Mountaineers outlast Cardinals in 3 OTs, 46-44

Steve Slaton scored six touchdowns for West Virginia.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -- Steve Slaton just scored his sixth touchdown and backup quarterback Pat White converted a two-point conversion pass in the third overtime. Now, West Virginia's defense needed to stop No. 19 Louisville one last time.
It did -- eventually.
Michael Bush scored his fourth TD, but WVU's Eric Wicks tackled Cardinals' quarterback Brian Brohm at the 3 on the 2-point try and the Mountaineers had themselves a 46-44 victory Saturday.
"I just had to stop him," Wicks said. "I guess he had no options, so he tried scrambling. I was surprised that he actually tried to pull it down and run."
School record for TDs
Slaton, who set a school record with his TD splurge, gave West Virginia (6-1, 3-0 Big East) a 44-38 lead with a short TD run in the third OT.
White, who replaced injured Adam Bednarik in the fourth quarter, then found Dorrell Jalloh with a two-point conversion pass for a 46-38 lead.
After Wicks stopped Brohm's attempt to force a fourth OT, thousands of Mountaineer fans ran onto the field in a celebration,
"It was supposed to be a pass play," said Brohm, who completed 31 of 49 passes for 277 yards, two TDs and an interception. "They covered it pretty well, so I took off with it. They came off the ball and stopped me. I have three options there. We were trying to get someone in the back of the end zone. I tried to run it myself when that did not work. I didn't get in."
Slaton, who ran for five scores and caught a TD pass, broke the school mark of five TDs shared by three players.
"This is the first time ever in my life that I've scored six touchdowns," the freshman running back said. "And I didn't realize it until afterward."
Rotation abandoned
With fellow freshman Jason Gwaltney out for a month with a knee injury, West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez abandoned his rotation of four running backs and gave most of the work to Slaton, who finished with 188 yards on 31 carries.
"I don't know what happened. We had guys in position sometimes and we just couldn't tackle him," Louisville coach Bobby Petrino said.
Bush and Brohm staked Louisville (4-2, 0-2) to a 24-7 third-quarter lead, and it seemed the Cardinals finally got the solid effort they had shown in three blowout wins at home but lacked on the road.
But Louisville's defense, which had limited West Virginia to just 56 total yards in the first half, fell apart.
West Virginia scored the final six times it had the ball.
WVU put together three scoring drives in a seven-minute span, including Slaton's 1-yard TD run with a minute left in the fourth quarter that tied the score at 24.
Slaton scored on runs of 2, 23 and 1 yards in the extra periods.
Bush became the first running back to surpass 100 yards against the Mountaineers this season, finishing with 37 carries for 159 yards.
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