The Virginia football team slammed Kent State 45-13 Saturday at Scott Stadium in its final non-conference game of 2014, surpassing last year’s two-win total after just five weeks of play.
Following an encouraging start to the season, the Cavaliers (3-2, 1-0 ACC) enter the heart of their ACC schedule with the chance to make amends for a disappointing 2013.
“We had nine penalties today, which is way too many — but at the same time, guys found a way to make plays, and that’s what’s important,” coach Mike London said. “Ultimately the ‘W’ today was important for us, particularly here at home. And now, as we get ready to go into league play, the way we play has got to be on par to a level of being able to win football games.”
The Cavaliers, sporting retro jerseys while participating in the Coach to Cure MD program, which supports those suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy, racked up 520 yards of total offense and forced five turnovers against the overmatched Golden Flashes (0-4, 0-1 MAC).
Virginia went into halftime with only a 14-10 lead, but ran away with the game in a dominant third quarter. By the final period, London was playing a number of reserves, with even redshirt freshman quarterback Brendan Marshall taking a few snaps.
“Kent State played hard, and those kids, they fought the whole way,” London said. “I was proud to see a number of [our] guys have a chance to play, and we need that going into the stretch here of our conference games.”
Fellow MAC representative Ball State torched Virginia 48-27 in Charlottesville last Oct. 5, and after the first quarter Saturday, Virginia was again playing with fire.
The Cavaliers faced a 10-7 deficit after managing just two first downs and 60 yards of offense with sophomore quarterback Matt Johns starting in place of sophomore Greyson Lambert, who suffered an ankle injury in last week’s 41-33 road loss to Brigham Young.
Virginia gained ground by halftime — the Cavaliers took a four-point lead on John’s 25-yard touchdown pass to senior running back Khalek Shepherd 46 seconds into the second quarter — but at that point, the outcome was far from decided.
Disappointed by their first-half performance, Virginia’s senior leaders took charge in the locker room — particularly middle linebacker Henry Coley and receiver Darius Jennings, according to sophomore running back Taquan Mizzell, who also said offensive line coach Scott Wachenheim was among those to speak.
“When we first walked in there, none of the players were talking — everything was just quiet,” Mizzell said. “And then a couple of leaders stepped up and started talking and got everybody pumped up.”
Mizzell started the second half with an explosive 35-yard kickoff return, and Virginia never looked back. The Cavaliers marched 57 yards downfield in 11 plays, extending their lead to seven points on junior place kicker Ian Frye’s 22-yard field goal.
Virginia snuffed out Kent State’s subsequent drive when junior defensive end Kwontie Moore — stepping in for injured starter and fellow junior Mike Moore — knocked the ball out of Golden Flash sophomore quarterback Colin Reardon’s hand. Senior outside linebacker Daquan Romero scooped the up ball, and four plays later, senior running back Kevin Parks extended Virginia’s lead to 24-10 on a four-yard touchdown run.
The Cavaliers’ ground game churned out a videogame-like 8.1 yards per carry in the quarter, combining for 138 yards on 17 rushing attempts.
Parks, who passed Frank Quayle to become the seventh-leading rusher in Virginia history, had 61 yards on 12 carries for the game, while Mizzell matched his yardage on nine attempts.
Virginia was efficient offensively and defensively again in the fourth quarter, when the team converted on all six of its third-down attempts and limited Kent State to 12 yards of offense in just more than five minutes of possession time.
The second half, then, stood in stark contrast to the hotly-contested first.
Kent State scored the game’s first points when sophomore receiver James Brooks burned senior cornerback Brandon Phelps for a 45-yard touchdown. Reardon delivered a bullet which Brooks caught in stride before the safeties could converge.
Virginia soon tied the game in style, with junior cornerback Maurice Canady jumping the passing lane and bringing the interception all the way back for the touchdown. Parks said Canady looked like former NFL and MLB star Deion “Prime Time” Sanders coming down the field.
Then, with 22 seconds to go in the half, senior cornerback Demetrious Nicholson came down with the ball in the Virginia end zone. Kent State senior receiver Chris Humphrey, however, was holding on too. Nicholson won the battle for the ball for an interception that held up under review.
Nicholson was back in uniform after recovering from a nasty turf-toe injury which ended his junior season against Ball State.
“I hadn’t been out there in almost a whole year — you know, coming up Oct. 5 it would have been a year — so it was just great to be out there,” Nicholson said. “[I] didn’t know what to expect from myself or my foot, but my adrenaline kicked in and after the first series I kind of went back to what I knew and went off of my experience.”
The Cavaliers will go for their fourth win next Saturday at 7:30 p.m. when they take on Pittsburgh at Scott Stadium.
“This team is very special,” Parks said. “We knew we had to turn things around this season. This is a good win. [We’ll] go watch the film tomorrow and get ready for Pitt and get ready for next week.”
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