MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The Syracuse football team walked into the locker room elated.

Trailing three points at halftime to No. 4 West Virginia, Orange players talked giddily about how keeping the game this close was where they wanted to be.

SU head coach Greg Robinson thought the momentum would carry over so well that the Mountaineers, 25-point favorites, would have to battle it out with the Orange in the fourth quarter.

Syracuse quarterback Perry Patterson didn’t like the attitude and he feared it would backfire.

He was right.

Thanks to the running of quarterback Pat White and running back Steve Slaton, West Virginia quickly converted a three-point halftime lead to a 41-17 final score in front of 60,051 fans at Mountaineer Field.

White rushed for 247 yards on 15 carries and ran for four rushing touchdowns (69, 40, 32 and 12 yards), which set a school rushing record and Big East record for a quarterback. Slaton complemented White with 20 carries for 163 yards, including a 52-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

‘We were a little too fired up in the locker room,’ Patterson said. ‘We needed to come out and not think too much of what was going on. We were competing with the top 5 team and we were in the game. But I think we needed to level ourselves, get back to the basics and focus on the things we needed to do.’

But that didn’t happen. West Virginia used the quarterback counter and Syracuse couldn’t stop it.

White scored three touchdowns untouched using that play in the third quarter. All three drives lasted seven plays or fewer.

Robinson defended his team’s defense, deferring to White and Slaton’s athletic talents. But A.J. Brown, who played inside linebacker while Luke Cain played outside in place of injured Jerry Mackey, and defensive tackle Tony Jenkins admitted that a lot of West Virginia’s running attack came about due to SU’s wrongdoing.

‘People were where they were supposed to be,’ Jenkins said. ‘But if one person messes up and is not where they need to be, what happened today happens.

‘There’s not one little thing. People just weren’t ready to be there at the right time. Then when they were, people were missing tackles.’

Tackling continued to be an issue. Even though players said last week that they can’t become tempted to cover for each other’s failed coverage against a spread-offense, they did so anyway.

‘(When) you try to stop one thing, you better make sure you got the other thing figured out,’ Robinson said. ‘The moment you have that figured out, then there’s another wrinkle.’

Syracuse couldn’t respond with only 38 yards of offense and a field goal in the second half after 189 and two touchdowns in the first half.

SU started the game strongly with an 11-play, 80-yard drive that ended when Patterson averted rushing defenders, scrambled left, pump faked, scrambled more and then launched a 47-yard touchdown pass to freshman wide receiver Mike Williams, who led the team with three receptions for 99 yards.

SU players on the sideline almost rushed the field as if it they just witnessed the winning play. It was the first time all year an opponent took a lead against West Virginia. But for every Syracuse touchdown, West Virginia showed it could easily duplicate one in a fraction of that time.

On the ensuing drive, White kept the ball on an option for a 69-yard touchdown on the Mountaineers’ fourth play, breaking a tackle and then marching effortlessly down the left side of the field.

After taking a 10-7 lead off a Pat McAfee 25-yard field goal with 10:42 left in the second quarter, WVU forced SU to a three-and-out. On the next drive, Slaton rushed through a wide hole in the Orange’s defensive line and sprinted down the right sideline for a 52-yard touchdown and a 17-7 lead.

The way Syracuse responded to Slaton’s touchdown, a potentially game-changing moment, shows the Orange’s progression. Patterson turned around and spun twice before falling into the end zone for a three-yard score.

‘I was thinking it would be one of those days where we’d keep it up,’ Patterson said. ‘It was good we started out like that because we’re a good offense. We had to expose some of the things they do defensively. But we’re a young and immature team. We couldn’t sustain it through the game.’

Published on October 15, 2006 at 12:00 pm