Mountaineers Down Dukes

Fumbles play pivotal role in loss

Amy Paterson / Photo editor Redshirt sophomore wide reciever D.D. Boxley gets personall with the turf at Milan Puskar Stadium. Boxley left the game with an ankle injury, the only major injury sustained by the dukes against WVU.

In the end, the game came down to turnovers. JMU committed them and West Virginia University capitalized on them.

Redshirt freshman running back Antoinne Bolton coughed the ball up on one drive. Redshirt senior center Leon Steinfeld’s shotgun snap sailed over redshirt sophomore quarterback Justin Rascati’s head on another. The two fumbles both were recovered by WVU and resulted in 14 unanswered points as the Mountaineers downed the Dukes 45-10.

"We wanted to take the game into the fourth quarter with a chance to win," coach Mickey Matthews said. "Those two turnovers took us out of that."

Unlike the Dukes, WVU was unblemished in the turnover category until the game’s outcome already was determined.

"We knew we could not beat them unless they helped us," Matthews said. "To their credit, they didn’t."

Despite the turnovers, the Dukes were competitive. They held WVU’s offense in check for most of the game and limited running back Kay-Jay Harris to 63 yards rushing.

"Our strategy is to shut the run down," redshirt freshman safety Tony LeZotte said. "I think we did pretty well today."

Matthews agreed, but still pointed to the turnovers as the real reason for the final score.

"We didn’t need to help West Virginia and we did," he said. "We turned a 17-3 game into 45-10."

However, Matthews was optimistic about how is team looked heading back into conference play.

"I feel very positive about our team," he said. "I thought we played OK today. I just want us to play smart. I thought this was a good experience."

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