Louisville 38, West Virginia 35
When: 12:00 PM ET, Saturday, November 5, 2011
Where: Milan Puskar Stadium, Morgantown, West Virginia
Temperature:
45°
Head Official:
Jeff Maconaghy
Attendance:
57287
By SportsDirect Inc.
Freshman Andrew Johnson returned a blocked field goal 82-yards for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter, sparking Louisville to a 38-35 road win over No. 21 West Virginia. The win was Louisville's third straight.
The Mountaineers (6-3, 2-2 Big East) were attempting to tie the game at 24 when
Adrian Bushell blocked a 23-yard field goal attempt, and Johnson raced
the other way for a touchdown and a 31-21 Cardinals lead.
Dominique Brown helped the Cardinals (5-4, 3-1 Big East) secure the win by converting a fourth-and-1 with just over five minutes remaining and finished the drive with a 3-yard touchdown run to make it 38-28.
Jeremy Wright and Senorise Perry also had rushing touchdowns for Louisville to snap a four-game skid against the Mountaineers.
Louisville had not allowed more than 25 points in a game and entered with the nation's 12th-best scoring defense of 16.3 points against. West Virginia topped that on Shawne Alston's 2-yard score that gave the Mountaineers a 21-14 lead with 5:44 to go before halftime.
But the Cardinals knotted it at 21 just before the break, after freshman quarterback Teddy Bridgewater capped a nearly perfect first half with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Eli Rogers with eight seconds left. Bridgewater finished the half 12 of 13 for 149 yards.
The Mountaineers had a horrific start to the second half, as the blocked field goal was part of a stretch of drives that included a missed field goal, turnover on downs and two fumbles. Alston's second score pulled WVU within 31-28 with 9:01 remaining.
Top Game Performances
Receiving
| Louisville |
|
West Virginia |
|
Eli Rogers
| Player |
Stedman Bailey
|
|
5 |
Receptions |
8 |
|
63 |
Yards |
118 |
|
12.6 |
Avg Yards |
14.8 |
|
1 |
Touchdowns |
2 |
|
0 |
Long |
0 |
Team Stats Summary
| |
Yards |
Scoring |
Defense |
| Team |
Tot |
Rus |
Pas |
TD |
FG |
INT |
Sck |
FF |
| Louisville
|
351 |
105 |
246 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
3.0 |
3 |
| West Virginia
|
533 |
123 |
410 |
5 |
0 |
1 |
4.0 |
0 |