West Virginia (3-1, 1-0) opened up Big 12 Conference play with a 29-24 road win over Kansas (2-2, 0-1) Saturday evening.

After forcing a three-and-out to start things off, West Virginia scored on its first offensive drive for the second straight week with a three-yard touchdown run by Kennedy McKoy. This capped off a 13-play, 71-yard drive that took nearly six minutes off the clock.

The Jayhawks finished the first quarter with just seven rushing yards and 36 total yards, but the team managed to tie things up at 7-7 with a 28-yard touchdown pass from Carter Stanley to Kwamie Lassiter early in the second quarter.

Missed opportunities, turnovers and defensive stands halted both teams’ offenses throughout much of the second quarter.

West Virginia, however, put together a nine-yard, 51-yard drive that ended with a 37-yard field goal by Evan Staley as time expired in the second quarter, putting the Mountaineers ahead by a score of 10-7 at halftime.

The Mountaineers extended their lead to 17-7 thanks to a 10-play, 70-yard scoring drive to open the second half. The drive was capped off by a 23-yard touchdown rush by Martell Pettaway.

Kansas answered back with a 23-yard field goal by Liam Jones on the ensuing drive. The Jayhawks kickoff team then went for an onside kick and recovered it, but kick-catch interference was called on the Jayhawks which gave the Mountaineers the ball on the Kansas 31.

West Virginia extended its lead to 10 points with a 44-yard field goal from Evan Staley. But Kansas was quick to narrow that lead down to three points with a 75-yard touchdown pass from Stanley to Andrew Parchment on the first play of the Jayhawks’ next offensive drive.

A pass interference call on Kansas on a 4th-and-1 on West Virginia’s next offensive drive gave the Mountaineers a fresh set of downs at Kansas’ nine-yard line, but West Virginia was later held to a 22-yard field goal to make it 23-17 in favor of the Mountaineers.

West Virginia’s offense would then capitalize off an interception by cornerback Keith Washington with an 11-play, 51-yard scoring drive which ended with a seven-yard touchdown run by Pettaway. After a failed two-point conversion, the Mountaineers led by a score of 29-17 with 5:04 left.

Kansas responded with a three-yard touchdown pass from Stanley to Parchment on its next offensive drive to put the score at 29-24 in favor of the Mountaineers.

Another onside kick was attempted by Kansas, but it went out of bounds. From there, West Virginia was able to hold off Kansas and seal its first conference win under head coach Neal Brown.

West Virginia now enters a bye week and will next face No. 12 Texas in Morgantown on Saturday, Oct. 5.

----------

• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.

• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.

• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel

• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @PatrickKotnik

•Like us on Facebook