Cross’ Interception Opens Up Avalanche In Virginia Rout Of Liberty

By Jerry Ratcliffe

It had been a span of eight-plus games since Liberty quarterback Stephen Calvert had thrown an interception, 295 pass attempts — the nation’s longest such streak — until De’Vante Cross crashed the party on Saturday at chilly Scott Stadium.

Virginia’s pass rush had put Calvert, who goes by “Buckshot,” under duress as it did for much of the day, and the Flames’ passer just kind of threw one high into the air, more of a punt than a pass, toward nobody in particular. Cross, the only player in the area, was waiting.

The junior safety, somewhat stunned by the whole thing, picked off the pass and automatically shifted his mindset to his past as a one-time quarterback. Cross took off and darted his way 52 yards to the Liberty 42. 

Five plays later, Virginia was in the end zone for a go-ahead, 17-14 touchdown, and never looked back en route to a 55-27 win against the non-conference Flames.

Now the stage is set for the Black-Friday showdown between state rivals Virginia and Virginia Tech for the ACC Coastal Division title and a spot in the conference’s championship game the following week in Charlotte. UVA is 8-3 overall, 5-2 in the league.

Liberty coach Hugh Freeze, formerly coach at Ole Miss, believed afterward that the first of two Cross interceptions in the game turned everything around.

“It appears that [the interception] affected us more than I would like to admit,” Freeze said. “It was upsetting. We had an RPO on them. The ball should never go deep in the middle of the field. [Calvert] knows that, he is beating himself up, but that was frustrating. It seemed like it carried over to the second half.”

In reality, Cross wasn’t even supposed to be there. After practicing at his normal cornerback position all week, he found out Friday that he would be moving to strong safety because regular starter Chris Moore had been suspended for a violation of team rules along with wide receiver Chuck Davis (their status for next week’s game remains to be seen according to Coach Bronco Mendenhall).

Mendenhall was as surprised as anyone that Calvert had committed such a major mistake. The UVA coach praised Calvert for his ability to avoid sacks and throwing away the football under heat, and thought that maybe he was trying to overthrow everyone to get rid of the ball, or because he is also efficient in the scramble drill that he may have anticipated the receiver altering his route.

It was the latter. Calvert said in postgame that his intentions were to throw it out of the end zone or at least beyond any coverage. The pass just came up woefully short and Cross was the recipient.

“To be honest with you, I had no idea what happened,” Cross said of the play. “I saw the ball in the air, it was high up there, so I first looked to see if anyone was out there, and there wasn’t, so I was like, ‘Oh, wow, he just threw this out there as a freebie,’ so I took advantage of it.”

So did Virginia. On a third-and-four, quarterback Bryce Perkins, who threw for 199 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for another, connected with Hasise Dubois for 21 yards to the 15. After another 12-yard completion to Joe Reed, running back Lamont Atkins, filling in for nicked-up starting tailback Wayne Taulapapa, bolted into the end zone for the lead with 4:59 remaining in the first half.

The Cavalier defense forced another Liberty three-and-out punt on the ensuing drive. It took the ‘Hoos only 92 seconds to score again, this time on a four-yard run by freshman tailback Mike Hollins, after back-to-back passes to Billy Kemp (22 yards) and Atkins (33 yards), for a 24-14 halftime lead.

Freeze said the interception return handed Virginia the momentum going into the locker room.

“It helped, certainly helped,” Mendenhall said.

Liberty senior safety Elijah Benton said that even with the momentum shift that the Flames were only down by 10 and felt like the game was for the taking. However, the Cavaliers had their own thoughts on momentum.

On the first possession of the second half, Virginia drove from its own 41 to the Liberty 31 when the march stalled and the Cavaliers sent out the field-goal unit. In some trickeration, UVA shifted and backup quarterback Brennan Armstrong, in as the holder, took the snap and launched a pass to 6-foot-7 Charles Snowden for a first down at the 7.

Snowden, UVA’s starting outside linebacker, is part of the field-goal unit. This time, he made his first career catch, a play that the Cavaliers had successfully practiced all week.

Two plays later, Perkins found Joe Reed for the touchdown and a 31-14 lead, and the rout was on.

Asked afterward if Snowden might have a short future at wide receiver after the big catch, Mendenhall tried not to crack a smile and said, “That would be no, no matter how much lobbying he does.

“That was a nice job by Armstrong, and it wasn’t an easy catch. Actually, I think that was a critical point in the game, and really glad we executed well.”

The Cavaliers expanded the lead to 38-14 after a shanked, 14-yard Liberty punt gave UVA possession at the Flames’ 15. This time, Perkins kept it himself for a two-yard TD run late in the third quarter.

On the day, the game never turned into the high-scoring battle that some had projected, although the Cavaliers certainly lived up to their end of that prediction.

Virginia, unbeaten at home this season, has now scored 55, 33, and 38 points in its last three games.

It was anticipated that Calvert, ranked No. 9 nationally in passing yardage, might light up a hobbled UVA secondary, but that wasn’t the case. Calvert finished 16 of 40 for 283 yards and two touchdowns. He was picked off twice, both times by Cross, who also intercepted Calvert in last year’s game.

Virginia didn’t blitz as much as usual but managed to get to the Liberty quarterback with a basic three- or four-man rush, sacked him three times, and forced several throwaways or errant passes.

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers’ running game came alive against a Liberty defense that has given up more than 400 yards a game during the season. UVA rushed 44 times for 227 yards (5.2 yards per carry), the most since its 2018 opener against Richmond (301 yards), and the first time the Cavaliers have mounted 200 or more yards on the ground since chewing up South Carolina in last year’s Belk Bowl (205 rushing).

Individual Statistics

RUSHING: LU — Frankie Hickson 15-88; Joshua Mack 3-10; Peytton Pickett 1-3; Stephen Calvert 4-(-22). UVA — PK Kier 10-82; Lamont Atkins 9-61; Bryce Perkins 13-30; Mike Hollins 8-27; Tavares Kelly Jr. 1-16; Billy Kemp IV 1-8; Brennan Armstrong 2-3.

PASSING: LU — Stephen Calvert 16-40-2-283; Landon Brown 2-6-0-30; Dj Stubbs 0-1-0-0. UVA — Bryce Perkins 18-30-0-199; Brennan Armstrong 3-4-0-73.

RECEIVING: LU — Antonio Gandy-Golden 6-60; Cj Yarbrough 4-83; Noah Frith 2-43; Johnny Huntley 2-36; Peytton Pickett 1-56; Brody Brumm 1-22; Mason Yost 1-8; Damien King 1-5. UVA — Terrell Jana 4-56; Billy Kemp IV 4-42; Joe Reed 4-31; Dontayvion Wicks 2-49; Hasise Dubois 2-31; Charles Snowden 1-24; Tavares Kelly Jr. 1-13; Terrell Chatman 1-10; Lamont Atkins 1-9; Tanner Cowley 1-7.

Attendance — 37,329.

Team Notes

• UVA recorded its eighth win of the regular season. Last UVA won eight games in the regular season was 2011.
• With the win of the season, UVA has reached eight wins for the 27th time in program history.
• UVA has scored 30+ points for the seventh time this season. It is the most games in a season with at least 30 points since the 2004 team did so eight times. 
• Virginia finished with 227 rushing yards. It is the first time since the 2018 Belk Bowl (205 vs South Carolina) that UVA surpassed 200 rushing yards. It was the most rushing yards in a game since the 2018 opener when UVA rushed for 301 yards against Richmond. 
• UVA won the time of possession battle (38:45) for the ninth time this season.
• UVA scored on its opening offensive drive of the game for the seventh time this season and for the fourth game in a row.
• UVA returned a kick return for 37 yards in the second quarter. It was the first kick return of 30+ yards yielded by Liberty this season. UVA returned a second kick for 41 yards in the second quarter. 
• CB Heskin Smith made his first career start.
• UVA had one collegiate debut against Liberty. DB Major Williams

Player Notes

• With 229 yards of total offense, QB Bryce Perkins passed 3,000 yards of total offense for the season for the second year in a row. He is the first Cavalier to notch multiple seasons of 3,000 yards of total offense. The plateau has only been reached four times in Virginia history (Bryce Perkins, 2018-19; Kurt Benkert, 2017; Matt Schaub, 2002), including three seasons in a row from 2017-19.
• Perkins won his 16th game as a UVA quarterback, trying him for No. 3 all-time in career wins at Virginia with Aaron Brooks, Marques Hagans and Jameel Sewell. Perkins is 16-8 all-time as UVA’s starting quarterback. 
• WR Terrell Jana scored his first touchdown of the season (second of his career) on an eight-yard scoring strike from Bryce Perkins on UVA’s first offensive drive of the game.
• RB Seneca Milledge returned a kick return 37 yards on his first collegiate play in the second quarter. It was the first kick return to go 30+ yards yielded by Liberty this season. 
• DB DeVante Cross notched his first interception of the season (second of his career) in the second quarter, returning it 52 yards. The interception of LU’s Buckshot Calvert snapped the nation’s longest active streak of pass attempts without an interception (295). Cross’ only other career interception happened last season against Calvert and Liberty. 
• Cross had his second interception of the game (third of his career) in the fourth quarter, returning it 35 yards. It is the first time in his career with two interceptions in one game. 
• RB Lamont Atkins scored his first collegiate touchdown on a three-yard rush in the second quarter.
• OLB Charles Snowden recorded his first career reception on a fake field goal attempt in the third quarter. It went for 24 yards and set up UVA’s first score of the second half. 
• RB PK Kier’s four-yard rushing score in the fourth quarter was the first of his career. 
• WR Dontayvion Wicks caught his first career touchdown pass for 44 yards in the fourth quarter. 

Up Next

The Cavaliers (8-3, 5-2 ACC) host Virginia Tech (8-3, 5-2) Friday at noon on ABC.