The Mountaineers Start Slow Before Firing on all Cylinders in the Second Half to Pound Robert Morris

West Virginia came away with a 45-3 win against Robert Morris to open the season Saturday afternoon.

The Mountaineers (1-0) started fast on their opening possession, driving 83 yards on 10 plays capped by a 10-yard run by redshirt junior quarterback Nicco Marchiol for the early 7-0 edge.

The offense quickly cooled. The Colonials (0-1) forced a three and out on the following possession, the Mountaineers settled for a field goal to go up 10 early in the second quarter.

Then, turnovers plagued West Virginia, losing three consecutive fumbles.

“Well, I’d like to say that was a typical first game, but I don’t know if I’ve ever had or seen three fumbles in four plays. That’s what I think we had,” West Virginia head coach Rich Rodirguez said. “I know we had three straight fumbles. So, we obviously didn’t play well at all in the first half. West Virginia beating West Virginia.”

Robert Morris put a field goal on the board on the second fumble of the afternoon as the Mountaineers took an unexpected 10-3 lead into halftime.

“I didn't like, you know, try to scrape paint off the wall or anything like that. I just said we have to take care of the football, play a little bit smarter,” Rodriguez stated. “The penalties were really frustrating, you know. I'm just as or most frustrated with that because that's a lack of discipline. We're gonna get that fixed right away. We have to. So, correct the penalties and the turnovers and just relax and run the offense.”

The offense held onto the ball and got rolling in the second half.

Running back Jahiem White recorded his first touchdown of the season on the opening drive of the second half. He started the possession with two carries for a total of 22 yards before finishing the drive with a one-yard touchdown run.

The defense gave the offense a short field after defensive lineman Hammond Russell IV came away with the strip sack and linebacker Reid Carrico recovered, handing the ball to the offense at the Robert Morris 24-yard line.

Three plays later, White found the endzone again. He finished the day with 93 yards and two touchdowns.

“Jaheim ran hard, you know, I’m a little disappointed that we didn’t get him loose for some longer runs,” Rodriguez said. “I’m gonna have to see what the reason was, he might’ve been getting outnumbered. I don’t know what the case was, but he’s an explosive guy, we didn’t get him enough explosive opportunities. So, we got to figure out what happened with that.”

Nicco Marchiol put an exclamation point on his fourth start of his career. He hit receiver Cam Vaughn down the sideline for a career-high 46-yard touchdown pass for the 31-3 advantage.

“I’m glad we took a deep shot,” Rodriguez said. “We didn’t throw deep balls today much. He (Vaughn) ran a great route and Nicco made a great throw.

Marchiol finished with 224 passing yards on an efficient 17-20, also adding 56 yards on the ground.

Redshirt senior quarterback Jaylen Henderson entered the game and in four plays, sophomore running back Cyncir Bowers wiggled his way for a 26-yard touchdown run in his Mountaineers debut.

Then, it was freshman quarterback Scotty Fox Jr. got in on the act. On the third play of the drive, pulled the ball and burst down the sideline for a 59-yard touchdown run as the Mountaineers rolled to a 45-3 victory.

“There were some things we did okay, but you know, obviously not playing like we should’ve, and the second half went like it should’ve,” Rodriguez said. “So, we’ll take the win and learn from it. Obviously, there’s a lot of things to clean up and fix but there’s a lot of guys playing for the first time and a lot of things we got to do as a staff to be better by next week.”

The Mountaineers travel to Athens, Ohio to take on the Ohio Bobcats next Saturday at 4:00 p.m. EST.