MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — No. 8-ranked Penn State used a 27-point streak in the second and third quarters to beat West Virginia 34-12 before a sold-out crowd of 62,084 Saturday afternoon at Milan Puskar Stadium.

The Nittany Lions, making their first appearance here since 1992, looked just like the old Penn State teams that came to Morgantown every year to take on the Mountaineers.

“The bottom line is we played poorly, but Penn State deserves all the credit,” the West Virginia coach said Neal Brown“Today just wasn’t good enough to beat a team like Penn State.”


Quarterback Drew Allar again demonstrated his passing instincts against the Mountaineers, completing 11 of his 17 attempts for 216 yards and three touchdowns, while also adding 44 crucial yards on six scrambles.


Allar, just like last year in the win in State College, took advantage of West Virginia’s secondary to throw three touchdown passes in the first half, two of them to Harrison Wallace III.


Wallace was the first player to cross the goal line this afternoon when he took an Allar pass in stride and ran 50 yards to the end zone seven seconds into the second quarter. Backup quarterback Beau Pribula’s two-point conversion pass was unsuccessful.


Five minutes later, Allar saw running back Kaytron Allen come out of the backfield for a 20-yard touchdown, increasing Penn State’s lead to 13-0.


After being stopped earlier in the game on Penn State’s 16-on-downs, West Virginia’s second foray into the red zone ended with points as Michael Hayes II scored a 38-yard field goal, capping a 10-play, 55-yard drive.


WVU’s defense forced Penn State to a point and the Mountaineers regained the ball on their own 36-yard line with 5:13 left in the first half and all three timeouts remaining.


Conversion runs on third and 1 and fourth and 1 CJ Donaldson Jr. put the ball on the Penn State 29 with the clock ticking down to 1:30 until halftime. Donaldson carried the ball to the 21 two more times with 45 seconds left and WVU was content to try to burn as much time as possible.


Greene missed his short third-down pass to Preston Foxgiving Hayes 37 seconds left on the clock to attempt a field goal from the 21-yard line. His attempt from 39 yards was good, cutting Penn State’s lead to 13-6.


West Virginia hoped the score would remain that way at halftime.


The Lions jumped on Hayes’ squib kick at their 27 with 32 seconds left and only one timeout. Nicholas Singleton’s first-down run was stopped at the line of scrimmage, but instead of sitting on the ball and taking a touchdown lead into halftime, Allar took advantage of more man coverage on outside receiver Omari Evans and threw a high arcing pass down the far side of the field.


Evans outshines WVU safety Aubrey Burks for the football at the PSU 18 for a 55-yard gainer. The Lions quickly took their final timeout with 10 seconds left and when play resumed, they took another shot in the endzone to Wallace with Garnett Hollis Jr. in the reporting. Brown felt afterward that the play should have been reviewed by the replay officials after they reviewed it at halftime and was unsure why that was not done.

“Someone above me is going to have to explain that to me,” Brown said.


Allar put it on the money and Wallace got the football in the corner of the end zone, got a foot in bounds with possession for an 18-yard touchdown. Sander Sahaydak’s conversion kick extended Penn State’s lead to 20-6.


Shortly after Wallace’s touchdown, heavy thunderstorms passed through the area during halftime. Fans were forced to leave their seats and walk to the stadium. Many continued to walk to their cars.


When the game resumed two hours and 19 minutes later, the atmosphere in the stadium had cooled considerably, but not so the Lions offense. Allar had two chances to scramble on first downs before Singleton broke loose and drove in a 40-yard touchdown.


Singleton played undisturbed the entire game and put the Lions ahead 27-6.


West Virginia scored its first touchdown of 2024 with 12:49 left when Donaldson got the ball across the goal line on two failed plays from the 1.


Greene passes 25 yards to Traylon beam And Preston Foxand a fourth-and-10 connection to Hudson Clement for 14 yards, were the key plays during the drive.


Greene was sacked trying to escape the pocket on a two-point conversion, making the score 27-12 for the Nittany Lions.


But the touchdown only served to shake up Penn State’s offense, which was stymied on the final two possessions of the third quarter. Singleton took a first-down carry 40 yards to the WVU 30, and five plays later, Pribula threw a pass up the middle to wide-open tight end Tyler Warren for a 19-yard touchdown.


Penn State’s scoring drive went 76 yards in just six plays, taking 3:46 off the clock.


After a fumble by Greene, Penn State moved the ball to West Virginia’s 29-yard line, but the drive stalled and Sahaydak’s 47-yard field goal attempt was unsuccessful.


Singleton was the leading rusher with 114 yards on just 13 attempts, while the Lions accounted for 222 yards on the ground.


In total, Penn State had 457 yards, compared to West Virginia’s 246. Two bad snaps resulted in -19 yards, dropping WVU’s total rushing yards to 85 yards.


Greene finished the afternoon completing 15 of his 28 pass attempts for 161 yards before being subbed off as a backup Nicco Marchiol late in the fourth quarter. Marchiol’s only pass attempt of the day was intercepted by Penn State’s Elliot Washington II.

“Not good enough,” Brown said of Greene’s play today, “but he’ll be back next week.”


Donaldson was West Virginia’s leading rusher with 42 yards on 12 attempts.

Freshman linebacker Josiah Trotter led the Mountaineer defense with 10 tackles in his college debut. Brown praised his play afterward.

Preseason All-Big 12 left tackle Wyatt Milum suffered from cramps and did not appear on the field during half-time.


Today’s game concludes a two-game series against the Nittany Lions that was once played annually until after the 1992 season, when Penn State joined the Big Ten Conference.


The Lions now have a series record of 50-9-2 in 61 meetings against West Virginia.


West Virginia (0-1) plays again next Saturday at Milan Puskar Stadium against Albany, while Penn State opens the season at home next weekend against Bowling Green.