Texas Tech clipped West Virginia 23-20 in Morgantown, W.Va, on Saturday, piecing together two fourth-quarter field goal drives to survive a furious West Virginia second-half rally.
Jonathan Garibay connected on a 32-yard kick with 18 seconds left in the game to give the Red Raiders a gritty Big 12 Conference road victory. Garibay pumped a 29-yarder through the uprights early in the fourth quarter to end a stretch of 17 unanswered points by the Mountaineers, who trailed 17-0 at halftime.
West Virginia (2-3, 0-2 Big 12) knotted the score at 20-20 on Casey Legg’s 28-yard kick with 4:34 to go in the game, the result of a 13-play drive that consumed 7:12 of the clock.
Texas Tech (4-1, 1-1) started the ensuing drive at its own 16-yard-line, but a timely long bomb from Henry Colombi to Kaylon Geiger gained 42 yards and running back SaRodorick Thompson gashed the Mountaineer defense for 13- and 16-yard runs to get his team in range.
The third quarter belonged to WVU, which produced a pair of touchdowns and a field goal after struggling to move the ball in the first half. Mountaineers quarterback Jarett Doege found his groove after a rough first half to engineer the three scoring drives. Meanwhile, the Texas Tech offense was stuck in neutral with back-to-back three-and-outs.
That was an about-face from the first half when the Red Raiders played as well as they have all season on both sides of the ball. Thompson capped two drives in the first period with 1-yard touchdown runs and Texas Tech clicked on offense in the initial 30 minutes with 207 yards and 15 first downs.
The defense was also key for the Red Raiders: Colin Schooler’s strip-sack of Doege and Devin Drew’s recovery set up a short field for the second Thompson TD plunge.
Texas Tech finished off the first half with a nearly flawless 2-minute drive that culminated with the first of Garibay’s three field goals — a 33-yard boot when the field-goal unit had to sprint onto the field to beat the clock.
The Red Raiders outgained the Mountaineers 207 yards to 109 in the first half and were not called for a penalty. Columbi finished with 266 passing yards in his first start this season. He stepped in for injured starter Tyler Shough, one of six Texas Tech starters who did not make the trip.
Doege finished with 318 yards on 25-of-33 passing.
–Field Level Media
