OTHER CONFERENCES BIG 12

Oklahoma freshman bullies his way to 242 yards, 4 TDs

Oklahoma running back Samaje Perine (32) crosses the goal line for a touchdown in the second quarter of an NCAA college football game against West Virginia in Morgantown, W.Va., Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014.
Oklahoma running back Samaje Perine (32) crosses the goal line for a touchdown in the second quarter of an NCAA college football game against West Virginia in Morgantown, W.Va., Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Bruising freshman Samaje Perine rushed for 242 yards and four touchdowns to lead No. 4 Oklahoma to a 45-33 victory over West Virginia in their Big 12 opener Saturday night.

Alex Ross scored on a 100-yard kickoff return and quarterback Trevor Knight caught a 4-yard scoring pass on a trick play for the Sooners (4-0, 1-0).

Oklahoma pulled away from a 24-24 halftime tie to win its eighth consecutive game dating to last season and its 11th road game in 12 tries.

Clint Trickett threw for 376 yards and two touchdowns for West Virginia, (2-2, 0-1), but he was intercepted twice and lost a fumble.

Perine got the bulk of the carries in place of leading rusher Keith Ford, who is out for at least a week with a hairline fracture in his right fibula.

Perine became the first Sooner to surpass 200 rushing yards since DeMarco Murray in 2010. Blake Bell was the last Oklahoma player to have four rushing touchdowns in a game against Texas in 2012.

Perine was Oklahoma's No. 3 back entering the season. He's already built a reputation as a weight room beast, and his power showed against the Mountaineers. He ran over two defenders and scored from 9 yards out early in the third quarter, then went up the middle for a 5-yard touchdown late in the quarter.

His 19-yard scoring run with 4:21 left in the game put Oklahoma ahead 45-27.

Knight overcame a shaky start and finished 16 of 29 for 205 yards. Sterling Shepard caught six passes for 101 yards.

Knight was wide open when wide receiver Durron Neal found him in the end zone after taking the ball on a double reverse in the second quarter.

Trickett completed 25 of 41 passes a week after throwing for a career-high 511 yards a week ago against Maryland. Kevin White had 10 catches for 173 yards and 1 score, while Mario Alford caught 7 passes for 173 yards and 1 score.

West Virginia outgained Oklahoma 513-500 but couldn't match Perine's power running. Rushel Shell had a team-high 60 yards and a touchdown.

Knight had early accuracy trouble and Oklahoma punted on four of its first five possessions before finding a rhythm with a pair of 75-yard touchdown drives.

Alford, who dropped a pass in the left corner of the end zone in the second quarter, caught a 30-yard pass near the same spot on West Virginia's next drive that initially was ruled out of bounds. The play was overturned after a review and ruled a touchdown.

Perine and Shell traded short scoring runs before Ross went the length of the field on a kickoff return. It marked the third time in four games that the Mountaineers allowed a score just before halftime.

In another game involving a Big 12 team, Montell Cozart threw a 60-yards touchdown pass to Justin McCay to break a fourth-quarter tie as Kansas (2-1) overcame Central Michigan (2-2) in a 24-10 victory in Lawrence, Kan.

AMERICAN ATHLETIC

Pirates romp Tar Heels

GREENVILLE, N.C. — Shane Carden and East Carolina’s offense found a way to top last year’s blowout victory against an in-state rival from one of the power conferences.

Carden threw for 438 yards and 4 touchdowns to help the Pirates beat North Carolina 70-41 on Saturday, turning in a second consecutive dominating performance against the Tar Heels and setting plenty of records along the way.

In other games involving American Athletic Conference teams, Khalif Herbin returned a punt 84 yards for his first career touchdown and Temple (2-1) went on to complete its largest victory in school history with a 59-0 shutout over Delaware State (0-4) in Philadelphia. … Justin Holman threw a pair of touchdowns passes and Central Florida (1-2) survived a slow start to run past Bethune-Cookman (2-1) 41-7 in Orlando, Fla. ... Tank Jakes had a sack for a safety, forced a fumble that resulted in a touchdown and made an interception in helping lead host Memphis (2-1) to a 36-17 victory over Middle Tennessee (2-2). … Dasman McCullum blocked an extra-point attempt with 6 seconds remaining and Southern Miss. (2-2) beat Appalachian State (1-2) 21-20 in Hattiesburg, Miss. … Chris Moore kicked two field goals in the final 1:05 of the game, including a 47-yarder as time expired, to lift Northwestern State (2-2) over Louisiana Tech (2-2) 30-27 in Ruston, La.

CONFERENCE USA

Louisville rolls over FIU

MIAMI — James Quick caught two touchdown passes from Will Gardner 45 seconds apart late in the first half, Gerod Holliman ran one of his two interceptions back for another score and Louisville topped Florida International 34-3 on Saturday.

Quick finished with 174 yards — 111 of them on the TD grabs — on seven catches for the Cardinals (3-1), who got a touchdown run from L.J. Scott.

Gardner threw for 295 yards, but he and Scott both left the game with injuries. Louisville led 28-0 late in the half, giving the Cardinals what was 100 unanswered points in the series after topping FIU 72-0 last season.

Austin Taylor kicked a 28-yard field goal for FIU (1-3).

In other games involving Conference USA teams, Ricky Segers kicked the game-winning field goal with no time left to give Old Dominion (3-1, 1-0) its first league victory, 45-42 over Rice (0-3, 0-1) in Houston. … Remi Watson rushed for 124 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown run, Devon Johnson added 103 yards rushing and a touchdown to help Marshall (4-0) beat host Akron (1-2) 48-17. … Dajon Williams threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more as North Texas (2-2) overwhelmed Nicholls State 77-3 in Denton, Texas. … An 88-yard pass from Colby Kirkegaard to Dominic Rufran set up Stuart Williams’ 18-yard field goal with 15 seconds left to lift Wyoming (3-1) to a 20-19 victory over Florida Atlantic (1-3) in Laramie, Wyo.

PACIFIC-12

Colorado tops Hawaii

BOULDER, Colo. — Junior Nelson Spruce caught a school-record 13 passes for a career-best 172 yards, including a 71-yard touchdown, in Colorado’s 21-12 victory over scrappy Hawaii on Saturday.

It marked the first time in 51 games that Colorado didn’t allow a touchdown, since a 24-3 victory over Colorado State in the 2010 opener.

Spruce’s 13 receptions broke the mark of 11 accomplished nine times, including four times by Paul Richardson.

In other games involving Pacific-12 teams, the Washington Huskies needed a second-half surge to overcome a 14-point halftime deficit to earn a 45-14 victory over Georgia State in Seattle. Washington (4-0) was outgained by Georgia State (1-3) by a 231-73 margin and held possession for more than 21 minutes in the first half as the Panthers built a 14-0 lead. Cyler Miles completed 19 of 27 passes for 154 yards and 3 touchdowns to lead the Washington rally.

Sports on 09/21/2014

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