Cavalier Offense Explodes As Virginia Wins 45-31 in Nashville

It was quite an interesting week for the Virginia football program. With the threat of severe weather due to Hurricane Florence, the Cavaliers traveled over 500 miles west Saturday to face Ohio on the campus of Vanderbilt University.

Bryce Perkins threw for 379 yards and three scores, Jordan Ellis Virginia rushed for a career-high 171 yards and three touchdowns, Olamide Zaccheaus set a UVa single-game receiving record with 247 yards and a pair of scores, and Virginia moved to 2-1 on the season with a 45-31 win over the Bobcats in Nashville.

The ‘Hoos fans who made the trip enjoyed an offensive explosion early on in the Music City, but Ohio (1-1) made things interesting and battled back before UVa pulled away to cap a memorable week.

Trailing by 17 at halftime, Ohio went 80 yards in six plays to get within 10, 38-28, with 12:12 left in the third quarter.

Neither team could get much going until the final play of the third, when Virginia’s Bryce Hall broke up a pass on a huge 4th-down conversion.

The Cavaliers missed a field goal off the left upright on the ensuing possession, but got the ball back and delivered the dagger with just over six minutes to play.

On a 3rd-and-4 from the UVa 22, Perkins zipped one to Zaccheaus, who made a move and showed off his blinding speed, outracing Ohio defenders 77 yards to put the game out of reach.

“Biggest play of the game…,” said UVa coach Bronco Mendenhall, “where it looks like if they have a chance to stop us there, who knows in terms of maybe not a win, but it’s even closer. Yards after the catch were critical.”

Ohio added a late field goal with 2:59 remaining for the final result.

Things couldn’t have gotten off to a better start for the ‘Hoos.

An Ohio fumble on the second play from scrimmage led to an 18-yard Ellis touchdown run on the Cavaliers’ first snap, and Virginia had a 7-spot just 48 seconds in.

Outside linebackers Chris Peace and Charles Snowden combined to sack Ohio quarterback Nathan Rourke on the play, with Peace jarring the ball loose and into the hands of Eli Hanback.

Following an Ohio 3-and-out, Perkins connected with Zaccheaus on a short pass, and the senior wideout took it for a career-long 86 yards for six, with an escort down the sideline by Hasise Dubois, and it was 14-0 with 12:51 still left in the opening frame.

Ohio got on the board with 6:17 left in the first quarter on a Maleek Irons plunge. The play was set up by a Rourke 70-yard scramble down inside the UVa 5-yard line.

The Cavaliers answered right back, again in just one play. Ellis took it right up the gut for 75 yards to the house to stretch the lead to 21-7, and it took all of 11 seconds.

Virginia racked up 217 yards of total offense in the first quarter alone.

On the next Wahoo possession, Perkins led a 68-yard march, capped by Ellis’ third touchdown run (also a career high) of the half, to make it 28-7 with 11:35 left until halftime. Perkins tossed it to Ellis, who took it six yards and bounced into the end zone.

Hanback nearly struck paydirt himself two plays later, recovering his second fumble of the day and rumbling down the field, but coughed it up himself inside the 5 and Ohio got it back at its own 1.

The Wahoo defense came up with another big play, as Brenton Nelson and Joey Blount were there to stop A.J. Oullette short on a 4th-and-2 from around midfield, midway through the second quarter.

Perkins then engineered another solid scoring drive, finding Hasise Dubois from 10 yards out to push Virginia’s lead to 35-7 with 2:52 left in the first half.

After the defense forced another Ohio punt, Perkins lost the ball on the next possession — Virginia’s first lost fumble of the season — which led to a quick strike from Rourke to Papi White for 29 yards on the next play to cut the UVa lead to 35-14 with 1:27 to go.

The Bobcats then deflected the onside kick off of a Cavalier and Ohio recovered, adding another Rourke touchdown pass, this time 36 yards to Isaiah Cox, and it was 35-21 just 37 seconds later.

“The early part of the game was ridiculous in terms of explosive plays that we gave up, and then kind of got going a little bit towards the end,” said Ohio coach Frank Solich.

Perkins wasn’t done, however, as he got the ball back with 50 seconds and guided the ‘Hoos 60 yards in 43 seconds. A.J. Mejia knocked through a 32-yard field goal — his first of the season — just before the end of the half to push the lead to 17 at the break.

The 38 first-half points, fourth-most in school history for 30 minutes, were the most for a Virginia offense since 1990 (a year UVa fans remember well) when the ‘Hoos matched that number against Duke. Virginia’s trio of one-play scoring drives in the first quarter also topped a school record from 1990, when the team had two such scores against Navy.

UVa went to the locker room with 354 yards of total offense. Perkins, who finished 25 for 30 on the day, was 18 for 20 at the half for 241 yards and two touchdowns. Ellis had nine carries for 118 yards and the three scores, while Zaccheaus had seven grabs for 158 yards and a score.

Zaccheaus’ career mark exceeded that of Ken Shelton, who posted 241 receiving yards against William & Mary in 1974. Zaccheaus also extended his streak of games with at least one catch to 32.

Defensively, sophomore Zane Zandier filled in at inside linebacker for Malcolm Cook and finished his first career start with a team-leading 10 tackles and a sack, one of many heroes on that side of the ball for Mendenhall Saturday.

“It was good for him to earn that opportunity while [Cook] was hurt,” said the coach.

Safety Juan Thornhill added nine stops, Peace had six — two for a loss — and the early strip, while defensive end Richard Burney also forced a fumble.

Virginia finished with 552 total yards — 379 through the air and 173 on the ground.

For Ohio, Rourke was 16 for 31 for 246 yards and two TD tosses while rushing five times for a net of 41 yards, as he was sacked three times.

Oullette and Irons combined for 77 yards on the ground on 25 carries. White led the Bobcats with 131 yards on six grabs.

The Cavaliers will be back at Scott Stadium next Saturday to open up ACC play against Louisville at 12:30 p.m.