By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
October 16, 1999

MORGANTOWN, W.VA. -- Avon Cobourne rushed for 141 yards and two touchdowns to lead West Virginia to a 62-16 win over Rutgers on homecoming weekend in Morgantown.

Cobourne, a New Jersey native, burned home-state Rutgers for touchdown runs of four and two yards to lead West Virginia's highest offensive output since WVU scored 69 against Cincinnati on Oct. 21, 1989.

Cobourne's first TD run actually evened the score at seven.

On the game's opening play, West Virginia was burned for an 80-yard touchdown pass when Mountaineer defenders Ricky Sherrod and Scooter Davis mistimed Mike Jones' pass down the sideline, and Walter King took the pass the distance for the score.

Immediately after the touchdown, West Virginia's Shawn Terry took the ensuing kickoff and raced 82 yards to the Knight six. Two plays later Cobourne scored.

"Probably the biggest play of the game was (Shawn Terry's) kickoff return," said WVU coach Don Nehlen. "We had just given them seven points and I thought 'oh brother here we go again.'

"When we spotted them seven and got seven back that was a big, big plus for us," he added.

The Mountaineers expanded the lead to 14-7 just a minute later. After forcing a fourth down, sophomore Antonio Brown took a Charlie Titus punt and zigzagged his way for an 80-yard score. It was the longest punt return for a touchdown in Mountaineer Field history.

"I set them up like I was going to the outside and came back up the middle," said Brown, who produced 151 all-purpose yards Saturday. "All I saw was the kicker, so I was just trying my best not to fall or do anything stupid."

After trading field goals, WVU distanced themselves from the Knights on Coburne's two-yard run with 11:25 left in the second quarter. That made the score 24-10.

West Virginia added two more touchdowns and a field goal to put the game away, 41-13 at halftime.

The Mountaineers opened the third quarter with a 13-play drive that culminated with a Brad Lewis-to-Khori Ivy five-yard touchdown pass.

Lewis, who completed nine-of-14 passes for 138 yards, added West Virginia's seventh touchdown on a five-yard run.

"I think he's grown every game he's played," said Nehlen of Lewis. "Right now we've got two quarterbacks."

The Mountaineers' last score came with 1:56 left in the game, when true freshman Quincy Wilson raced 18 yards for his first collegiate touchdown.

"We tried not to run up the score," said Nehlen. "I put Jerry Porter in at quarterback and had to tell him what to do on almost every play. I thought he really did pretty well."

Porter quarterbacked West Virginia the entire fourth quarter, and completed one-of-two passes for eight yards. He also rushed two times for 28 yards.

The Mountaineers produced 303 rushing yards to top 300 rushing yards for the first time this season. Besides Cobourne's 141 yards, Wilson added 66 and Cooper Rego produced 38. For Cobourne, it was his second 100-yard game of the season.

"We needed a win like this badly," Nehlen admitted.

The victory improves West Virginia's record to 2-4, while Rutgers falls to 0-6. The Knights have not defeated West Virginia in 12 tries at Mountaineer Field.

WVU is back in action next Saturday at Mountaineer Field against Temple. Kickoff is set for 1:05 p.m.

Scoring Summary

RU - King 80 pas from Jones (Barone kick)
WV - Cobourne 4 run (Taylor kick)
WV - Brown 80 punt return (Taylor kick)
WV - Taylor 36 FG
RU - Barone 28 FG
WV - Cobourne 2 run (Taylor kick)
WV - Rego 5 run (Taylor kick)
WV - Becht 2 pass from Lewis (Taylor kick)
RU - Barone 33 FG
WV - Taylor 31 FG
WV - Ivy 5 pass from Lewis (Taylor kick)
RU - Barone 40 FG
WV - Wilson 18 run (Taylor kick)

Individual Statistics

Rushing: RU - Crooks 22-102, Barnes 8-19, Stanton 1-3, Sinclair 3-1, Thomas 2-1, Total 36-126; WV - Cobourne 25-141, Wilson 9-65, Rego 7-38, Porter 2-28, A. Green 5-22, Lewis 1-5, Plants 1-2, Knapp 1-2, Total 51-303.

Passing: RU - Jones 13-28-1-191-1, Schwenk 5-7-0-75-0, Total 18-35-1-266-1; WV - Lewis 9-14-0-138-2, Porter 1-2-0-8-0, Total 10-16-0-146-2.

Receiving: RU - King 4-115, Carty 3-44, Johnson 3-26, Crooks 3-23, Thomas 2-27, Martin 1-9, Ring 1-10, Hobbs 1-12; WV - Becht 3-39, Brown 3-51, Ivy 2-45, Wilson 1-8, Cobourne 1-3.

Attendance: 44,223