It took until homecoming, but the West Virginia State football team finally won a game at home.
Freshman running back Tyrone Barber's third touchdown of the day, a 9-yard reception from quarterback Matt Kinnick, put the Yellow Jackets ahead of Notre Dame (Ohio) College for good Saturday afternoon and secured State's 32-29 win, its first this season at Lakin Field.
The Yellow Jackets (4-2, 4-2 Mountain East Conference) have won more games this season than any full season since 2008, when they finished 7-3. Saturday's win also ended a frustrating home skid made even more vexing because of how well State has fared on the road.
Away from Lakin Field, the Yellow Jackets are 3-0 this season, never scoring fewer than 52 points in any of those games. At home, though, State suffered a last-second, 30-23 loss to Urbana, and watched the University of Charleston score 20 unanswered points in a 34-13 loss.
"We fixed that this morning," State coach Jon Anderson joked after Saturday's game. "We got a couple charter buses and drove around town for a couple of hours and turned it into a visiting game."
Anderson said the real key to State's win was the players' resilience.
"We needed to will that to happen," Anderson said. "We needed to play well at home and we did. This team's just going to have to fight and claw and scratch for everything they get. You've seen it two weeks in a row, that's what they've done.
"And I'm just proud of them for never backing down, never stopping, never quitting, and whatever the circumstances were, just fighting. We've got a lot of fighters in that locker room."
Time looked like it was running out for the Yellow Jackets in the fourth quarter. Notre Dame struck with a Malik Grove-to-Mitchell Shegos 79-yard touchdown with 11:34 left that put the Falcons (1-5, 1-4) ahead 29-25. The Yellow Jackets had a prime opportunity with a little more than 3 minutes left, driving to Notre Dame's 10. But on fourth-and-11 at the Falcons 15, Quinton Gray took an end-around toss from Kinnick, screeched to a halt, pivoted and threw back to Kinnick, but for only a 2-yard gain.
However, on the ensuing drive, State forced Notre Dame to punt after a three-and-out and started its game-winning drive on the Falcons 47. The Yellow Jackets converted two third downs on that final drive, ending in Barber's touchdown catch.
Barber was without usual backfield-mate Kelvit Barrett, who tried to work back from injury this past week until Anderson decided Friday to play it safe and keep him sidelined. Anderson expects Barrett to be ready for practice Tuesday.
Barber averaged about 16 carries per game entering Saturday and added to his workload against the Falcons. He finished with 102 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries and tied for the team high with seven catches for 61 yards and the winning score.
He felt those receiving abilities were what really shone against Notre Dame.
"[It was] receiving the ball out of the backfield," he said, "catching it, being the extra receiver or the check-down for the quarterback and letting my skills do the work after that."
The Falcons game plan was obvious - a healthy dose of Grove, the Mountain East Conference's leader in total offense. He had plenty of high points, completing 18 of 35 passes for 335 yards and three touchdowns and adding 80 yards on 23 carries. He had some miscues as well. He threw one interception, a pass Shegos bobbled into the hands of Daniel Ware, and lost a fumble on an 8-yard run with about 8 minutes left in the game.
"On film, we noticed that he was really athletic in the backfield and that he was going to be a threat in the box," linebacker Mitch Rowell said. "He was everything we expected. Our game plan was to keep contain with him and make sure we had an extra man in the box to account for that back-side run off the quarterback draw."
D.J. Greene led Notre Dame with 91 yards on 18 carries, while Shegos caught five passes for 154 yards and two touchdowns. Kinnick finished with 370 yards and two touchdowns and two interceptions on 33-of-55 passing. Quinton Gray caught seven passes for 131 yards for State.
After a pair of agonizing losses, the Yellow Jackets finally could enjoy a win on their home grass. Rowell said that psychological boost could help propel State into the second half of its season, which starts Saturday at noon at undefeated Shepherd.
"It's like a weight is off our shoulders," Rowell said. "We can finally start a home win streak. It feels amazing to know that, when we put our minds to it and our attitude to it, we can win at home."