Penn State Defeats West Virginia in 2024 Season Opener

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.- No. 8-ranked Penn State used a 27-point flurry in the second and third quarters to defeat West Virginia 34-12 before a sellout crowd of 62,084 Saturday afternoon at Milan Puskar Stadium.
 
The Nittany Lions, making their first appearance here since 1992, looked just like those old Penn State teams that used to come down to Morgantown and beat the Mountaineers on an annual basis.

“Bottom line is we played poorly, but credit Penn State,” said West Virginia coach Neal Brown. “Today was just not good enough to beat a team like Penn State.”

 

Quarterback Drew Allar once again demonstrated his passing acumen against the Mountaineers by completing 11 of his 17 attempts for 216 yards and three touchdowns while also adding 44 crucial yards six scrambles.

 

Allar, as he did in last year’s win in State College, took advantage of West Virginia’s secondary to toss three first half touchdown passes, two to Harrison Wallace III.

 

Wallace was the first player to cross the goal line this afternoon when he took an Allar pass in stride and raced 50 yards into the end zone seven seconds into the second quarter. Backup quarterback Beau Pribula’s two-point conversion pass was unsuccessful.

 

Five minutes later, Allar located running back Kaytron Allen coming out of the backfield for a 20-yard touchdown hookup, boosting Penn State’s lead to 13-0.

 

After getting stopped at Penn State’s 16 on downs earlier in the game, West Virginia’s second foray into the red zone concluded with points as Michael Hayes II punched through a 38-yard field goal, culminating a 10-play, 55-yard drive.

 

The WVU defense forced a Penn State punt, and the Mountaineers regained possession of the football at their own 36 with 5:13 left in the half and all three timeouts remaining.

 

Conversion runs on third and 1 and fourth and 1 by CJ Donaldson Jr. put the football at the Penn State 29 with the clock winding down inside of 1:30 until halftime. Two more Donaldson carries moved the ball to the 21 with 45 seconds left and WVU content to try and burn off as much time as possible.

 

Greene missed his short third-down pass to Preston Fox, which left 37 seconds on the clock for Hayes to try another field goal from the 21. His 39-yard attempt was good, trimming Penn State’s advantage to 13-6.

 

This is where West Virginia hoped the score would remain at halftime.

 

The Lions jumped on Hayes’ squib kick at their 27 with 32 seconds left and possessing just one timeout. Nicholas Singleton’s first-down run was stuffed at the line of scrimmage, but rather than sit on the ball and go into halftime with a touchdown lead, Allar took advantage of more man coverage on outside receiver Omari Evans and lofted a high-arching pass down the far side of the field.

 

Evans outfought WVU safety Aubrey Burks for the football at the PSU 18 for a 55-yard gainer. The Lions quickly called their final timeout with 10 seconds left and when play resumed, took one more shot into the end zone to Wallace with Garnett Hollis Jr. in coverage. Brown thought afterward that the play should have been reviewed by replay officials after watching it at halftime and was not sure why it wasn’t.

“Somebody above me is going to have to give me an explanation on that,” Brown said.

 

Allar put it on the money and Wallace came down with the football in the corner of the end zone, getting a foot in bounds with possession of the ball for an 18-yard touchdown. Sander Sahaydak’s conversion kick expanded Penn State’s lead to 20-6.

 

Soon after Wallace’s touchdown, a heavy band of thunderstorms rolled through the area at halftime, requiring fans to leave their seats for the concourse area with many of them continuing to their cars. 

 

When play resumed two hours, 19 minutes later, things had cooled off significantly inside the stadium, but not the Lion offense, which got two first-down scrambles from Allar before Singleton broke free for a 40-yard touchdown scamper.

 

Singleton was untouched on the play, putting the Lions ahead 27-6.

 

West Virginia scored its first touchdown of 2024 with 12:49 left when Donaldson got the ball over the goal line following two unsuccessful plays from the 1.

 

Greene passes of 25 yards to Traylon Ray and Preston Fox, and a fourth-and-10 hookup to Hudson Clement for 14 yards, were the big plays during the drive.

 

Greene was sacked trying to escape the pocket on the two-point conversion try, making the score 27-12, Nittany Lions.

 

But the touchdown only served to awaken Penn State’s offense, stymied on its final two possessions of the third quarter. Singleton took a first-down carry 40 yards to the WVU 30, and then five plays later, Pribula flipped a pass down the middle to wide-open tight end Tyler Warren for a 19-yard touchdown.

 

Penn State’s scoring drive consumed 76 yards in just six plays, accounting for 3:46 of the clock.

 

Following a Greene fumble, Penn State moved the ball to the West Virginia 29 before the drive stalled and Sahaydak’s 47-yard field goal attempt was no good.

 

Singleton led all rushers for 114 yards on just 13 attempts as the Lions accounted for 222 yards on the ground.

 

Overall, Penn State gained 457 yards to West Virginia’s 246. Two poor snaps resulted in minus-19 yards yards, lowering WVU’s team rushing total to 85 yards.

 

Greene ended the afternoon completing 15 of his 28 pass attempts for 161 yards before giving way to backup Nicco Marchiol late in the fourth quarter. Marchiol’s lone pass attempt of the day was intercepted by Penn State’s Elliot Washington II.

“Not good enough,” Brown said of Greene’s play today, “but he will bounce back next week.”

 

Donaldson was West Virginia’s leading rusher with 42 yards on 12 attempts.

Freshman linebacker Josiah Trotter led the Mountaineer defense with 10 tackles in his college debut. Brown commended his play afterward.

Preseason All-Big 12 left tackle Wyatt Milum was suffering from cramps and did not return to the field at halftime. 

 

Today’s game concluded a two-game series with the Nittany Lions, which was once played on an annual basis until after the 1992 season when Penn State joined the Big Ten Conference.

 

The Lions now own a 50-9-2 series record in 61 meetings against West Virginia.

 

West Virginia (0-1) returns to Milan Puskar Stadium next Saturday to play Albany, while Penn State opens its season at home against Bowling Green next weekend.