Georgia Tech: 35
Virginia: 25

A week after ending a three game losing streak with a 56-0 thrashing of Syracuse, Georgia Tech would head to Charlottesville, VA for a battle with the Virginia Cavaliers in hopes of building on its recent win. Despite Virginia’s 2-5 record, the Jackets faced a tough challenge in playing at Scott Stadium, where they had won only once in their last ten attempts.

The Yellow Jacket offense got off to a hot start when Robert Godhigh broke off a 35 yard run on Tech’s second play from scrimmage. One play later, David Sims took the ball 36 more yards for a touchdown and an early 7-0 lead with 13:55 to play in the first quarter.

The Cavs mounted an impressive drive on the ensuing possession, but came away empty when Alec Vozenilek missed wide right on a 47-yard field goal attempt just under two minutes later. The Jackets quickly surrendered the ball back, however, when Sims lost a fumble to Eli Harold at the Yellow Jacket 37 yard line. Virginia slowly pushed to the Tech 10 before facing a 4th down with one yard to gain, and elected to forgo the field goal in an attempt for the touchdown. But David Watford’s pass fell incomplete on the attempt and the ball went over to Tech at its own 10 yard line.

The Tech offense quickly got rolling again and pushed out near midfield, but suffered another blow when Vad Lee lost a fumble to Max Valles at the Yellow Jacket 45 yard line.

The squads then exchanged punts before Virginia mounted a 13 play, 87 yard drive that put the Cavs on the board with a 28 yard Vozenilek field goal with 10:56 to play in the second quarter.

Tech’s Lynn Griffin sparked the ensuing drive with a 59 yard kickoff return to the Virginia 41, and a committee of running backs drove the Jackets 41 yards in 7 plays to extend the lead to 14-3 on a 7 yard touchdown run by Zach Laskey.

But the Wahoos answered on the ensuing possession, as Watford completed 6 of 8 passes en route to the Yellow Jacket 6 yard line before Kevin Parks capped off the drive with a 6 yard touchdown run to make it 14-10.

Justin Thomas entered at quarterback for Tech on the drive that followed and quickly pushed into Virginia territory with a 24 yard strike to Laskey. But on the play that followed, Thomas was hit one yard past the line of scrimmage and lost a fumble to Brandon Phelps.

Tech quickly forced a punt, but lost possession again with 43 seconds to play when Thomas was intercepted by Anthony Harris at the Cavalier 41. Watford connected with Darius Jennings on three of his next four passes before a pass interference call on Louis Young setup The Cavs with a first-and-goal at the two yard line. One rush netted only a yard and forced Tech’s opponent to call its last timeout. For the second time on the day, Mike London elected to pass on the field goal in an attempt to score the go-ahead touchdown. But the Georgia Tech defense refused to surrender, and turned away Parks at the goal line to preserve a 14-10 lead at the half.

The better half of the third quarter was a bit of stalemate. The Jackets threated once, but lost possession when Lee was picked off by Harris at the Cavalier 4 yard line.

Midway through the period, Tech’s defense forced a quick punt and its offense took to the ground. Laskey was the star of the drive, carrying on five consecutive plays en route to the end zone. The junior B-back highlighted the drive with back-to-back runs of 32 and 19 yards before capping off the march with a 4-yard scoring run to increase the Ramblin’ Wreck lead to 21-10.

Virginia consumed the remainder of the third quarter before again reaching striking distance just fifteen seconds into the final period of play. Watford found Jennings for a touchdown from five yards out to cap off of 12 play, 88 yard scoring drive that consumed just over five minutes of clock.

The Jackets wasted no time in answering, however, as Robert Godhigh broke off a 65 yard scoring run just under two minutes later to increase Tech’s lead back to eleven at 28-17.

A pair of punts put Virginia back in control with 6:34 to play, and Watford went back to work. The redshirt sophomore quarterback connected on nine of eleven passes, including a 12 yard scoring strike to Jennings with 3:23 remaining. The Cavs then elected to go for two and converted on a pass from Watford to Khalek Shepherd to make it 28-25.

But the Yellow Jacket offense refused to quit, and on the second play of the ensuing possession, Lee found Godhigh for 38 yards to the UVA 37 yard line. Sims and Lee then pushed 8 yards ahead to the 29, and the former finished the drive with a 29 yard touchdown run to ice the game at 35-25 with 1:55 remaining.

Watford was intercepted by Brandon Watts two plays into the drive that followed, and the Yellow Jackets would hang on for the win.

Virginia went on to lose its final four games to finish the season at 2-10, overall.

Statistics:

First downs:
GT – 18
UVA – 32

Rushing yards:
GT – 394
UVA – 68

Passing (Comp-Att-Yds):
GT – 5-9-113
UVA – 43-62-376

Interceptions thrown:
GT – 2
UVA – 1

Fumbles (Total-Lost):
GT – 3-3
UVA – 4-0

Penalties (Total-Yds):
GT – 9-97
UVA – 5-45

References:

Game Summary: http://www.ramblinwreck.com/sports/m-footbl/recaps/102613aaa.html

Videos:

– Game highlights