West Virginia runs away from Maryland

Steve Slaton was outstanding, as usual. No one, however, expected West Virginia's running game to be so Devine.

Slaton ran for 137 yards and three touchdowns, Noel Devine amassed 125 yards on his first three carries, and No. 4 West Virginia cruised past Maryland 31-14 last night in College Park, Md.

Slaton scored on runs of 22, 1, and 1 yards. He has 41 touchdowns at West Virginia, one short of the school record shared by Ira Errett Rodgers and Avon Cobourne.

The 5-foot-8-inch Devine served as a Slaton's setup man. Early in the third quarter, Devine ran 31 yards to the Maryland 1, putting Slaton in position for his second TD run.

Late in the period, Devine rambled 76 yards to the Maryland 1. Slaton scored on the next play to put the Mountaineers up, 28-7.

In the fourth quarter, Devine ran for 18 yards to place West Virginia (3-0) in position for a field goal. The freshman finished with 136 yards rushing on five attempts.

Keon Lattimore ran for 80 yards and a touchdown for Maryland (2-1). The Terrapins yielded a total of 350 yards in their first two games; West Virginia finished with 448.

West Virginia took the second-half kickoff and moved 63 yards in nine plays to go up, 21-7. Three punts later, Devine's 76-yard run - tied for the longest nonscoring carry in WVU history - helped put the Mountaineers up by 21.

It was 31-7 before Maryland's Jordan Steffy threw his first career touchdown pass, a 22-yarder to Danny Oquendo with 5:50 left.

Air Force 20, TCU 17 - Ryan Harrison's 33-yard field goal on second down gave the host Falcons an overtime victory over the Horned Frogs.

The Falcons (3-0, 2-0 Mountain West), who overcame a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit, were swarmed on the field by thousands of cadets who hadn't had this much to celebrate in a long, long time.

Harrison's winner followed a miss by TCU kicker Chris Manfredini, whose 36-yard attempt hit the left upright on the first possession of overtime.

The senior has missed just six times in his career and two of them were on this night.

The Falcons had tied it on Jim Ollis's 71-yard TD run on an option pitch from Shaun Carney with 5:55 left.

The Frogs (1-2, 0-1), still smarting from their 34-13 loss at Texas Saturday, were lethargic and sloppy, failing to capitalize on short fields and prime opportunities.

In the final minute of regulation, Falcons cornerback Carson Bird snared Andy Dalton's underthrown pass to Jimmy Young in the end zone.