of the areas where they’re good, we have some issues. I felt like the key was getting first downs on offense. This is a game we had to control the clock and get first downs.“

(Game Highlights)

West Virginia also got off to a strong start in its earliest game this season. The Mountaineers scored a touchdown on their opening drive for the first time this season, that coming on Greene’s 6-yard run to finish off a nine play, 75-yard series. Three plays earlier, Donaldson ripped off a 21-yard run on fourth-and-1 from the WVU 45.

“I told our guys shooters were going to shoot tomorrow and that was the mentality. We were in attack mode,” Brown said.

UCF countered and pulled even at 7 when Plumlee found Hudson for a 34-yard touchdown on third-and-6.

West Virginia moved into the red zone, but stalled on its second series and settled for Hayes’ 24-yard field goal.

The Knights crossed midfield on their second possession, but Bishop came up with his first interception to end that series on a bizarre play that saw Plumlee throw toward Javon Baker, whose cleat hit the football and sent it high into the air, allowing Bishop to snag it.

“Beanie’s played at a high level and been around the ball a lot,” Brown said. “That was huge, especially the first one, because they were driving and we went and turned it into a touchdown.”

West Virginia then marched 68 yards in 10 plays and took a 17-7 lead on true freshman Jahiem White’s 4-yard TD run.

Plumlee’s 8-yard touchdown run 5:50 before halftime brought the Knights back to within three.

Greene left for one play of WVU’s ensuing series, and it resulted in a turnover when Nicco Marchiol passed to Fox, who pitched the ball behind him to Jaylen Anderson on a designed hook-and-lateral, only for Anderson to lose the ball and the Knights’ Demari Henderson to recover on the UCF 28.

However, on the very next play, Edward Vesterinen pressured and hit Plumlee and it prevented him from stepping into a pass that allowed Marcis Floyd to come down with an uncontested interception.

Greene returned directly after Floyd’s interception.

“Everybody in that locker room puts in so much. They put in too much for me to let a little ankle take me out,” Greene said.

Neither team scored again for the remainder of the half.

“We haven’t really played a complete game top to bottom on offense, defense and special teams,” Greene said, “and we kind of played a complete game. Other than the 2-minute drive before half where I have to hit [Devin Carter] on the mesher, but for the most part, the offense did enough to win.”

Oddly enough, Plumlee’s first incomplete pass didn’t come until after his third interception on the Knights’ first play of the fourth quarter and the signal-caller’s 20th attempt of the contest.

The Mountaineers had only four penalties and were without one over the first three quarters.

WVU played for much of the game without starting right tackle Doug Nester and right guard Brandon Yates, who exited with injuries. Nick Malone and Ja’Quay Hubbard filled in for the duo.

Donaldson rushed for a season-high 121 yards on 17 carries and White added 85 yards on nine carries. Greene contributed 55 rushing yards on 11 attempts and completed 14-of-23 passes for 156 yards.

“We’ve ran the ball really well and CJ had a different mentality this week so I had a lot of confidence in him,” Brown said. “They’ve had some issues stopping the run. The date analytics, which I go heavy into on Thursday afternoon and by Friday afternoon I pretty much know how we’re going to play the game on fourth down. We probably would’ve gone for fourth-and-1 back to our minus 30, but felt good running the ball.”

Plumlee threw for 274 yards and completed 25-of-36 passes. RJ Harvey rushed for 100 yards on 14 carries, though he gained 16 yards on six second-half carries.

West Virginia, one win away from bowl eligibility, is back in action Saturday when it plays host to BYU.

 (Postgame “Round of Sound”)