No one could blame Virginia football fans for being leery Saturday when running back Antwoine Womack scored in the second quarter to put the Cavaliers up 21-0 against Richmond. After all, the Cavs led by that exact score at halftime last week before losing to Brigham Young in overtime. When the score stayed the same for the next eight minutes, even the most confident fans were beginning to experience deja vu.
But the same nervous fans breathed a sigh of relief when David Greene kicked a 38-yard field goal with 2:34 remaining. Greene added another field goal as time expired in the half to extend the lead to 27-0, and the fans left for their tailgates knowing the victory was safe in hand.
Sure enough, the Cavs (1-1) and the Spiders (1-1) played to a draw in the second half, with Virginia claiming a 34-6 victory.
"The players didn't let the loss to BYU get them down," Virginia coach George Welsh said. "They were down on Sunday, but by the time Tuesday came around, they responded pretty well."
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The Cavaliers started the game on a high note, with Womack's 4-yard run capping a 78-yard drive. Womack started in place of sophomore back Arlen Harris, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery Friday and will miss three to four weeks.
"We were frustrated after last week," quarterback Dan Ellis said. "Marching down the field the first possession was a good way to come back from that."
Ellis ran for a touchdown on the Cavs' next drive, and Womack's second touchdown and Greene's two field goals pushed the margin to 27-0 at half.
The Cavaliers scored their lone second-half touchdown on a 50-yard pass from Ellis to James Johnson. The touchdown came on an audible after Ellis noticed the Spiders were gambling on defense.
"It was a gutsy defensive call, and it bit them in the butt," Ellis said. "All 11 guys were within two yards of the ball. They had everybody stacked up there. [Johnson] did all of the work, I just threw it up there."
Johnson outleaped Spiders defensive back Harold Hill to catch the ball, then cut back across the field and went untouched into the end zone.
"I just took off," Johnson said. "I saw nobody on the other side of the field, so I decided to go over there."
Richmond scored their lone touchdown on a 3-yard run by quarterback Sean Gustus in the fourth quarter.
Ellis led the Cavs in rushing, with 39 yards, and passing, with 299 yards and no interceptions. His rushing total was indicative of the Cavaliers' trouble moving the ball on the ground without Harris' help.
"We thought we would throw the ball first," Welsh said. "I was hoping somewhere along the way we would be able to run it, but we couldn't."
Billy McMullen led the Cavaliers with six catches for 73 yards, and nine different Virginia players caught passes.
The defense showed marked improvement as well, holding the Spiders' wishbone offense to only one touchdown.
"We looked at the film from last week and saw that missed tackles caused them to gain a lot of yards," linebacker Byron Thweatt said. "This week we tried to perfect our tackling. We concentrated on that this weekend and made some more plays."
However, the Cavs did give up 220 yards on the ground and seemed to coast in the fourth quarter.
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