Editor’s note: This is the 10th in a “Greatest Games” series that will appear in The Pitt… Editor’s note: This is the 10th in a “Greatest Games” series that will appear in The Pitt News the day before each Pitt football game this year. Each part in the series will detail Pitt’s greatest game against that week’s opponent and will contain the original game story as it appeared in The Pitt News. This story was written by Jerry Myers on Oct. 19. 1970.

In an unprecedented comeback, the Pitt Panthers shell shocked the West Virginia Mountaineers before 44,479 screaming fans at Pitt Stadium Saturday, 36-35.

Erasing a 27-point Mountaineer lead, which was recorded in the first half by a fired-up WVU squad, the Panthers exploded for four big touchdowns in the last 30 minutes of play to cap what coach Carl DePasqua called “the most fantastic comeback I’ve ever experienced in my 17 years of coaching.”

With Dave Havern at the helm, the Panthers ground out 259 yards on the ground, complementing Havern’s 11-for-16 passing day. Many of those passes pulled the Panthers out of third-and-long situations, and Havern’s final completion was the five-yard pass to Bill Pilconis that put the Panthers ahead with only 55 seconds left in the game.

As effective as the offense was, the defense was the squad of the day. The defense held the Mountaineers to a total of 15 plays in the second half, allowing the offense to grind out 61 plays in that half, seven more than West Virginia had the entire game.

Summing up the difference between the two halves defensively, George Feher, the big middle linebacker who replaced Ralph Cindrich early in the second quarter, said, “Everyone took turns making individual mistakes in the fist half. In the second half, we put it all together.”

The Panthers, now 4-1 on the season, looked like anything but winners for the entire first half. West Virginia moved the ball at will against them, pilling 351 net yards rushing and five touchdowns. Ed Williams (106 yards rushing in the first half) and Bob Gresham (135 yards, first half) kept the Panthers on the run. Exploding for long gainer after long gainer, the Mountaineers appeared unstoppable.

With Sherwood directing traffic, the Mountaineers cashed in on Pitt paydirt four times on the ground and once in the air. Williams scored on 2-yard and 1-yard dives followed by Gresham’s 1-yard skip less than three minutes later.

Then, with 29 seconds left in the half, Sherwood passed to tight end Jim Braxton, who sprinted down the middle for WVU’s fifth and final touchdown of the day.

Pitt’s lone score of the first half came on Denny Ferris’ 1-yard plunge into the end zone with 4:21 gone in the second quarter. Havern followed with a two-point conversion run.

Ferris was later named the game’s outstanding player by the press, only two votes ahead of Havern in the tallying. Havern was given the game ball by the players.

The second half belonged to the Panthers. Roaring back in what fullback Tony Esposito calls “the best team effort I have ever seen in my life,” the Cats proceeded to do just what Duke did to the Mountaineers one week ago – they rammed the ball down WVU’s throat.

Engineering four straight sustained touchdown drives, the Panthers scored every time they had the ball in the second half. The Cats took the opening kickoff of the half and drove 58 yards in 14 plays, culminating with a Ferris touchdown. Ferris fought for 144 yards rushing in the contest.

DePasqua managed to rotate his backs to perfection, allowing Dave Garnett to get a chance to show his ability. Garnett charged through the Mountaineer line for 81 yards, many of which came on tough third-down situations.

The team effort rolled on like a big machine, with Esposito bouncing back from a very subpar first half to roll up 48 tough yards on the ground. Havern picked out certain receivers on big-yardage, third-down situations to keep the drive moving, while Ferris, Garnett and Esposito picked apart the Mountaineer defense.

A last desperation move by the Mountaineers was putting their injured middle linebacker, Dale Farley, in the game to try to halt the Panther momentum, but the Cats proceeded to cash in on a Havern-to-Pilconis game-winning touchdown pass.

The Panthers final drive ate up over eight minutes of the fourth quarter and characterized the Pitt strategy that prevailed for the entire half. When WVU finally did retain possession with 55 seconds left, its drive was doused when John Stevens recovered a fumble by Mountaineer Wayne Porter on the Pitt 36, and one play later, the Cats had their fourth victory of the year and the fourth in a row.

There wasn’t too much that DePasqua could say during a pandemonious locker room scene.

“We controlled the football and ended up putting points on the scoreboard,” he said. “There’s no use talking technicalities in a game like that.”

And the final score supports his assertion.