It was Iowa State all day. No, actually, it was Breece Hall all day. From beginning to end, it was all Cyclone football to be honest. The highlight of the day was on their side of the ball too as Iowa State’s RB Breece Hall had a long awaited breakout performance. Unfortunately it came 800 miles away from home down in Wild and Wonderful West Virginia at Puskar Stadium.
The Energizer Bunny-like freshman RB who is from Wichita, Kansas showed flashes of his speechless skills in the first five games of the Cyclones season, but Saturday, Breece put those talents on full display for the nation to see in a 38-14 rout of the Mountaineers in West Virginia. Breece juked defenders literally out of their cleats and sprinted through the highly respected WVU defensive line and scored three rushing touchdowns. The first 3 of his collegiate career. Those 3 scores helped give the Iowa State Cyclones (4-2, 2-1) their first road win of the 2019 season and opened quite a bit of the nations eyes.
Breece carried the rock 26 times for 132 yards and visited the end zone twice in the second half. He became the Cyclones’ first true freshman back to rush for over 100 yards since David Montgomery achieved that feat against West Virginia in 2016. As for the Cyclone’s D, they had a shutout for the final 30 minutes against WVU and sent the Mountaineers’ fans shuffling towards their cars early. The stands were pretty much half full the last quarter as WVY couldn’t find the endzone at all.
The Cyclones were in a 14-14 tie at halftime with the Mountaineers,but ended up out gaining West Virginia and amazing 372 yards to 190. The Cyclone’s outscored the Mountaineers 24-0 in the second half as WR La’Michael Pettway caught 8 catches for 81 yards but made three key third down grabs to allow the Cyclones to keep the ball and win the possession game too in the second half.
Cyclone’s star quarterback Brock Purdy completed 19/30 passes for 229 yards and one touchdown. Purdy also rushed for a touchdown.
As far as the Mountaineer’s went, after they forced the Cyclones to punt on their opening drive, the West Virginia offense failed to get anything into the endzone with their opening drive. Starting QB Kendall took a sack on a 3rd down play in their first and suffered what seemed to be an apparent upper body (chest/shoulder) injury that sidelined him for the remainder of the game. With Kendall out, second string and back up QB Jack Allison stepped in for West Virginia’s s 2nd drive and despite going a quick three-and-out on that drive, turned in a great performance throughout the rest of the1st half. Allison would struggle the rest of the game putting up average numbers and zero points offensively.
WVU’s Frtykee Smith had what could be labeled the play of the game for the WVU Mountaineers when Smith intercepted a tipped pass from Iowa State’s QB Brock Purdy and returned it to put for a score the Mountaineers up 7-0 in the first quarter. Unfortunately, it was the only play of the game or highlight for the Mountaineers.
