Water from the storm that halted play in Morgantown pours down in buckets on the home side of Milan Puskar Stadium. (Photos by Jeremy Crawford.

The West Virginia Mountaineer and possible Heisman candidate Geno Smith threw two first-half touchdowns and Tavon Austin returned a sizzling 100-yard kickoff for a score to help the Mountaineers gain a 34-13 victory over Marshall University Thundering Herd in Morgantown Sunday, Sept. 4, in a mutual season opener.

Smith was 26-35 for 249 yards and a pair of TDs to help WVU win its 11th victory its cross-state rival — the sixth since 2006.

Marshall held West Virginia on its first offensive series and returned the punt 87 yards for the game’s first points, silencing the 60,000 plus Mountaineer fans in the stadium.

The Mountaineer kicker, Tyler Bitancurt, connected on 27-yard a 43-yard field goals and teammates Ivan McCartney, Stedman Bailey, and Vernard Roberts each scored touchdowns. Meanwhile, while the Thundering Herd added two field goals — 24 yards and 21 yards — for all the points scored in the three periods of football.

The season opener was halted with five minutes left in period three because of severe thunderstorms and play didn’t resume for three hours. However, the game was stopped twice again until WVU and Marshall both agreed to cancel the rest of the game. All together, the game was halted for four hours and 22 minutes — around twice as long as it usually takes to play a game straight through.

Marshall will host Southern Mississippi on Saturday, Sept. 10, while the Mountaineers will host Norfolk.

WVU?quarterback Geno Smith looks to hand off the ball to one of his freshmen runningbacks in first half action. Smith threw for 249 yards and two TDs in the 34-13 win over Marshall.