Pitt rallies past WVU

Published 10:51 pm Saturday, November 29, 2008

LeSean McCoy scored his second touchdown with 52 seconds left to finish off a career-high 183-yard rushing performance, and Pittsburgh beat rival West Virginia 19-15 on Friday to make Cincinnati the Big East champions.

McCoy carried on all but one of the 10 plays on the 59-yard, game-winning touchdown drive in the closing minutes, scoring from the 1.

Pitt (8-3, 4-2 in Big East) rallied from a 15-7 deficit, even though Bill Stull threw two interceptions and lost a fumble and a pair of drives inside the West Virginia 10 ended with no points.

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Pat White scored on a 54-yard touchdown run, but West Virginia (7-4, 4-2) lost for the second year in a row in the Backyard Brawl — though this loss didn’t hurt nearly as badly as last year’s 13-9 defeat that cost the Mountaineers a national title game appearance. White threw incomplete on fourth-and-1 from the Pitt 18 on the final play to end it.

McCoy had 33 carries and now has 331 yards in two seasons against West Virginia.

White, the leading rusher among quarterbacks in NCAA history with 4,385 yards, ran for 93 yards and was 15-of-28 for 143 yards but also was intercepted twice — and, except for his long TD run, was effectively controlled again by Pitt. He ran for 220 yards in each of his first two career games against the Panthers, but was held to 41 yards last season.

West Virginia came with a chance to win the Big East, needing to win its final two while hoping No. 16 Cincinnati was upset by Syracuse on Saturday.