Late score lifts WVU past Arizona State in Cactus Bowl

MORGANTOWN — You have a quarterback who has broken Drew Bledsoe’s Cactus Bowl passing yardage record at 480 yards on his way to more than a 500-yard passing game. It’s the fourth quarter, 5 minutes to play, you are down six points and it’s third-and-22.

What do you do? Throw the ball, right?

Not if you are that riverboat gambler who is West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen.

For the third time in the game on third-and-a-mile, Holgorsen took the ball out of record-shattering quarterback Skyler Howard’s hands and got away with a running play that saved the game.

This time he handed the ball to Wendell Smallwood, who broke free for 24 yards and a first down that set up a 15-yard scoring pass to David Sills that gave the Mountaineers a 43-42 victory over Arizona State in the Cactus Bowl.

The victory gave the Mountaineers an 8-5 record and their first bowl championship since beating Clemson in the 2011 Orange Bowl.

With the game being played in Chase Field, the baseball home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, it was only natural that there were a lot of home runs and the quarterbacks produced them. Howard threw for 532 yards and five touchdowns while his opposite number, Mike Bercovici, threw for 418 yards and four TDs.

It was redemption for Howard, who had been booed and criticized often during a roller-coaster regular season.

“He played his tail off,” Holgorsen said. “He’s taken some criticism throughout the year and he didn’t flinch.”

And so ended the 2016 bowl season for college football. Or, considering that it ended at 2:35 a.m. Eastern time was that late enough to consider it the first bowl game of next season?

Somehow, the halftime score had WVU up just 22-18 in a game whose statistics cried out for at least 60 points to have been scored in the half.

The two teams combined for 651 yards in that first half — 539 of them through the air and 334 of them out of the arm of Howard, whose season-high for a full game was just 359 against Georgia Southern in the opener.

While Arizona State opted to pick on Ricky Rumph — who was in the game for Daryl Worley, who had to be cringing at home after having failed to qualify for the game academically — WVU was picking on every defensive back the Sun Devils ran on the field.

Throwing often and deep, Howard combined with Ka’Raun White, no longer Kevin’s little brother, for 116 yards, and Shelton Gibson for 106 before halftime. He passed for touchdowns to Gibson from 59 yards out and with Daikiel Shorts from 22 yards out.

Those came after WVU had waltzed up and down the field until they got close to the goal line, setting for field goals from Josh Lambert on three trips into Arizona State territory.

But even scoring a touchdown just before the half didn’t do WVU much good as they had the extra point blocked and picked up by no less a runner than Tim White, a track star at Arizona State, who took it back for a two-point conversion.

“We couldn’t get out of our own way,” Holgorsen said at halftime, noting that they would do something good on offense and the defense or the special teams would come back make a big mistake.

One such mistake came after that two-point runback as the Mountaineers had to kick off and for some reason, with just 27 second left in the half, they kicked short and ASU took over at its own 49.

Quarterback Mike Bercovici, who got off to slow start until he discovered the Rumph factor, completed three straight passes to get into range for a field goal.

And so it was that WVU got 6 points off its touchdown and Arizona State was able to put 5 points right back on the board.

Bercovici finished the half with 205 passing yards, 116 of them to Devin Lucien, playing his final collegiate game. He had seven catches, one for a touchdown.

The two teams traded touchdowns right out of the gate in the second half, Bercovici making a spectacular scrambling completion to White, who had lost Rumph in his wake, for a 3-yard and then Howard completely upstaging him as he connects for a 64-yard score with Gary Jennings.

It was Howard’s first throw toward Jennings all game against the porous Arizona State defense and it took him to 395 passing yards in the game while give WVU back the lead at 29-25.

WVU continued its do something good, something bad pattern as Arizona State retook the lead in the third quarter, Bercovici finding White in the left flat, getting him the ball where he broke through a Dillon tackle and tiptoed down the sideline for the score, surviving a replay that showed he did not step out of bounds.

WVU fans didn’t agree with that call, but they stopped complaining moments later when Howard threw a 37-yard completion to Gibson, whose left foot seemed to be half out of bounds but he, too was given credit for the grab.

A play later Howard hit Shorts for his second touchdown from 17 yards out, giving him 467 passing yards and giving WVU a 36-32 advantage.

After Arizona State missed a field goal, Howard tried to get his team some breathing room but had a pass sail on him that was intercepted by freshman All-American Kareem Orr, who returned it to the WVU 35 as the third quarter came to a close.

Again, the WVU defense stood strong, forcing a field goal as they retained the slightest of leads at 36-35.

West Virginia was trying to cling to that lead into the final six minutes but was victimized by another frighteningly bad call, linebacker Jared Barber being flagged for a late hit on a runner who did not know he was down or stop running.

The 15 yards didn’t turn the game, but put ASU that much closer to midfield. Three plays later Bercovici hit Gary Chambers on the right sideline. He avoided safety Dravon Askew-Henry, who had slipped, and went 58 yards for the go ahead touchdown.

The Mountaineers came back moving the football into Arizona State territory but after Howard lost 12 on a sack and fumble, they were looking at 3rd and 22. Everyone expected a pass but Holgorsen gave the ball to Smallwood, who broke loose for 24 yards and a first down, setting a 15-yard scoring pass to David Sills for the score.