WVU Declaws Bearcats

PHOTO GALLERY | BOX SCORE | MSN RADIO REPLAY MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Steve Slaton’s hip looked just fine against Cincinnati Wednesday night, the freshman rushing 25 times for 129 yards and scoring four touchdowns to help No. 15-ranked West Virginia to an easy 38-0 victory over the Bearcats at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. West Virginia running back Steve Slaton goes over the top for the first of four touchdown runs in the Mountaineers' 38-0 win Wednesday night at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks Slaton has scored 11 of his team-leading 12 touchdowns in the last three games against Louisville, Connecticut and Cincinnati as the Mountaineer offense has produced scoring totals of 46, 45 and now 38. Slaton was held out of the second half of last Wednesday night’s win against Connecticut with a hip pointer and was limited in practiced this week leading up to tonight’s game. "You always worry about games like these on the road with a young team but our guys have handled all of the situations very maturely and they handled it well tonight," said West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez. "In pregame it was kind of dead and there weren't a whole lot of emotion but our guys have done that before and played well. I was proud with the way they came out and was flying around and executing." Yet Slaton was only one part of an impressive offensive performance put forth by West Virginia Wednesday night before a nationally televised audience on ESPN2. Redshirt freshman Pat White continued to show improvement at the quarterback position, accounting for 211 all-purpose yards including 111 on the ground on just 8 carries. It was White’s long runs on option plays that set up Slaton’s short first-half touchdown runs of 4, 1 and 9. Slaton added a 33-yard TD run in the third quarter before making an early exit to the showers. "Our tailbacks are going to score a lot when we're running the football and I thought (Steve) made some nice runs," said Rodriguez. White completed 7 of 12 passes for 100 yards and a touchdown and Brandon Myles caught a pair of passes for 68 yards, including an impressive 34-yard catch on West Virginia’s opening drive when he tipped an under thrown White pass to himself, beating Bearcat defensive back Antoine Horton. "I tried to tip it to myself," said Myles of his catch. "I did a little basketball drill." "I thought Pat White was the biggest difference in the first half; he made some runs and some plays," said Rodriguez. "Pat is very calm out there for a first-year starter and I think that is one of his biggest assets." Leading 21-0 at halftime, the Mountaineers (8-1, 5-0) stopped Cincinnati on its opening possession and took over at its own 48. A White option pitch to fullback Owen Schmitt netted five yards to the Bearcat 47, and a double screen to Ray Bolden moved the ball 14 yards to the Bearcat 33. Slaton cleaned up the drive with his fourth touchdown run of the game – a 33-yarder that was West Virginia’s second longest TD run of the year. A Kevin McLee interception and 34-yard return of a Dustin Grutza pass set up West Virginia’s 31st point of the night – a 28-yard Pat McAfee field goal. The Mountaineers cleaned things up with a White-to-Reynaud 15-yard pass in the corner of the end zone with 4:14 left in the third quarter that made the score 38-0. At that point in the game it was just a matter of whether or not West Virginia would get its first shutout since blanking Rutgers 40-0 in 2002. "Our defense has been outstanding all year and it was no different this game," Rodriguez said. "They gave up a few short things but for the most part our defense was in position to make plays and we have really tackled well." Cincinnati’s deepest penetration into West Virginia territory came on the game’s final play when backup quarterback Nick Davila completed a 46-yard pass to Dominick Goodman to the Mountaineer five yard line on the game’s final play. "West Virginia is a very good football team," said Bearcat coach Mark Dantonio. "They did not beat themselves. They tackle very well, they pressure the quarterback and they are able to run the football. They have an exciting runner in White who can take a bad play and make it a good one." Cincinnati (4-5, 2-3) made 15 first downs and quarterbacks Grutza and Davila combined to pass for 207 yards, but the Bearcat rushing attack managed just 62 yards on 33 tries. Grutza completed 15 of 21 passes for 110 yards and threw one interception. Davila was six of eight for 97 yards and one interception. The Mountaineer defense came up with four turnovers on interceptions by McLee and Abraham Jones, and fumble recoveries by Bobby Hathaway and Dee McCann. The only negative from the game was the news that starting center Dan Mozes limped off the field in the third quarter with an injured leg. West Virginia now has 15 days off before facing Pitt in the Backyard Brawl at Milan Puskar Stadium on Thanksgiving night. ESPN will carry the game, already announced a sell out. Scoring Summary WV – Slaton 4 run (McAfee kick) WV – Slaton 1 run (McAfee kick) WV – Slaton 9 run (McAfee kick) WV – Slaton 33 run (McAfee kick) WV – McAfee 28 FG WV – Reynaud 15 pass from White (McAfee kick) Individual Statistics Rushing: WV – Slaton 25-129, White 8-111, Schmitt 7-30, Williams 10-27, Total 50-297; UC – Glatthaar 10-38, Benton 5-12, Moore 8-9, Goodman 2-8, Grutza 6-minus 8, Total 33-62. Passing: WV – White 7-12-0-100-1, Bednarik 1-1-0-9-0, Total 8-13-0-109-1; UC – Grutza 15-21-1-110-0, Davila 6-8-1-97-0, Total 21-29-2-207-0. Receiving: WV – Reynaud 3-28, Myles 2-68, Bolden 1-14, Rivers 1-9, Slaton 1-minus 10, Total 8-109; UC – Ross 5-44, Jackson 4-34, Celek 4-19, Goodman 3-59, Moore 1-29, Giddens 1-8, Total 21-207.