WVU ‘putrid’ in defeat
Mountaineers fade in fourth quarter, fall to 1-5 in Big 12 games
Hunter Dekkers threw for two touchdowns and Xavier Hutchinson caught 10 passes for 123 yards and a score as Iowa State defeated West Virginia, 31-14, Saturday in Ames, Iowa.
The Cyclones (4-5, 1-5 Big 12) snapped a five-game losing streak and kept alive their hopes of playing in a bowl game for the sixth consecutive season.
“From a second-half standpoint, I really thought we were outstanding,” Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said. “Really in all phases in the second half, that’s the best we’ve been.”
Dekkers, who finished 24of-36 passing for 219 yards, engineered an 8-play, 94yard drive that helped Iowa State seize control early in the fourth quarter. The Cyclones were helped by a roughing-the-punter penalty and boosted by Deon Silas’ 38-yard run before Hutchinson capped the drive with a 24-yard scoring catch. Iowa State led 17-7. “That just shows the type of offense that we can be,” Dekkers said. “We can go on a long (drive) and score.”
Silas finished with 77 rushing yards. Cartevious Norton ran for 69 yards and two touchdowns.
“For Cartevious, it was really the second game of his career,” Campbell said of the freshman. “So, I thought it was another big step forward for him.”
West Virginia (3-6, 1-5) netted just 200 total yards on offense, with much of it coming after the outcome had been determined.
Dekkers capped a 13-play, 86-yard drive with a 16-yard touchdown pass to DeShawn Hanika, giving Iowa State a 10-0 lead with 7:51 left in the second quarter.
At that point, the Cyclones were outgaining the
Mountaineers 174 yards to 41, with 10 first downs to West Virginia’s three.
“The story of our game was the inability of our offense to move the ball at all,” West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. “The stats were putrid.”
Hutchinson now has a school record 87 catches this season, breaking his own mark of 83, set last year.
“I don’t know if I can say enough great things about Xavier,” Campbell said. “We wouldn’t even have a chance to be where we’re at today without Xavier Hutchinson.”
The Mountaineers cut the margin to 10-7 before halftime when J.T. Daniels threw a 25-yard touchdown to Bryce Ford-Wheaton.
Duquesne
Billy Lucas ran for 170 yards and his 8-yard run in overtime lifted Duquesne to a 35-28 victory against
Sacred Heart. The Dukes (36, 2-3 NEC) had the first possession of overtime and relied on Lucas, with four rushes and one pass reception. Sacred Heart’s possession ended when the Dukes’ Jayden Johnson and Jon Muehlbauer stopped Rob McCoy for a loss of 2 yards on fourth down from the 16yard line. Joe Mischler completed 18 of 28 passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns for Duquesne.
Robert Morris
It was another rough day for the Colonials, who managed just 14 net yards rushing in a 34-21 loss to Charleston Southern in Charleston, S.C. Zach Tanner completed 16 of 31 passes for 242 yards with two touchdowns and an interception for Robert Morris (0-9, 0-4 Big South), but much of that came only after Charleston Southern (2-7, 22) scored the game’s first 20 points.