PITTSBURGH — A glance at the statistics may hint otherwise, but the final score of West Virginia’s game against Pittsburgh said the race for the Big East Conference championship is now down to two teams.
The Mountaineers are one of them.
In what was essentially an elimination contest for the league’s title, WVU topped Pitt 35-10 for the second-consecutive season Friday at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. The Panthers’ defeat means the Big East championship will be awarded to either West Virginia or Connecticut, depending on the Huskies’ game against Cincinnati Saturday and South Florida on Dec. 4.
WVU must also beat Rutgers in its regular-season final next Saturday.
“We’re still in it,” said WVU receiver Jock Sanders. “We know we’re the best team in the Big East. And when I talk, I believe in what I say.”
The way the Mountaineers played in the opening half, being named Big East Champions looked like a slim possibility. The Panther offense out-gained WVU 205-75 in total yardage while West Virginia failed to gain a first down until 12:05 left in the second quarter.
The Mountaineer offense ran only 16 plays in the first half it had only 7:29 of possession time.
Still, the Mountaineers entered halftime with a 14-7 advantage thanks to five first-half Panther fumbles that led to all of WVU’s points before the half.
The first occurred on a Brandon Hogan interception of Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri on the Panthers’ first drive of the game. Hogan returned the pick 52 yards to the Pitt 2-yard line one play before Ryan Clarke scored his fourth touchdown of the season for a 7-0 WVU lead just 1:29 into the contest.
WVU scored on its last possession of the first half just four plays after Casey Vance stripped Pitt running back Ray Graham, a fumble that was recovered by Hogan. West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith connected with Noel Devine for a 48-yard gain one play before finding Will Johnson for a two-yard score, giving the Mountaineers a 14-7 advantage at the half.
After allowing just two first downs in its last two games, the Mountaineer defense allowed the Panthers to finished 8-of-11 on third-down conversions in the first half.
The Panthers’ only score was an 8-yard connection from Sunseri to receiver Devin Street with 2:33 remaining in the first quarter.
But the WVU defense only allowed a 42-yard field goal to Dan Hutchins in the second half.
“When you have teams driving on your and you can’t stop them, you make up for it with big plays. Turnovers are the biggest plays of the game,” said WVU linebacker J.T. Thomas. “It wasn’t pretty, but we only gave up 10 points. They were just making more plays than us, and we weren’t taking advantage of our opportunities.”
After gaining a 21-7 lead with a 71-yard touchdown pass to Tavon Austin on WVU’s first possession of the second half, the Mountaineers rode the tandem of Shawne Alston and Ryan Clarke to wear down the Pittsburgh defense. Alston ended with 64 second-half yards while Clarke added 19 yards including his second score of the game with 7:45 left in the game.
West Virginia finished with a 19:06-10:54 time of possession advantage after halftime.
“We only had like 19 snaps in the first half, so we were still fresh heading into halftime,” said WVU tackle Don Barclay. “In the whole second half, we showed that.”
Sunseri finished 28-for-46 for 284 yards while also ending as the team’s leading rusher with 38 yards. Lewis and Graham ended with 55 combined rushing yards.