West Virginia struggled early, but used 42 second half points to pull away from Marshall.

The 11:10 a.m. start time on Saturday morning was an awkward one.  The West Virginia-Marshall “made-for-tv” series started off its second stint before the players were even awake, at least on the West Virginia sideline. 

The Marshall fans had something to cheer about early as they contained the Mountaineers on all but one play in the first half.  Marshall took the opening kick-off into West Virginia territory en route to a field goal and a 3-0 lead.  The Mountaineers answered later in the half when Pat White hit Darius Reynaud down the middle for a pretty touchdown that gave WVU the lead.  However, on the ensuing extra point attempt, a botched snap forced West Virginia to settle for their only six points of the half.

Marshall played inspired defense while the Mountaineers looked sluggish offensively leading to a 13-6 Thundering Herd advantage at halftime, but the lead would not last. 

On West Virginia’s first possession of the second half they drove down the field finished off by a 20 yard touchdown by Darius Reynaud tying the score at 13.  Marshall would answer with a field goal, but the Mountaineers came storming back with two quick touchdowns by Pat White and Steve Slaton to give the Mountaineers a 27-16 lead. 

Marshall took its blows but came back strong with a touchdown of their own on a Bernard Morris pass to tight end Cody Slate which cut the deficit to 4, but that is as close as Marshall would get.

Soon after Marshall cut the lead, Noel Devine and Steve Slaton took over.  Devine ran in a 12-yard touchdown seemingly untouched and shortly after, Steve Slaton took it 18 yards for the score to put the game out of reach.  Devine would add another touchdown with less than two minutes to go to put the Mountaineers up 48-23.

The largest crowd in Marshall history, 40,383, witnessed an unexpectedly close game early on.  Mountaineer fans were sweating bullets in the first half as West Virginia started another game slowly.  The Mountaineers could not get anything going in the first half, but woke up in the second on their way to 42 points and a 25 point victory. 

Pat White finished with 149 yards passing on 13 of 18 attempts while rushing for 125 yards on 18 attempts.  Fellow Heisman candidate Steve Slaton recovered from a poor first half to rush for 149 yards on 24 carries.  True Freshman Noel Devine had an astonishing 15 yards per carry, rushing for 72 yards and two touchdowns on only 5 carries.