CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia Cavaliers are back in the win column after a 16-14 win over Old Dominion at Scott Stadium. The two teams combined for over 8000 yards of offense--the Cavaliers racking up 513 alone.
Virginia had the momentum for much of the first half, jumping out to a 10-0 advantage. Old Dominion responded before halftime with a 6 play, 64 yard drive that took just 32 seconds. Hayden Wolff connected with Ali Jennings for a 29 yard touchdown to make it a 10-7 ballgame at halftime.
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Both defenses stepped up in the second half with the third quarter going scoreless.
“I’m going to be conservative and say 20 points, at least 20 points [left out on the field]. We were down inside the five, inside the 10, and several times we fumbled on the two going in,” head coach Tony Elliott said. “The thing about it is if you capitalize on those scoring opportunities then that just puts more pressure on their offense.”
Virginia increased its lead to 13-7 midway through the 4th quarter. But the Monarchs found themselves still in the fight. They put together an 80 yard drive that was capped off by a Zack Kuntz 18 yard touchdown. With the extra point, ODU led 14-13 with 1:01 to play.
But if there were an offense that could drive the field to seal the deal--it’s the Virginia Cavaliers. They drove the field 56 yards setting up Brendan Farrell for what proved to be the game-winning 26 yard field goal.
“They found a way to win the game,” Tony Elliott said. “The thing that I can take away from our Wednesday practice when we did our two-minute drill, we had a similar situation. We had twenty-five seconds on the clock and we had to have a field goal to win with one timeout, and we actually won the two-minute drill on offense this week and kicked the field goal with nine seconds left. We work all of the possible situations to try and prepare these guys and to see them not bat an eye with a minute and one, and one time out, and go down and find a way to win the game.”