Rutgers falls shy of upset

Chris Henry caught a 39-yard scoring pass and set up another touchdown with a long catch before being kicked out of the game, leading 15th-ranked West Virginia to a 35-30 win over Rutgers yesterday in Piscataway, N.J.

Rasheed Marshall threw for two TDs and ran for another as the Mountaineers (7-1, 3-0 Big East) beat Rutgers (4-4, 1-3) for the 10th straight time. Henry drew a pair of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, and was ejected after his second infraction, which came after his TD catch.

Ryan Hart threw three TD passes for Rutgers, which made the game interesting by scoring twice after Henry was ejected.

Hart, who threw for 324 yards, found Clark Harris on a 3-yard TD pass and Brian Leonard scored from 2 yards with 1:22 remaining to get the Scarlet Knights within 5. A 2-point conversion pass was nullified by a holding penalty.

Syracuse 42, UConn 30 -- Perry Patterson threw for two touchdowns, Walter Reyes ran for two more, and the Syracuse defense forced five turnovers to beat the visiting Huskies.

Archrivals in basketball, it was the first meeting between the schools in football and it was especially critical for Syracuse (4-4, 2-1 Big East) and its postseason hopes.

Connecticut (5-3, 2-3) lost despite gaining 566 yards and 35 first downs. UConn quarterback Dan Orlovsky threw for 445 yards and three TDs and completed a school-record 39 passes.

He also broke the Connecticut career passing yards record of 9,288 set by Matt DeGennaro from 1987-90. Orlovsky has 9,715. The Huskies were done in by the turnovers and a little Syracuse luck.

Patterson hit a 36-yard Hail Mary pass to Andre Fontenette for a TD as time had expired in the first half to give the Orange a 21-20 lead.