Numbers might not lie, but this time they're fibbing a bit.
Saturday at Scott Stadium, North Carolina dominated the final stat sheet. The Tar Heels piled up 380 offensive yards to the Cavs' 227, out-gaining Virginia by land and by air. UNC held the ball for nearly two-thirds of the game, had more than twice as many first downs as the Cavaliers and ran 40 more offensive plays.
But the Cavs came out ahead in the only statistical category they really cared about, the only one that mattered in the end: After 60 minutes of just-good-enough football, Virginia pocketed a 17-6 win.
|
The Cavalier offense sputtered for much of the day but managed a handful of big plays to scrape together two touchdowns and a field goal. Yet it was the Virginia defense that dealt the Tar Heels (3-5, 1-5 ACC) their fourth straight loss. Carolina moved the ball almost at will at times, but the Cavs (5-3, 4-2) held strong when they needed to.
"That was a very courageous game by our defense, one of the most courageous I've ever seen," Virginia coach George Welsh said. "Not one of the best, but when they had to make a play, they made it."
Time after time, the Cavalier defense bent but refused to break. On the game's opening drive, the Heels pushed all the way to the 9-yard line before Virginia stiffened and forced UNC to settle for a 26-yard Jeff Reed field goal. Six minutes later, Cav defensive tackle Monsanto Pope got a paw on Reed's 47-yard attempt, the first of Virginia's two field goal blocks on the afternoon. In the second quarter, junior fullback Anthony Saunders fumbled a handoff, ending another heretofore promising Carolina drive.
|
"Anytime you can hold Virginia to [227] total yards, you'd think you would win the ballgame," UNC coach Carl Torbush said. "I thought we should have been up at halftime by at least seven points and maybe more if we made some key plays."
The Heels put up 189 yards of total offense in the first half compared to 79 for Virginia, and they had the ball for more than 21 of the 30 minutes, but the Cavaliers rode junior tailback Antwoine Womack to a 7-3 halftime lead.
Womack, who finished with 94 rushing yards, got 52 of them in Virginia's 77-yard scoring drive at the start of the second quarter. With a little more than 10 minutes left before halftime, Womack sliced through the line, bounced off a tackle and scampered 13 yards for his seventh touchdown of the season.
Reed cut the Tar Heel deficit to 7-6 in the third quarter with his second field goal of the day, this time a 39-yard one. But Virginia answered immediately with an 80-yard touchdown drive that hammered the first nails into the Carolina blue coffin.
In his first game since straining his hamstring against Maryland three weeks ago, Cav quarterback Dan Ellis was 7-for-14 for 100 yards, hampered after re-aggravating the injury in the first half. Ellis played the entire game, but he was limited to straight drop-back maneuvering and handing off.
For their second touchdown, therefore, the Cavaliers dipped into their proverbial bag of tricks for a pinch of razzle-dazzle. After Virginia drove to the UNC 44-yard line, junior running back Tyree Foreman lofted a 22-yard pass to wideout Kevin Coffey. Tavon Mason, the fastest player on the team, followed directly with a wide receiver reverse, scoring from 22 yards out.
"We were stuck in the pocket handing the ball off," Welsh explained. "Against that kind of a [defensive] team, you've got to get outside and do more stuff. We were reluctant to run [Ellis] outside."
Ellis' biggest play of the afternoon - besides his lead block on Mason's touchdown run - set up Virginia's final score, David Greene's 32-yard fourth quarter field goal. Ellis launched a 44-yard completion to wideout Billy McMullen. The mercurial sophomore had only one catch, but he made it in spectacular fashion, extending fully for a diving, one-handed catch at the UNC 16. Four plays later, Greene split the uprights for the 17-6 final score.
A handful of Cav starters will use the upcoming bye week to nurse injuries. Ellis said he plans to "live in the trainer's room" to combat his nagging hamstring strain. Middle linebacker Yubrenal Isabelle wrenched his right knee in a third-quarter pile-up and played sporadically through the rest of the game.
Offensive right tackle Brad Barnes and free safety Jerton Evans are crippled by back problems. Barnes missed Saturday's game after a recurring problem cropped up again in recent weeks, while Evans was lost for the day after landing awkwardly while making a tackle on the sixth play from scrimmage.
Read More
No. 4 women’s tennis makes fourth-ever ACC Championship match, falls to No. 5 North Carolina
By Grace Gould | 4 hours agoFor the fourth time in its history, No. 4 Virginia women’s tennis made it to the ACC Championship match, defeating No. 28 Notre Dame and No. 23 Florida State en route to its finals appearance.
No. 2 men’s tennis falls to Florida State in ACC Championship
By Victoria Blankenship | 4 hours agoVirginia will have to regroup heading into the ACC Tournament, with all eyes on a championship rerun.
Virginia baseball drops two of three in home series with Georgia Tech
By Ryan Weiner | YesterdayThe Cavaliers dropped a crucial series, and will need to rebound quickly heading into the final stretch of the regular season.
