Jarret Doege threw three touchdown passes and Leddie Brown rushed for two scores as host West Virginia cruised to a 66-0 rout over Long Island University on Saturday.
The Mountaineers (1-1) rebounded from their disappointing season-opening loss at Maryland by dominating all facets and taking the lead 11 seconds in on Winston Wright Jr.’s 90-yard kickoff return. WVU easily improved to 22-0 against FCS opponents.
West Virginia scored the most points in any of its games against FCS foes, exceeding the 59 it hung on Delaware State in 2017.
Brown, who had three TDs last week, scored a pair of short TDs in the final six-plus minutes of the first quarter. Garrett Greene had a three-yard TD run early in the second before the Mountaineers scored the next three TDs via their passing game.
Doege completed 14-of-22 passes for 259 yards as the Mountaineers totaled 542 yards. Greene followed by completing 4-of-7 passes for 57 yards and Will Crowder finished up.
Greene also gained 98 yards on the ground to lead all rushers as West Virginia finished with 198 yards on the ground. WVU converted 9 of 15 third downs and scored 49 points in the red zone.
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The Sharks (0-2), who were picked sixth in the Northeast Conference’s preseason poll, played the second of three straight games against FBS opponents and absorbed their second straight blowout loss.
LIU quarterback Camden Orth was 11 of 20 for 60 yards, and the Sharks totaled just 95 yards and converted 2 of 13 third downs.
Wright gave the Mountaineers a 7-0 lead with a dynamic kickoff return to start the game.
Brown’s two short runs in the first made it 21-0. West Virginia opened a 28-0 lead on a 3-yard run by Greene with 8:58 left and pushed the lead to 38-0 on an 18-yard TD catch by Sam James and Casey Legg’s 44-yard field goal as time expired.
Sean Ryan’s 39-yard TD made it 45-0 less than three minutes into the third and Doege connected with James for a second time to make it 52-0 with 11:16 remaining.
The lead reached 59-0 on Greene’s 13-yard TD run with 5:59 left in the third and Sparrow’s 1-yard run made it 66-0 with 5:25 remaining in the fourth.
–Field Level Media