Late penalties plague Cavaliers in 24-21 loss to NC State in ACC opener

By Scott Ratcliffe

For the third week in a row, Virginia found itself in a position to compete in the late stages, but three costly penalties in the final minute spoiled a fourth-quarter rally, as visiting NC State escaped with a 24-21 victory — on a walk-off, second-chance field goal — in the ACC opener for both teams Friday night at Scott Stadium.

With the loss, the Cavaliers are in the midst of their first 0-4 start since 1982, still haven’t tasted victory since last October, and have now dropped seven-straight contests and 15 of their last 18 dating back to the 2021 season.

UVA trailed, 21-13, when it got the ball back with 3:29 remaining, and freshman quarterback Anthony Colandrea engineered an 11-play, 66-yard scoring drive to get the Wahoos within two points with a 3-yard touchdown toss to Malik Washington, his second of the night. Down 21-19 with just 36 ticks left, Virginia knew it had to go for two to tie it up, but an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty backed the ball up to the 18-yard line for the conversion.

As Tony Elliott admitted in his postgame comments, he didn’t have a two-point play drawn up for that far out, but Colandrea dug into his bag of tricks and delivered a ball into the end zone, and Malachi Fields leapt up and hauled it in to knot the score at 21-all.

Just as things were looking a little brighter for the Cavalier fans who stuck it out through the rain, another crucial penalty — another unsportsmanlike call, this one on Colandrea for removing his helmet — forced Virginia to kick off from its own 20-yard line, and the Wolfpack (3-1, 1-0) took advantage.

Matt Ganyard gave it a ride, booting it 63 yards to the State 17, but speedster Julian Gray returned it 35 yards and into UVA territory at the 48, giving former Hoo Brennan Armstrong plenty of time to get his team into field-goal range.

The all-time leader in several Cavalier passing categories capped off his return to Charlottesville with a pair of 8-yard carries followed by another short 2-yard gain to set up a 48-yard, Brayden Narveson attempt to win it, as the visitors called a timeout with just three ticks showing.

The Hoos blocked Narveson’s kick, but once again shot themselves in the foot, as James Jackson was whistled for making contact with snapper Joe Shimko, moving the ball up 15 yards to the 15. Narveson stepped up and calmly connected on the game-winning field goal as time expired, and the Pack began to celebrate.

“I was told that one of our guys retaliated, and they’re always going to see the second guy,” Elliott recalled of the two-point conversion to tie it. “And then the helmet came off, and to them it looked like the player took the helmet off on the field.

“And then we hit the snapper [on the first field-goal try], and the rule in college football is you can’t jump over the snapper, you can’t touch the snapper, and they’ve got to throw the flag, so I don’t fault the officials at all.

“I tell [the players], we’ve got to win and lose with class. We’re in the final moments of the game, that’s when we’ve got to be at our sharpest, and we just didn’t have the discipline down the stretch to win the football game.”

Colandrea had another solid performance in just his third career start and fourth college game, completing 18 of his 30 attempts for 271 yards and a pair of TD tosses while leading the team in rushing with 43 yards on 13 carries, but also threw a couple of untimely interceptions and was sacked twice.

Washington became just the third UVA receiver to register three-consecutive, 100-yard games, joining Germane Crowell and Dontayvion Wicks. The Northwestern grad transfer finished with a game-high 170 yards on 10 catches (14 targets), and found the end zone twice.

Armstrong completed half of his passes (15 for 30) for 180 yards, 2 touchdowns and a pick, and also led his team in rushing with a game-high 64 yards on 15 attempts.

Virginia outgained the Wolfpack, 384-319, in total yards, but will have to go back to the drawing board and find a way to finish off a win.

Team Notes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

• The meeting between Virginia and NC State was the first since 2020. NC State has won five of the last six meetings against UVA, including three-straight at Scott Stadium.
• The night game at Scott Stadium was the first for UVA since playing Notre Dame in 2021.
• Dating back to last season, UVA has lost seven-straight games and is 0-4 for the first time since 1982, Hall of Fame coach George Welsh’s first year with the program. UVA has lost four-straight games for the first time since 2020.
• Virginia converted its first two-point conversion since 2021 (at Miami) to tie the game with 36 seconds left in regulation.
• UVA finished with a season-high 113 yards rushing, the most in a game since North Carolina last season (186 yards).
• Brennan Armstrong’s 48-yard touchdown pass by to Kevin Concepion is the second-longest play from scrimmage surrendered by UVA this season (64-yard TD pass at Maryland on 9/15).
• The three-point loss marks the seventh time UVA has been part of a game decided by a touchdown or less in the first 14 of Tony Elliott’s tenure. UVA is 2-5 in one-score affairs since the beginning of the 2022 season.

Player Notes

• Wide receiver Malik Washington finished with a career-highs in receptions (10), receiving yards (170) and touchdowns (2). Washington is one of 12 receivers in UVA history to record 170 yards or more in a game.
• With 119 receiving yards vs. JMU, 141 at Maryland and 170 against NC State, Washington became the third Cavalier ever to record three-straight 100-yard receiving games in a season. Dontayvion Wicks did it in 2021 and Germane Crowell had three-straight 100-yard games in 1997. Washington did not have a 100-yard effort in his first 41 games of his collegiate career, including all 40 at Northwestern.
• Washington has now caught a pass in 29-straight games.
• Washington is the first Cavalier receiver with 10 receptions in a game since Keytaon Thompson and Dontayvion Wicks at Pitt in 2021.
• True freshman Kam Robinson led the Cavalier defense tackles with 11, including eight solo efforts. He had one QB hurry and combined on a tackle for loss.
• Micah Gaffney recorded his first career interception, picking off former teammate Brennan Armstrong in the second quarter It was the first Cavalier interception of the season. Gaffney finished with a careerhigh three tackles, including a tackle for loss.
• Despite playing just the first half, defensive end Kam Butler recorded a sack in his fourth-straight game. He finished with four tackles (three solo) before leaving with an injury.
• Quarterback Anthony Colandrea accounted for 314 yards of total offense, including a career-high 43
  yards on the ground. He orchestrated the game-tying drive beginning at the 3:29 mark in the fourth
  quarter, 11 plays for 66 yards that ended with a three-yard scoring strike to Malik Washington. He went 5 for 6 with 50 yards passing and added 10 rushing yards on UVA’s final drive.

UP NEXT

UVA will travel to Chestnut Hill to face Boston College next Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be televised on The CW Network.