Virginia Ups Record To 3-1 With Impressive Win Over Louisville

It took a little while for the Virginia offense to kick into gear Saturday in the ACC opener against Louisville, but better late than never.

The Cavaliers moved to 3-1 on the season as Bryce Perkins returned from a brief injury he suffered late in the first half, then wowed the crowd by hurdling defenders, throwing a pair of second-half touchdowns and running for another in a convincing 27-3 victory over the Cardinals at Scott Stadium.

On the third play of the third quarter, Perkins threw just his second interception of the year off hands of Olamide Zaccheaus and into the hands of Louisville’s Rodjay Burns, who returned it all the way down to the UVA 3.

The Cavalier defense held the Cardinals to a field goal to cap a huge defensive stand with 9:45 left in the third.

On the ensuing drive, Bryce hurdled a Cardinal defender on a 36-yard scramble, a play you’ll likely see on the national highlight reels the rest of the night, and then threw his first TD pass of the day to a wide-open Chris Sharp three plays later to push the lead to double digits at 13-3 with 6:11 left in the period.

Bryce Hall came up with an interception on Louisville’s next drive, as he read it perfectly and jumped to snag it at the 20-yard line.

Then on a 3rd-and-long from around midfield, Perkins launched one over the top to Joe Reed for 44 yards for six, and the Wahoos took a 20-3 lead with 13:08 to play.

Charles Snowden, who had a huge day defensively, recovered a fumble that was knocked loose by Aaron Faumui, leading to a Perkins 8-yard keeper that resulted in another hurdle into the end zone with just over six minutes to play to put things out of reach.

After a scoreless first quarter and a missed 32-yard field goal try from starting kicker A.J. Mejia, a Charles Snowden interception plucked out of midair led to freshman Hunter Pearson’s first career field goal, a 28-yarder with 10:46 left until halftime for the game’s first points.

With 4:28 left, Perkins left the game with jammed fingers after trying to catch a reverse pass. True freshman backup Brendan Armstrong entered, and on his first play under center scrambled 34 yards down to the Louisville 11.

Pearson added a 24-yarder with 2:23 remaining to make it 6-0 just before the half.

Perkins fingers were taped and he returned to the field to finish the second quarter.