West Virginia Hangs on Against Coastal Carolina 31-24
Coastal Carolina outgained West Virginia 425 yards to 417 and still lost 31-24. Blame the first half, and the two fumbles.
West Virginia scored first, a three-yard run by Cam Cook with 14:13 left in the first quarter. Michael Hawkins Jr. then threw a 49-yard touchdown to Armoni Weaver-Bomar for 14-0. Jack Cassidy kicked a 38-yard field goal, and Cook scored again from a yard out with 1:18 left in the half. That was 24-0 at the break, and West Virginia led from the first score to the last.
Coastal Carolina took the second half. Deuce Bailey threw a 34-yard touchdown to Clayton Coppock Jr. with 3:57 left in the third quarter, and a 13-yarder to Colton Hinton with 12:56 left in the fourth (24-14). Hawkins ran in from 11 yards with 2:58 to play to push it back to 31-14, West Virginia's only points of the second half. Bailey hit Coppock again for 37 yards with 1:51 left (31-21), and Nico Cavanillas Alti kicked a 32-yard field goal with 27 seconds left to make it 31-24. The Chanticleers outscored West Virginia 24-7 after halftime and ran out of clock.
The Mountaineers did it by running. They had 59 rushing attempts for 285 yards, and only 132 passing yards. Coastal Carolina threw for 373 yards and ran for 52, and lost two fumbles to West Virginia's one.
West Virginia is 1-0, Coastal Carolina 0-1. Bailey had the top fantasy score of the day with 34.8 points on 373 yards and three touchdowns, despite the loss. Cook (29.3) and Hawkins (27.6) took the Mountaineer side.