WVU football smacks around East Carolina

It was a gold rush for the WVU football team against East Carolina. The Mountaineers deserve a gold medal for their solid performance.

West Virginia had an awesome first half and did just enough in the second half to walk away with a sound 56-20 victory against East Carolina at Milan Puskar Stadium.

The Mountaineers got off to a fast start with Justin Crawford starting the scoring with a five-yard run early in the first quarter. The Mountaineers tallied eight touchdowns on the day and reached the end zone seven times before the Pirates had their first touchdown.

WVU quarterback Will Grier accounted for five touchdowns, himself. He had a solid outing in his Milan Puskar Stadium debut with 352 passing yards on 19 of 25 attempts. He did not throw an interception.

Crawford also continued on a solid pace with 118 total rushing yards. He added another score on a 41-yard run in the second quarter. Kennedy McKoy also had a solid day running the ball with 54 rushing yards, a touchdown and a long run of 20 yards.

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David Sills was Grier’s favorite target, like he was in the Virginia Tech game. Sills caught seven passes for  153 yards, including a 73-yard reception. He had three touchdown catches.

The WVU defense came to play as well, limiting East Carolina to 142 yards on the ground. However, the Pirates had 328 yards through the air. Both quarterbacks played for the Pirates, Thomas Sirk and Gardner Minshew.

Al-Rasheed Benton was West Virginia’s top tackler as he had eight stops and one tackle for a loss. Kyzir White had two interceptions. Overall, the defense needs to play better when it comes to conference play in a few weeks.

There is work to be done and improvements to be made, but it was a solid day for the Mountaineers. The WVU football team provided an exciting day for the more than 56,000 fans who made the trek to Morgantown for the home opener.

Next: 50 greatest WVU football players

There is plenty of exciting WVU football left to go around this season. The Mountaineers will rack up some more home victories and they get that opportunity again next week against Delaware State.