Cavaliers Charge Past Orange in 3OT Thriller

Story, photos and video by James Anderson

Charlottesville, VA. - It took three overtimes but in the end, it was the Virginia Cavaliers (2-4, 1-1 ACC) who were victorious, 44-38 over the Syracuse Orange (3-3, 1-1 ACC) at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia, Saturday.

Jordan Ellis rumbled in for a 3-yard touchdown run to seal the victory for the Cavs. It was nearly academic, as Virginia only needed a field goal to clinch the victory, after a missed 48-yard field goal try from Cole Murphy to start the third overtime period.

"You know, the biggest thing for me is, are we playing a hard effort, a high effort, hard, tough style of football and we did that today and obviously, we'll look at the film," Syracuse head coach Scott Shafer said to reporters following the long overtime game. "You know, I was disappointed last week, I didn't feel like we had the fire in our eyes down in South Florida last week, you know I thought that we struggled down there and it was hot and all those other things, but I was disappointed."

"I'm looking forward to seeing the tape, Shafer said. "I think our kids played hard. I think our kids played hard, physical football, and you know, try to fix the things that they struggled at." 

Orange scores first

While the Syracuse defense stopped Virginia cold in the first quarter, the Orange offense struggled to cash in on long drives, including Dungey being thrown for a loss on fourth and goal from the Virginia one-yard line. The first quarter ended scoreless.

Finally the defense took matters into its own hands as Donnie Simmons stripped the ball from the Cavaliers' Taquan Mizell and Antwan Cordy picked it up and ran it 44 yards for a touchdown, giving Syracuse a 7-0 lead with 10:20 left in the half.

Frenetic Second Quarter Finish

It was crazy end to the 2^nd quarter that put some offensive fireworks on the board.

28 points were put up in the last 5:07 of the first half, and when the dust settled, it was Syracuse  standing on top 21-14 at halftime.

Virginia started by scoring its first points of the contest, responding to the fumble returned by the Orange for a touchdown by driving down the field in a 11-play, 75-yard drive, capped by a 11-yard touchdown run by Mizzell.

On the next Syracuse possession, a bizarre play unfolded with Dungey appearing to make a forward throwing motion and having the ball knocked away at the same time by Virginia’s Mike Moore. The ball fell to the ground several yards away, and was scooped up by Cavalier Wilfred Wahee for a touchdown. A review confirmed the ruling on the field, giving Virginia the lead, 14-7.

Getting the ball back, the Orange rattled off a long drive of its own, going 11 plays for 76 yards and a Jordan Fredericks 1-yard punch in for the score to tie it back up.

With a minute left in the half, Virginia attempted to capitalize on the time remaining and take back the lead, but the plans went awry on a deflected pass at the line. Qaadir Sheppard pulled it down for the Orange at the Cavalier 26, and set up a highlight touchdown run on the next play by Dungey.

Dungey took off up the middle of the field, hurdled a defender near the goal line, took a hard shot upon landing and bounced off into the end zone for the impressive touchdown to give Syracuse back the lead at the half, 21-14.

4^th Quarter - Orange defense falters

The Orange scored the only points of the third quarter. After an SU drive stalled, a 22-yard Cole Murphy field goal gave them a 24-14 lead going into the fourth, but Virginia was in the midst of another long drive.

The Cavaliers finished off  that 15-play, 75-yard drive ending with Nick Johns' 2-yard touchdown pass to Charlie Hopkins to cut the deficit to three, 24-21 with 10:31 to go.

Syracuse stalled again on its next drive, but a punt by Riley Dixon put the Cavs on their four, with 6:52 left. Plenty of time, but a long way to go.

They made the most of the time, taking 19 plays to move 88 yards, finally closing with a 25-yard field goal as time expired to bring it even at 24 and sending it to overtime.

"Screens, screens, screens and more screens." summarized Syracuse senior cornerback Julian Whigham on Virginia's last drive to tie the game to send it to overtime. "Game plan I guess, they did a great job running them, you know they run screens like that, everybody knows we put so much, that's what they do, they screen us, and you know on the perimeter, we just gotta do a good job containing guys on the inside coming in attacking, you know, they just screened us."

Overtime

The teams traded touchdowns in the first two overtimes. A seven-yard touchdown pass from Eric Dungey to Ervin Phillips gave the Orange back the lead to start the first OT, 31-24. A personal foul for targeting on linebacker Zach Bradshaw put the Cavs at the 40-yard line instead of the normal 25 to start their drive.

It didn't make a difference, as three plays later, a 34 yard pass from Johns to Andrew Brown extended the overtime, knotting it at 31.

Virginia came back on offense and kept up the pressure, on another three-play drive that ended with a 13-yard TD run by Mizzell to move the Cavaliers in front 38-31, their first lead since just before the crazy end to the second quarter.

Another bad penalty, this time an unsportsmanlike conduct during the extra point try, shortened the field for the Orange, allowing SU to start at the 12-yard line for its second offensive overtime drive, and the Orange pounced. This time, Dungey hooked up with Steve Ishmael on the first play for the score to even it at 38.

Something had to give, and for Syracuse the offensive momentum came to a halt on next possession drive. A bad run for a four-yard loss by Dungey was dropped for a four-yard loss on a second down run, and then a sacked on third down. That pushed the Orange to the fringe of field goal range, and ultimately setting up Murphy's missed 48-yard field goal.

Notes and Extra Points

Syracuse’s defense started strong, as Virginia did not get a first down until the first play of its first 2^nd quarter drive, leading to a rousing cheer from the Scott Stadium faithful. There would be many more first downs for the Cavs from that point, as Virginia had 25 in total, besting Syracuse’s 20…Eric Dungey was 16 of 22 passing for 150 yards 2 TDs. He ran 18 times for 85 yards and the hurdling touchdown in the 2^nd…Taquan Mizzell led the FBS in receiving yards by a running back heading into the game, and he held to form, racking up more receiving yards (69) than rushing yards (58) …The  Orange returns to the Carrier Dome for Homecoming next weekend hosting Pittsburgh (5-1, 3-0). The Panthers beat Georgia Tech 31-28 Saturday. The Cavaliers will travel to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to take on the Tar Heels (5-1, 2-0) next week.

PHOTOS - Click on any picture to start slide show.

 

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