Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG, Va. – In a game that largely took place on the ground, the deciding points ironically came through the air in the form of a 21-yard field goal by Hokies’ place-kicker Dustin Keys, as Virginia Tech edged visiting Georgia Tech 20-17 on Saturday afternoon in ACC football action at Lane Stadium.
“I think that was a great team win, and I love team wins,” Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer said after the game. “I am so proud of my football team. It was the offense, the kicking game and the defense, and we found a way to win.”
The two Techs combined for 477 rushing yards on 96 attempts – 278 for the Yellow Jackets (2-1, 1-1 ACC) and 199 for the Hokies (2-1, 1-0 ACC) – in a game that saw only 23 passing attempts. And while the Hokies’ defense bent against the unfamiliar triple option offense – Georgia Tech’s Josh Nesbitt set a single-game school-record for quarterbacks with 151 rushing yards – it never broke and made its biggest play of the game late in the fourth quarter.
With 2:24 on the clock and Nesbitt buying himself time on 4th-and-7, the Hokies’ Orion Martin tripped up the elusive quarterback and made him change direction. Fortunately for Virginia Tech, linebacker Purnell Sturdivant was pursuing from the other side and dropped Nesbitt for a 2-yard loss and the Hokies’ only sack.
“John Graves and Orion Martin did a great job of penetrating and getting pressure on the quarterback,” Sturdivant said of the huge sack. “I saw him try to scramble and I shot the gap and got the tackle.”
Though Virginia Tech failed to run out the clock on its ensuing possession, punter Brent Bowden pinned the Yellow Jackets at their own 5 with 25 ticks to go to put the win on ice.
“This win was very important,” Sturdivant said. “A lot of people were doubting us. It was the first ACC game and a lot of people didn’t think we could get it done either offensively or defensively. We came out and continued to work and got better and proved them wrong. That’s what we need to keep doing.”
“It’s so hard to run it in practice the way Georgia Tech runs it,” Beamer said about the Yellow Jackets’ offense. “And boy, what a player [Nesbitt] is. He did a nice job, but fortunately, we got a couple of fumbles.”
Brett Warren (15 tackles) and Kam Chancellor (11 tackles) each forced one of those fumbles for the Hokies, while Cody Grimm made an interception and Sturdivant was in on 11 tackles to go with his sack.
Keys’ game-clinching field goal was actually his second successful try of the fourth quarter – he also converted a 25-yarder with 13:58 on the clock to put the Hokies up 17-9 – but the final one broke a 17-17 tie and capped a game-winning, 76-yard drive that was keyed by a pair of 15-yard personal fouls by the Georgia Tech defense.
Keys’ field goals sandwiched an eight-point effort by the Yellow Jackets that knotted the contest at 17 with 9:28 to play. Nesbitt scored on an 18-yard rush after finding nothing in a rare drop-back pass. Down two because of a blocked PAT attempt by Virginia Tech’s John Graves in the second quarter, Nesbitt tossed a two-point conversion to Lucas Cox to even the score.
The Hokies entered the halftime locker room with a 14-9 advantage thanks to quarterback Tyrod Taylor’s first touchdown of the season, a 2-yard scramble that came with just 10 seconds left on the clock. Keys’ PAT capped off Tech’s second scoring drive of the game, one that began on a 23-yard Taylor run one minute earlier after Virginia Tech’s Demetrius Taylor jumped on a fumbled handoff exchange by the Yellow Jackets at their own 43-yard line.
“That was a called, ‘take a look at your receivers and if they’re not there, throw to back of end zone,'” Beamer said of the play on which Taylor scored. “But Tyrod is Tyrod, and he saw an opening and went to the end zone with it.”
“That’s what they told me,” Taylor said about the coaches’ directions. “But we were too close to the goal line for me to throw it away. I knew they wanted to set up for the field goal, but I knew I could get a touchdown with my feet.”
The Taylor touchdown put the Hokies back on top after Georgia Tech claimed a brief, 9-7 lead with 3:44 on the second-quarter clock. On first-and-10 from the Virginia Tech 41, Nesbitt surprised the Hokie defense by throwing just his second pass of the game, a 41-yard strike to Roddy Jones. It was the first passing touchdown of the season for Georgia Tech, but place-kicker Scott Blair, who in the first quarter opened the game’s scoring with a 32-yard field goal, had his PAT blocked by Graves.
Virginia Tech’s first score of the game came courtesy of tailback Darren Evans, who zig-zagged through the Yellow Jacket defense for an 8-yard touchdown with 13:01 remaining in the second quarter, capping a drive that covered 80 yards over 13 plays and 6:34.
Evans ended the game with 94 rushing yards on 19 carries, while Taylor added 74 yards on 15 rushes. Taylor, who played the entire game under center, also completed nine of 14 passes for 48 yards.
“Evans ran awfully hard and broke some tackles,” Beamer said when asked about the running game. “I thought he did a nice job. He’s got a good knack for running the football.”
Kickoff time for the Hokies’ game next Saturday at North Carolina is 3:30 p.m. and will be televised by ABC/ESPN.