WATCH: West Virginia running back Tony Mathis rips off 34-yard touchdown run to give Mountaineers the lead vs Baylor

It was yet another wild and wacky high scoring affair in Morgantown, West Virginia on Thursday night. West Virginia running back Tony Mathis, Jr. had some big shoes to fill tonight as he was taking the place of Mountaineers’ superstar tailback C.J. Donaldson. Rest assured, Mathis stepped up when his team needed him the most in the fourth quarter, ripping off a 34-yard touchdown run to put the Mountaineers up 40-37 on Baylor.

Check it out here.

TONY MATHIS FOR THE TD 🙌@WVUfootball once again takes the lead back pic.twitter.com/UIr82GgcFF

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 14, 2022

It was a huge play by Mathis and the touchdown run put the Mountaineers up 40-37 late in the fourth quarter. That wouldn’t be the last of the scoring, as Baylor would counter with a field goal to tie it up at 40-40, late in the fourth quarter. West Virginia would prevail victorious 43-40 thanks to a 22-yard field goal by kicker Casey Legg with 33 seconds remaining.

CLICK HERE to subscribe for FREE to the On3 YouTube channel

The Mountaineers had a two-point conversion on an extra point attempt when they blocked a Baylor extra point attempt and returned it for two points. This game had a little bit of everything. Plenty of points, plenty of turnovers, plenty of injuries.

Speaking of injuries, Baylor quarterback Blake Shapen had a spectacular game before leaving the with an injury. He took a big hit from Andrew Wilson-Lamp. Before leaving the game, Shapen was carving the West Virginia secondary up, completing 14 of 22 passes for 326 yards, while tossing in two touchdowns and no interceptions. Backup quarterback Kyron Drones threw some really beautiful passes at times, but also threw a bad interception. It’s clear he’s got plenty of talent to be excited about in the future.

West Virginia had multiple players step up in the big victory

Mathis had a spectacular performance on Thursday night–shredding the Baylor defense for over 160 rushing yards and a touchdown. Speaking of the Mountaineers rushing attack–they piled up over 210 rushing yards and three touchdowns between Mathis and Justin Johnson, Jr.

West Virginia defensive lineman Dante Stills had the block on the extra point, and also tied the program record for tackles for loss. Simply put, he was an unblockable force for the Mountaineers and made several clutch plays for them on the evening. His blocked extra point not only took one point off the board for Baylor, but gave the Mountaineers two points, which was a three-point swing. That ended up being the difference in the game.

West Virginia quarterback J.T. Daniels threw one of the pretties passes of the night, when he delivered a 30-yard strike across the middle to receiver Reese Smith. Daniels completed 24 of 37 pass attempts for 283 yards, while tossing one touchdown and one interception. WVU receiver Kaden Prather led the team in receiving on the night, hauling in 109 receiving yards and a touchdown on eight catches.