<p>Georgia All-America safety Greg Blue couldn't wait to show West Virginia the Southeastern Conference's version of football.</p><p>Instead, Blue and the Georgia defense watched Steve Slaton set a Sugar Bowl record Monday night.</p><p>No. 11 West Virginia amassed 382 rushing yards, led by Slaton's 204 yards and three scores, to outlast No. 8 Georgia 38-35.</p><p>Underdog West Virginia (11-1) earned its first 11-win season and made a statement to critics who said the Big East didn't deserve an automatic berth in a Bowl Championship Series bowl.</p><p>West Virginia won for the first time in four bowl tries under coach Rich Rodriguez, who brought the Mountaineers their first BCS berth.</p><p>One of Georgia's goals was to contain Pat White, West Virginia's redshirt freshman quarterback who had 220 and 177 rushing yards in his two previous games.</p><p>White was held below 100 yards for the first time in four games.</p><p>But the Bulldogs (10-3) could do nothing about Slaton, who scored on runs of 52, 18 and 52 yards. That gave him 19 touchdowns in only 10 games, the most TDs in the NCAA by a freshman this season.</p><p>Slaton broke the Sugar Bowl record of 202 yards set by Pittsburgh's Tony Dorsett against Georgia in 1977.</p><p>Slaton's 1,128 rushing yards this season were the second highest for a freshman at West Virginia, behind Avon Cobourne's 1,138 in 1999.</p><p>A West Virginia offense, led by numerous first-year players, came out like a veteran team, putting up 28 points in a little more than a quarter against the nation's 11th-best defense.</p><p>Wide receiver Darius Reynaud, a sophomore, scored a pair of first-quarter touchdowns on a 7-yard pass from White and on a 13-yard run off a reverse.</p><p>Sophomore Owen Schmitt, a Division III transfer from Wisconsin-River Falls, set up a short field goal with a 54-yard run late in the second quarter for a 31-14 lead before West Virginia's offense bogged down.</p><p>Slaton's final touchdown midway through the fourth quarter put the Mountaineers ahead by double digits again.</p>
http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/1/132219
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