Virginia Tech: 17
Georgia Tech: 10

Fresh off of an impressive 28-20 comeback win against North Carolina to remain undefeated on the young season, 3-0 Georgia Tech would play host to the 4-1 Virginia Tech Hokies in a pivotal ACC Coastal Division matchup on a Thursday night in Bobby Dodd Stadium.

The Hokies lone loss on the year had come at the hands of top-ranked Alabama in the Chic-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta to being the season. Since then, they hardly looked impressive, escaping East Carolina with a 15-10 win on the road in week three before narrowly defeating Marshall 29-21 in triple overtime just five days earlier.

But things fell apart from the start for the Jackets, in what proved to be their worst effort of the season. Four plays into the opening drive, Vad Lee lost a fumble to Brandon Facyson when pressured on the mesh with David Sims, setting up the Hokies with excellent field position at the Ramblin’ Wreck 27 yard line. Two plays later, Logan Thomas found D.J. Coles for a 21 yard touchdown pass to put Virginia Tech on top 7-0 with 12:23 left in the opening period.

Lee then led a long drive into Hokie territory on the ensuing Tech drive, but tried to force a pass down the west sideline on 2nd-and-14 that was intercepted by Facyson at the Hokie 12 yard line.

After an exchange of punts, Virginia Tech compiled a 10 play, 91 yard touchdown drive to increase its lead to 14-0 early in the second quarter. Thomas was brilliant on the drive, going 6-for-6 before capping off the march with a 5 yard run for the touchdown.

The Yellow Jacket offense bounced back on the drive that followed, but managed to capture only a field goal to cut the Hokie lead to 14-3 at intermission.

Following halftime, the Yellow Jacket defense forced a quick punt to put the offense in possession at its own 17 yard line. Lee and company then marched 82 yards in 14 plays to put Tech back in the game trailing 14-10 after Sims scored on a 2 yard run with just 3:16 left in the third quarter.

Cody Journell then upped the Hokie lead to seven early in the fourth quarter after the Jackets went three-and-out from their own 9 and punted dead near midfield.

Despite hanging around for the remainder of the contest, the Jackets were unable to notch the scoreboard again. A late surge from its own 5 out to near midfield came to a halt when Lee’s fourth down pass was intercepted by Kendall Fuller at the Hokie 24 yard line, sealing the fourth straight victory in the series for Frank Beamer and Virginia Tech.

The Hokies were up and down for the rest of the year before finishing the regular season at 8-4. The performance earned them a trip to the Sun Bowl, however, where they were eventually embarrassed by the UCLA Bruins by a score of 42-12 in El Paso, Texas on New Year’s Eve.

Statistics:

First downs:
VT – 14
GT – 16

Rushing yards:
VT – 55
GT – 129

Passing (Comp-Att-Yds):
VT – 19-25-221
GT – 7-24-144

Interceptions thrown:
VT – 0
GT – 2

Fumbles (Total-Lost):
VT – 0-0
GT – 3-1

Penalties (Total-Yds):
VT – 10-69
GT – 9-66

Game Summary: http://www.ramblinwreck.com/sports/m-footbl/recaps/092613aaa.html

Videos:

– Game highlights