West Virginia rushes for 305 yards, blasts Albany

Field Level Media|published: Sat 7th September, 21:57 2024

Sep 7, 2024; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers tight end Kole Taylor (87) catches a pass and runs for a touchdown during the second quarter against the Albany Great Danes at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images

Garrett Greene threw for three touchdowns as West Virginia downed Albany 49-14 on Saturday night in Morgantown, W.Va.

Greene completed 17 of 23 passes for 236 yards for the Mountaineers (1-1). He also rushed for 68 yards on seven carries and found the end zone once on the ground.

West Virginia finished with 305 rushing yards in all, with CJ Donaldson Jr. racking up a game-high 125 on 14 carries. He ran for one TD, as did Jahiem White and Nicco Marchiol. White went for 100 yards on 10 touches.

Myles Burkett threw for 306 yards and a touchdown on 18-for-39 passing for the Great Danes (1-1). Jojo Uga had 57 yards on nine carries, and Griffin Woodell rushed for a score.

The Mountaineers' defense stood tall on Albany's first drive of the second half to prevent the Great Danes from getting back into the game.

Burkett completed two long passes, a 41-yard bomb to Seven McGee and a 49-yard strike to Levi Wentz, to get Albany to the West Virginia 2. But Burkett's first-down pass was tipped at the line of scrimmage, a run by Burkett on second down gained only 1 yard and passes on third and fourth down fell incomplete.

The Mountaineers then went on a 14-play, 99-yard drive that took 6:40 off the clock and culminated in a 10-yard touchdown pass from Greene to Hudson Clement to put the hosts up 35-14.

Donaldson added on to the lead with a 2-yard rushing score with 49 seconds left in the third quarter, and Marchiol found the end zone from 12 yards out in the fourth.

West Virginia opened up a 21-0 lead by scoring on its first three drives of the game.

White capped the first with a 14-yard rushing TD and Greene punctuated the second with a 12-yard scoring strike to Justin Robinson to make it 14-0 with 5:41 left in the first quarter. Kole Taylor hauled in a 39-yard touchdown pass with 14:49 left in the second.

Albany finally scored on Woodell's 7-yard touchdown run with 4:40 to go in the first half.

Burkett found Jacari Carter for a 33-yard TD, but Greene responded with a 40-yard scoring scamper to make it 28-14 West Virginia at the break.

--Field Level Media

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