SportsDirect Inc. staff
Dec 29, 2014
Texas A&M 45, West Virginia 37: Kyle Allen threw for four touchdowns and ran for another as the Aggies dominated the second half to knock off the Mountaineers in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl at Memphis, Tenn.
Tra Carson ran for 133 yards and Trey Williams added 86 yards and a score on the ground a caught a touchdown pass for Texas A&M (8-5), which has won four straight bowl games for the first time in program history. Allen completed 22-of-35 passes for 294 yards and Malcome Kennedy hauled in a pair of touchdown catches for Texas A&M.
Skyler Howard went 20-of-45 for 346 yards and three scores in place of the retired Clint Trickett (concussions) as the Mountaineers (7-6) closed the season with four losses in five games. Kevin White had seven catches for 129 yards and a touchdown while Mario Alford added a receiving score for West Virginia.
Allen opened the scoring with a 44-yard TD pass to Josh Reynolds but the Mountaineers scored the next 17 points, grabbing a 10-point lead when KJ Dillon ran an interception back 35 yards for a score with 4:54 left in the first quarter. Allen bounced back with a 40-yard TD pass to Williams and hit Kennedy with an 11-yard score early in the second before diving for the pylon on a 14-yard scramble with 53 seconds left in the half to send Texas A&M into the break with a 28-27 lead.
Williams broke for an 18-yard score to push the lead to 38-27 just in front of the midway point of the third quarter and Allenกฏs 9-yard TD to Kennedy made it a 45-30 gap with 22 seconds left in the third. Howard guided a 91-yard drive in less than two minutes and hit Elijah Wellman for a 4-yard TD to cut it to a one-score game with 2:32 left, but Allen was able to get a first down and ran out the clock.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Texas A&M senior DB Howard Matthews was ejected from his final college game early in the first quarter after delivering a helmet-to-helmet hit to West Virginia WR Jordan Thompson. กญ Reynoldsกฏ first-quarter TD catch was his 13th of the season, breaking the Aggiesกฏ previous single-season record of 12 shared by Mike Evans and Jeff Fuller. กญ Texas A&Mกฏs go-ahead TD drive in the second quarter was kept alive by a disputed roughing the kicker penalty after West Virginia had forced a punt deep in Aggies territory.