MORGANTOWN, W.VA. – No. 20-ranked Notre Dame capitalized on poor West Virginia special teams play to pull out a 42-28 win Saturday at Mountaineer Field.
West Virginia’s punt and punt return teams were directly responsible for 21 Notre Dame points -- which proved to be the difference in today’s game.
A high snap in the second quarter led to Notre Dame gaining possession of the football at the West Virginia 16. Three plays later David Givens scored from five yards out to give the Irish their first lead of the game with 2:22 left in the half.
Notre Dame added seven more on a Tony Fisher seven-yard touchdown catch from Matt LoVecchio after getting great field position when Antonio Brown was ruled down at the one-foot line after fielding a punt inside the 10-yard line.
The special teams backbreaker was Joey Geatherall’s 73-yard punt return with 6:32 left that put the Irish up 42-14.
"We allowed too many big plays, which spelled doom for us," West Virginia Coach Don Nehlen remarked. "We worked ever single day on covering punts."
To their credit, West Virginia battled back and scored two late touchdowns to close the final margin to 14.
"Our kids came to play and they played hard. I’m proud of them," said Nehlen.
"Offensively this was our best game of the year and defensively it was our worst -- no doubt about that," said Notre Dame Coach Bob Davie.
WVU backup quarterback Scott McBrien, who replaced starter Brad Lewis after the junior sustained a sprained knee in the second quarter, led the Mountaineers to two long scoring drives.
"Anytime you lose your quarterback it’s not a good thing," said Nehlen of the injury to Lewis, who completed three-of-four passes for 53 yards before going down.
After shaking off first-half jitters, McBrien settled down to complete 13-of-31 passes for 252 yards and one touchdown.
WVU fullback Wes Ours scored both second-half TDs – one on a one-yard plunge with 2:11 left in the third quarter and another on a two-yard pass from McBrien with 12:08 left in the game. Those were the first two career scores by Ours.
At the start of the game, a fired-up West Virginia team got on the board first when Antonio Brown scored on a 24-yard run with 10:44 in the first quarter.
Notre Dame answered five minutes later when Tony Fisher scored from a yard out.
The Mountaineers regained the lead on their following possession when Avon Cobourne scored on a nine-yard jaunt. The run culminated a six-play, 69-yard drive.
The Irish knotted the score with 7:01 to go in the second quarter when Notre Dame tailback Terrance Howard eluded several WVU tacklers for an 80-yard run. It was the longest run of the season for a Notre Dame back and the longest for the Irish since 1996.
Notre Dame added the Givens five-yard run and a 36-yard pass from LoVecchio to Fisher right before the half to give the Irish a 28-14 lead at halftime.
After West Virginia’s two second-half scores closed the gap to 14, WVU had two late chances to close the deficit.
The Irish stopped a West Virginia fourth-down play inside the five to turn away one scoring opportunity, and dodged another bullet when West Virginia was flagged for a holding penalty on Antonio Brown’s 70-yard punt return for an apparent TD.
Brown finished the afternoon with a season-high 94 yards on four catches. He also contributed 40 yards on four carries.
Cobourne carried 20 times for 84 yards as West Virginia piled up 439 yards of total offense.
"I think our offense finally got back on track, but when you give up big plays it doesn’t really matter," Nehlen said. "If we could eliminate the big plays against us, this could be an excellent football team."
In its last two games, West Virginia has allowed 90 points in losses to No. 2-ranked Virginia Tech and No. 20-ranked Notre Dame.
Howard led the Irish with 96 yards on seven carries as the Irish piled up 227 yards on the ground.
LoVecchio was cool under fire, completing eight-of-16 passes for 94 yards and two touchdowns.
"LoVecchio is no longer a freshman quarterback because of his outstanding play," Davie said. "Now everyone can see what he’s capable of doing."
The victory snaps Notre Dame’s seven-game road losing streak and improves its record to 5-2.
"Notre Dame’s a good, solid football team. But I don’t think there’s any mystic about them," Nehlen admitted.
The loss is the second straight for West Virginia in its attempt to get Nehlen his 200th career victory.
Notre Dame has now won all three meetings against West Virginia in series play.
In addition to losing Lewis, WVU senior tackle Tanner Russell limped off the field with a sprained ankle and starting defensive tackle Antwan Lake couldn’t go with an ankle problem.
The Mountaineers fall to 4-3 on the season. WVU is off next week and will host Syracuse on Saturday, Nov. 4.
"I think the week off will be an advantage," said Nehlen. "We’ve played a murderous stretch, and the kids have played pretty tough games, so I’m glad we have the week off."
Scoring Summary
WV – Brown 24 run (Ohliger kick)
ND – Fisher 1 run (Setta kick)
WV – Cobourne 9 run (Ohliger kick)
ND – Howard 80 run (Setta kick)
ND – Givens 5 run (Setta kick)
ND – Fisher 36 pass from LoVecchio (Setta kick)
ND – Fisher 7 pass from LoVecchio (Setta kick)
ND – Geatherall 73 punt return (Setta kick)
WV – Ours 1 run (Ohliger kick)
WV – Ours 2 pass from McBrien (Ohliger kick)
Individual Statistics
Rushing: ND – Howard 7-86, Fisher 13-43, LoVecchio 9-39, Jones 6-28, Givens 8-21, Total 43-227; WV – Cobourne 20-84, Brown 4-40, Rego 9-18, Ours 3-9, Lewis 1-1, McBrien 8-minus 3, Team 1-minus 15, Total 46-134.
Passing: ND – LoVecchio 8-16-0-94-2; WV – McBrien 13-31-1-252-1, Lewis 3-4-0-53-0, Total 16-35-1-305-1.
Receiving: ND – Getherall 3-79, Fisher 3-35, O’Leary 2-19, Lopienski 1-13, Total 8-94; WV – Brown 4-94, Ivy 3-45, Terry 2-45, Cobourne 2-44, Berton 2-17, Ours 2-9, Nastasi 1-51.
Attendance: 64,424
