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Cavaliers slip past Demon Deacons
 By JOHN GALINSKY / Daily Progress staff writer
Sep 29, 2002

 
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - A week ago, Virginia coach Al Groh said this would be "a season of resolve" for his team.

That resolve was severely tested at Groves Stadium on Saturday night. It was tested by a punishing Wake Forest offense that rolled up 495 yards, 349 on the ground. It was tested by a 17-point deficit in the second half. And it was tested by injuries, penalties and mistakes that might have caused many teams to concede defeat.

Yet despite it all, the Cavaliers met every test, responding with one of the most remarkable comeback victories in the program's history. The 38-34 triumph left plenty of doubts about UVa's defense, maybe, but not its resolve.

"They have a lot to be proud of. They really stuck together," Groh said of his players. "This is a game where the offense had to trust that the defense would give them a chance to get back in. The defense had to trust the offense to get them back in it.

"The players had to trust the coaches and the coaches had to trust the players. This certainly was about that trust and fight. I think we've got something going here."

The Cavaliers (3-2, 1-1 ACC) had almost nothing go their way much of the night. The Demon Deacons (2-3, 0-2) scored on six of their first seven drives and seized a 34-17 lead. And the way they did it, shoving Virginia's defense around, made a comeback seem unlikely.

But UVa made defensive adjustments and stopped Wake Forest on its final five drives. That gave the Cavalier offense a chance to rally, which it did with four second-half touchdowns.

Matt Schaub turned in another superb performance, completing 22 of 27 passes for 312 yards and three touchdowns. But it was his backup, Marques Hagans, who dashed 13 yards for the winning score with 6:13 left.

That capped Virginia's biggest comeback since overcoming a 29-7 halftime deficit in a 36-32 victory over Virginia Tech in 1998. It was the second-biggest comeback in ACC play for the Cavaliers, who rallied from 19 points down to defeat Duke in 1995.

"I think this game showed the faith we have in each other and the faith we have in our coaches," said receiver Ryan Sawyer, who caught two touchdown passes. "We never gave up and we made some great plays."

A little luck didn't hurt, either. Sawyer's second scoring grab, a 38-yarder late in the third quarter, came off a tipped halfback option pass from Wali Lundy. The throw was intended for tight end Heath Miller, who also had two TD catches, but several Wake defenders converged on the ball. Somehow, it wound up getting deflected to Sawyer, who caught it in stride and scored to slice Virginia's deficit to 34-24.

"I called it all the way," Lundy joked. "I thought Heath was open but their guys were all over it. Luckily Sawyer was there. That changed our mindsets a little bit. When that happened, we thought we could really win."

Schaub made it possible by throwing to Miller for a 4-yard score early in the fourth quarter, making it 34-31. He then directed a 78-yard drive, completing four straight passes before giving way to Hagans, who scored on a quarterback draw by weaving through Wake's defense.

After taking the lead, the Cavaliers needed one more defensive stop - and one more bit of good fortune. They got both.

With the Demon Deacons needing a touchdown in the final minute, a fourth-down completion to receiver Fabian Davis at the UVa 5-yard line was negated by an illegal procedure penalty. Wake didn't have the required seven players at the line of scrimmage. On the next play, Darryl Blackstock sacked quarterback James MacPherson, ending the drama.

"We just weren't lined up right," Wake coach Jim Grobe said. "Sometimes you make mistakes. ... That one really hurt us."

The Deacons, who snapped their 17-game losing streak to Virginia last year, were inflicting most of the punishment in the first half. Four of their first five drives were long ones. They used at least 11 plays each time, scoring one field goal and three touchdowns.

Whenever Wake needed yards, it gave the ball to one of its four tailbacks. Or MacPherson handed it to Davis, who rushed for 74 yards on five reverses in the first half. Chris Barclay, Cornelius Birgs and Ovie Mughelli ran for first-half touchdowns and Matt Wisnosky kicked a pair of field goals, including a 30-yarder on the final play of the half that gave the Deacons a 27-10 lead.

The only bright spots for Virginia in the first half were Kurt Smith's 32-yard field goal - the first successful attempt by the Cavaliers this season - and Schaub's gorgeous 33-yard strike to Sawyer.

Otherwise, the Deacons were in control. In the first half alone, they owned the time of possession, 20:47 to 9:13. They ran 56 plays, about three times as many as Virginia, and rushed for 251 yards on 45 carries.

The Cavaliers played without a handful of injured players: tailbacks Michael Johnson and Alvin Pearman, linebacker Raymond Mann and safety Willie Davis. Left guard Ben Carber hobbled off with an injury in the first half. They also committed nine penalties, seven in the first half, and fumbled a kickoff.

Yet they walked off the field as winners for the third straight time. They have won the past two weeks despite allowing 495 yards in each game.

"This was all about attitude," safety Jerton Evans said. "Attitude-wise, we never gave up. We just woke up and played some football."


 

 

Cavaliers get their kick in
 
By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Even when Virginia made its first successful field-goal attempt of the season, the Cavaliers had to do it the hard way.

    Redshirt freshman Kurt Smith, who was 0-for-2 before Saturday night, actually converted twice. After an apparent 27-yard field goal was nullified by penalty, Smith converted from 32 yards with 10:19 left in the second quarter.

    Only four other Division I-A teams had not kicked a field goal before this week, with Wyoming and Virginia the only ones to play four games.

    TRICK PLAYS: Freshman tailback Wali Lundy became the fourth Virginia player to throw a touchdown pass, only two of them quarterbacks, when he connected with Ryan Sawyer for 38 yards in the third quarter.

    Lundy's intended target was tight end Heath Miller on a slow-developing play, but the Wake secondary closed quickly and the ball glanced off Miller's hands and into the arms of a trailing Sawyer. Miller threw a touchdown pass on a trick play in UVa's third game.

    Lundy was one of three players to throw passes for the Cavaliers on Saturday night, along with starting quarterback Matt Schaub and backup quarterback Marques Hagans, who lined up at wide receiver on several occasions. Hagans also returned punts but did not play quarterback until he raced 16 yards for a go-ahead touchdown with 6:13 left.

    INJURIES: Sophomore tailback Alvin Pearman, averaging a team-high 5.8 yards per carry, made the trip for Virginia but had a bulky cast on his right hand and did not play in the game. Among the UVa players who did not make the trip was safety Chris Williams, who injured an ankle in the Cavaliers' 48-29 victory over Akron.

    Left offensive guard Ben Carber, who had played every snap in back-to-back games against South Carolina and Akron, limped off in the second quarter Saturday night and did not return. Mark Farrington, the starter at left guard before the season, played the rest of the night on an offensive line that yielded only one sack.

    NEXT WEEK: Virginia will visit Duke (2-3, 0-1 ACC) at noon at Wallace Wade Stadium. The Cavaliers have won six of the last seven games in the series, including a 31-10 triumph last year in Charlottesville, and 11 of the last 12. Duke, which entered the season with a 23-game losing streak, is coming off a 43-17 victory Saturday at Navy.

 

 

Hagans completes rally Schaub starts
UVa rebounds from 17 points behind for its second-biggest ACC comeback win ever.

By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - All week, Virginia had been practicing the play on which backup quarterback Marques Hagans scored the Cavaliers' winning touchdown Saturday.

    The biggest surprise is that they got the chance to use it.

    Hagans, who took one snap at quarterback all night, raced 13 yards with 6:13 remaining as UVa overcame a 17-point halftime deficit to defeat the Deacons 38-34 before 25,883 at Groves Stadium.

    It was the first Virginia-Wake Forest game at Groves Stadium for Cavaliers coach Al Groh since 1983, when he was the coach at Wake Forest. The score in that game: 38-34.

    "They've got a lot to be proud of," Groh said Saturday night. "The offense had to trust the defense to get a stop. The defense had to trust the offense to make a score. I think we've got something going for us now."

    It was UVa's second-biggest comeback in an ACC game, trailing only a 44-30 victory over Duke in 1995, when the Cavaliers overcame a 21-3 first-half deficit. Virginia's biggest comeback ever was in a 36-32 victory at Virginia Tech in 1998, when the Hokies led 29-7 in the second half.

    Wake (2-3, 0-2) toyed with the Cavaliers for 30 minutes, rushing for 251 yards in the first half and a total of 395 against a team ranked 109th of 117 Division I-A teams against the run.

    The Deacons had the ball for nearly 21 minutes and ran 56 plays, compared with 19 for the Cavaliers, in taking a 27-10 halftime lead.

    UVa (3-2, 1-1) was plagued by mistakes, including seven penalties for 50 yards in the first half. The Cavaliers were whistled for being offside twice on Wake's first six offensive plays.

    None of the penalties was more damaging than a personal foul called against UVa safety Jerton Evans with the Deacons leading 10-3 in the second quarter.

    The Cavaliers seemingly had stopped Wake on downs, and the Deacons were looking to punt from their 34-yard line when the penalty gave them a first down. Nine running plays later, Wake had gone ahead 17-3.

    UVa needed two plays to cut the deficit to 17-10 on a 33-yard touchdown pass from Matt Schaub to Ryan Sawyer with 4:54 remaining before halftime, but the Cavaliers were unable to stop Wake Forest wide receiver Fabian Davis.

    Davis had three receptions for 30 yards at the half, but he really hurt the Cavaliers with five end-arounds for 74 yards. That included a 29-yard run on the touchdown drive that put the Deacons ahead 24-10 with 1:26 left in the half.

    Until that point, the Cavaliers had hurt Wake with two long kickoff returns, but the Deacons got wise and kicked high and short to UVa tight end Patrick Estes, whose fumble was recovered by the Deacs' Chris Davis at the UVa 26. A 30-yard field goal by Matt Wisnosky at the halftime buzzer gave Wake, a two-point favorite, a 17-point lead.

    "It was not a time for ranting and raving," Groh said. "It was a time for coaching. The coaches did a marvelous job offensively and defensively in their halftime adjustments. It was like we put in a whole new defensive game plan at the half."

    Wake Forest outgained the Cavaliers 495 yards to 398 in the game but had little answer for Schaub, who completed 22 of 27 passes for 312 yards and three touchdowns. Schaub entered the game ranked seventh in Division I-A in passing efficiency and second in touchdown passes.

    A 4-yard pass from Schaub to Heath Miller brought the Cavaliers to 34-31 with 12:31 left, and Schaub had taken UVa from its 22 to the Wake 16 before giving way to Hagans with just less than seven minutes remaining.

    "I knew what coach [Groh] was thinking," Schaub said. "Marques was a better choice for that play than I was."

    Hagans has run quarterback draws almost exclusively in the last three games, but things were a little different this time.

    "It was a little different design," Groh said. "We tried to sell the play fake, make it look like a pass instead of a run."

    It resulted in the Cavaliers' first rushing touchdown since their first game.

    "I was wondering if they might suspect something," Hagans said. "If they noticed anything, I didn't hear it."

    Wake had the ball two more times, driving as far as the UVa 18-yard line in the closing minute. After a procedure penalty nullified a pass that would have given the Deacs a first-and-goal at the UVa 5-yard line, Cavaliers freshman Darryl Blackstock sacked quarterback James MacPherson on Wake's final offensive play.

    The Deacons did not score over the final 22:36.

    "We didn't get as many touches in the second half, so that hurt our chances," said Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe, a UVa alumnus. "They had some nice throws to some big receivers. I felt our corners were in pretty good position for the most part; they were just smaller."

    Of the Deacons' last 16 games, 13 have been decided by a TD or less, including a 34-30 victory last year in Charlottesville that ended the Cavaliers' 17-game winning streak against Wake.

    "I told the kids to be mad about this and to know that we lost because we didn't make big plays," Grobe said. "I told them you can't win games by hoping and wishing."

 

 

Late procedure penalty against Deacons proves costly as WFU falls to 0-2 in ACC
Cavaliers rally by Deacs

By Dan Collins
JOURNAL REPORTER
 

With the game on the line, the required number of Wake Forest players was not.

Quarterback Matt Schaub of Virginia completed 22 of 27 passes for 312 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Cavaliers to a dramatic 38-34 comeback victory over the Deacons last night in front of 25,883 at Groves Stadium.

But even after being outscored 21-0 while squandering a 34-17 lead, the Deacons appeared on the verge of pulling out the victory when James MacPherson completed a fourth-down pass to Fabian Davis at the Cavalier 5 with 50 seconds left. The play was negated, however, when Wake Forest was penalized for having only six players on the line of scrimmage.

Freshman linebacker Darryl Blackstock then sacked MacPherson on the next play as the Deacon lost possession and the game.

Virginia improved to 3-2 and 1-1 in the ACC with its third straight victory. Wake Forest slipped to 2-3 and 0-2, despite rushing 68 times for 349 yards and controlling the ball for almost 351/2 minutes.

"Down the stretch you hope you don't make mistakes but once in awhile you do," Coach Jim Grobe said of the Deacons' procedure penalty. "That one certainly hurt us."

MacPherson, who threw two errant passes earlier in the quarter to stall drives, was on target on the final possession while completing four straight passes for 44 yards. After throwing incomplete on third-and-8 from the Virginia 18, he connected with Davis for a 13-yard completion that would have given the Deacons a first-and-goal from the 5.

"Knowing us that would have been a touchdown automatically," fullback Ovie Mughelli said.

Instead the play was negated by the procedure penalty. Fabian Davis, who anchored the Deacons' attack with six rushes for 90 yards and five catches for 53 yards, said he was the player flagged by the officials.

Both he and Grobe said the penalty was the right call.

"Actually I kind of screwed that play up," Davis said. "We called the formation to put us unbalanced right and I was supposed to be up on the ball. Normally I'm off the ball, but I saw the tight end come over and I got off the ball. That put not enough men on the line of scrimmage. I didn't realize it until after I got up, but from there that was pretty much the game.

"At that point of the game you've got to make those plays and you've got to be more disciplined that that. And I wasn't."

In two halves that Mughelli described as different as "night and day," the Deacons spent the first half running through the Virginia defense and the second half running after open Cavalier receivers. Of Wake Forest's 349 rushing yards, 251 came in the first half while the Deacons were controlling the ball for almost 21 minutes and completing one touchdown drive of 86 yards and two of 80 yards.

But of the Cavaliers' 349 passing yards, 237 came in the second half as Schaub directed two touchdown drives of 80 yards and one of 58 yards to set up the game-winning 78-yard drive. Reserve quarterback Marques Hagans raced through the scattered Wake Forest defense the final 13 yards for the touchdown that gave the Cavaliers their first lead at 38-34 with 6:13 remaining.

Virginia trailed 27-10 at halftime and 34-17 with 7:36 minutes left in the third quarter before scoring on three of its next four drives.

"When you're up 17 going into the half, you think you're going to come back and close it out," defensive end Calvin Pace said. "But I really want to put the loss on the defense's hands, because we didn't stop anybody in the second half."

Even when in the proper position - as the Deacons rarely were in the second half - Wake Forest had problems making the plays needed to stave off the Cavaliers' comeback.

After extending their lead to 34-17 on Mughelli's 3-yard touchdown, the Deacons' pass defense could offer precious little resistance. Schaub completed four straight passes for 36 yards to move the ball to the Wake Forest 38.

On third and 3, tailback Wali Lundy started right on a sweep, pulled up under pressure and threw a high wobbly pass downfield toward tight end Heath Miller. Safety Quintin Williams, playing with a broken wrist, deflected the ball, which junior Ryan Sawyer caught in stride on his way to a 38-yard pass completion for a touchdown.

 

 

COMIC RELIEF: No more pie in Groh's face
By Lenox Rawlings
JOURNAL COLUMNIST
 

Long before Virginia pulled it together last night, Coach Al Groh drifted into a mental theater where all the movies were silent movies.

Long before Virginia rallied from 17 points down and beat Wake Forest 38-34, Groh imagined himself as a slapstick comic buried amid his team's chaotic unraveling. The problems multiplied by the minute, and Groh's possible solutions couldn't maintain the frantic pace.

"If it was one thing, I would've thought of it a lot earlier," he said after a procedure penalty (for not enough players on the line) choked the Deacons' last drive at the 5 and the dust cleared. He laughed the high-pitched laugh of a giddy escapee. "In the middle of the second quarter, I felt like that old comedy act. You know, the paperhanger where it's coming down all around. There was paper coming down in lots of different places."

With glue on his fingers and a bucket on each foot, Groh set out to extract the Cavaliers from the mess. And what a mess it was. Wake Forest ran everywhere. Fabian Davis burned Virginia on the end-around, and when he didn't take the handoff, Nick Burney and the other tailbacks slashed through the line, often without resistance.

Arm tackling? The rattled and riddled Cavaliers seldom got more than a single futile paw on a runner's shoulder pad, unless fullback Ovie Mughelli plowed his hard-driving 248 pounds into human piles and moved them along like an overloaded blocking sled. Wake Forest rushed 45 times for 251 yards in the first half, cruising to a 27-10 lead.

The Cavaliers couldn't maintain possession for more than a microsecond. Other than a two-play drive, with Matt Schaub throwing 33 yards to anonymous Ryan Sawyer for the touchdown, the offense fired blanks.

"It wasn't a bowl of roses," Groh said. "The thing is, those are really tiring games. If we'd had three fumbles and they had come up with them, then you would've said: 'Bad break.' But there were things we were going to have to do to change things. It wasn't just telling the players to go play football or something.... That wasn't the time for ranting and raving. That was time for coaching."

With Schaub leading the assault, Virginia completed 17 of 21 passes for 237 yards and three touchdowns in the second half. Some were artful, some were awfully lucky, like the deflected pass intended for Heath Miller that Sawyer pulled out of busy air for a 38-yard touchdown.

Sawyer's two touchdowns doubled his number of career catches. The junior from Georgia spent two years on special teams, but his stature rose recently, based on a recommendation.

"I had a talk with my receivers coach," Groh said. His wide receivers coach is son Mike Groh, a former Virginia quarterback who spent part of his childhood passing to Deacons while his father coached Wake Forest from 1981 through 1986.

Mike Groh, now 30, told his father than Sawyer was ready for prime time. The tip proved prescient. Sawyer made the assistant look good.

Taller receivers made the Cavaliers look even better, with the renewed emphasis on 6-4 Billy McMullen and the 6-5 Miller, who caught two touchdown passes. Virginia pitted basketball-sized receivers against Wake Forest's soccer-sized cornerbacks, 5-9 Daryl Shaw and Eric King.

The strategy didn't exactly floor Coach Jim Grobe of Wake Forest. "Honestly, I don't mind the underneath and intermediate stuff if we make them earn things," he said. "The things that bother me the most are the deep balls. I don't know if we went out and did it over again we'd be any better, because I thought the quarterback made some really nice throws to some tall receivers. Our corners are not big."

Virginia concocted its second-best rally in an ACC game, topped only by an 18-point comeback against Duke in 1995. Afterward, Groh empathized with Grobe.

"These guys have done a marvelous job with this team," Groh said. "I know what has to be done here. Nobody respects as much what Jim's done with this team as I do because I know. This is a good team. He's got a real good team. You can tell his players believe in him."

Groh, 26-40 at Wake Forest, left because Athletics Director Gene Hooks wouldn't extend his contract beyond the next season. Groh spent 13 of the next 14 seasons in the NFL, mostly as an assistant to Bill Parcells but ultimately as the Jets' head coach in 2000.

Last night, Groh coached his first game in Winston-Salem since 1986.

"It really didn't matter," Groh said. "I know when I said this all week, people said: 'Yeah, right, sure.' But it really didn't make any difference to me. Maybe if it was two years ago, it would've, but I've gone back to coach at so many places where I coached before. A few year ago, we went to the Super Bowl with New England and the fourth game of the next season, we were back in there against them. I know Wake had some type of weekend here where a lot of players are back. The one thing I do say is that I don't forget the players. My memories are really about the players."

He greeted former Deacons David Richmond and Chip Rives. Richmond later approached Mike Groh and talked about the old days, holding his hand at chest level to illustrate Groh's 1983 height.

The reunion proceeded as the buses emitted fumes and parents hugged players. Al Groh, who raised a clenched fist when he jogged into the locker room, beamed like a bowl winner.

Son Mike nodded. "He told everybody during the week that this game wasn't any different than the others," Mike said, "but I know this was an important game for him. It meant a lot to him for us to come back and play well. This was a satisfying win for him."

You can hang some paper on that.

 

 

Cavaliers Rally To Escape Demons
Schaub Leads 21-Point Comeback: Virginia 38, Wake Forest 34

By Jim Reedy
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, September 29, 2002; Page D11

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Sept. 28 -- For close to 40 minutes tonight, Virginia could do nothing right and Wake Forest could do nothing wrong at Groves Stadium. By midway through the third quarter, the Cavaliers were down 17 points. Confidence waning? Hardly.

Defensive end Chris Canty knew the Cavaliers needed to just hold the Deacons a few times and get the ball back to quarterback Matt Schaub and the Virginia offense.

The plan worked. Virginia scored three unanswered touchdowns in the second half and left with a 38-34 victory.

"Just get a couple stops and we'd be all right," Canty said. "Let Matt do his thing."

Schaub, who finished with 312 yards and three touchdowns on 22-of-27 passing, led the Cavaliers (3-2, 1-1 ACC) back into the game and set the stage for a game-winning touchdown run by his backup, redshirt freshman Marques Hagans.

Hagans had already played punt returner, wide receiver and running back by the time he was called upon to run a play at his "real" position with Virginia trailing by three points on the Wake 13-yard line. He took the snap, faked a pass and scrambled past a handful of defenders into the end zone.

Hagans scored with 6 minutes 13 seconds remaining, leaving Wake plenty of time to mount a final drive. But after controlling much of the game with a ground game that produced 349 rushing yards, the Deacons (2-3, 0-2) passed their way downfield this time. They reached the Virginia 23, where freshman linebacker Darryl Blackstock sacked quarterback James MacPherson on fourth and 13 with 50 seconds left.

"They have a lot to be proud of," Cavaliers Coach Al Groh said of his players. "They really stuck together from beginning to end."

The Cavaliers might have been forgiven if their intensity had waned after Wake Forest took a 27-10 halftime lead with 251 rushing yards, and 19 first downs. But the Virginia coaches made a series of adjustments, mostly on the defensive side, that helped turn things around in the second half.

"Both on offense and defense, the coaches did a marvelous job at halftime," Groh said. "We pretty much put in a whole new game plan on defense. There were some adjustments, but there were also marvelous plays by the players."

Halftime "wasn't the time for ranting and raving," Groh added. "That was the time for coaching. The players needed to be coached, so that's what we did."

Wake Forest scored on six of its first seven possessions, but went scoreless on its last five. In the meantime, the Virginia offense, down 34-17, began to go to work.

Virginia pulled within 10 on a trick play -- a 38-yard touchdown pass that benefited from a good dose of luck. Schaub pitched the ball to freshman tailback Wali Lundy, who reared and threw a wobbly pass toward tight end Heath Miller about 35 yards downfield in heavy traffic. The ball bounced off Miller and the defenders, into the hands of wide receiver Ryan Sawyer, who was trailing the play. Sawyer, a former defensive back who had two career catches and no touchdowns before tonight, ran the final few yards for his second touchdown of the game.

A few minutes later, Virginia drew still closer. Sparked by a 40-yard pass to junior wideout Michael McGrew, the Cavs went 58 yards in four plays for a touchdown that cut the lead to 34-31. Schaub threw the four-yard scoring pass to Miller after eluding a sack by an unblocked Wake Forest pass rusher.

The game-winning drive began on Virginia's 22 with 9½ minutes left and concluded with Hagans under center for the first and only time tonight.

"We had practiced that play all week," Groh said of Hagans's touchdown run.

"It's a play we had in mind. Certainly, he did a great job."

Cavaliers Notes: Safeties Chris Williams and Willie Davis were among seven injured Cavaliers who did not make the trip. . . . Tailback Alvin Pearman was in uniform, but he had a bulky cast on his right hand and wrist and did not play. . . . Left guard Ben Carber did not return after leaving early in the second quarter.

 

 

Things go right for Cavs
Groh wins return to Winston-Salem
 
By AL MYATT, Staff Writer
WINSTON-SALEM -- Al Groh came back on Saturday night. So did his Virginia Cavaliers.

After trailing 27-10 at the half to Wake Forest at Groves Stadium, the former Demon Deacons coach walked away from his old stomping grounds with a 38-34 ACC win.

Groh, in his second season as coach of the Cavs, said trust provided the thrust for Virginia (3-2, 1-1), which scored the last 21 points.

"Offense had to trust the defense to get a stop," said Groh, who directed Wake from 1981 to 1986. "The defense had to trust the offense to get a score. There was a lot of trust between the team and the coaches to make the right decision."

The Cavaliers put their trust offensively in the right arm of quarterback Matt Schaub, and he responded by passing for 200 yards and two touchdowns in the second half.

Schaub finished 22-of-27 for 312 yards and three touchdowns. He was not picked off by Wake Forest, which came into the game as the national leader in turnover margin.

Schaub wasn't the only one throwing for the Cavaliers, who avenged a 34-30 loss to the Deacons last year to win for the 18th time in the last 19 meetings in the series. Running back Wally Lundy threw a 38-yard pass to Ryan Sawyer that pulled Virginia within 34-24 with 4:40 left in the third quarter.

Schaub hit Heath Miller for a 4-yard touchdown off play-action to trim Wake's lead to 34-31 with 12:31 to go.

After driving from its own 22, Virginia put freshman Marques Hagans in at quarterback, and he ran 13 yards for the go-ahead touchdown and Virginia's first lead at 38-34 with 6:13 left.

Wake (2-3, 0-2) got a final shot beginning at its own 30 with 3:04 to go, but the crowd of 25,883 saw the Deacons' closing threat defused by a penalty and a sack. On a fourth down, Wake quarterback James MacPherson hit Fabian Davis for 13 yards, but first-and-goal at the Virginia 5-yard line was wiped out by illegal procedure because Davis lined up in the backfield.

Looking downfield the next play on 4th-and-13 at the 23, MacPherson rolled right into a sack by Virginia linebackers Darryl Blackstock and Merrill Robertson.

"Chris Davis had gotten behind his defender, and I was waiting for some separation," MacPherson said. "I probably should have thrown it, but I was also looking for Fabian Davis to come open on a crossing route. Their guy made a great play and got off his block to get me."

For the 11th time in 12 games, Wake was involved in a game decided by seven or fewer points.

"We knew better than to feel comfortable at halftime," said Wake coach Jim Grobe, who, like Groh, is a Virginia alumnus. " ... Schaub is a much-improved player, and the coaching staff has done some nice things to make him effective. They spread it around to the running backs and tight ends, and then their wide receivers won some jump balls deep against our smaller corners."

Virginia's only touchdown of the first half came on a Schaub pass that Wake free safety Quinton Williams attempted to pick off. It caromed off a soft cast on Williams' right wrist and ricocheted high to where Ryan Sawyer ran under it for a 33-yard Virginia touchdown.

"I don't think that play really affected our sideline," said Grobe, whose team rushed for 349 yards. "I felt like we had pretty good intensity. ... Virginia just made plays in the second half and we didn't."

 

 

U.Va. rallies for win
Cavs overcome 17-point deficit in third quarter
 
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER		 Sep 29, 2002
 
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Facing fourth and 13 from Virginia's 23-yard line, Wake Forest called time out with 50 seconds left last night. As U.Va.'s defenders huddled near the sideline, one of the school's all-time greats, former All-America safety Anthony Poindexter, grabbed linebacker Darryl Blackstock.

"Dex pulled me aside and said, 'Somebody needs to make a big play, and I'm starting with you,'" Blackstock recalled. "He gave me that look, and I said, 'Let's go.'"

Blackstock went around his blocker, and Wake went down to a stunning ACC defeat. The true freshman, held in check most of the night, sacked Demon Deacons quarterback James MacPherson for a 3-yard loss, and Virginia took over with 40 seconds left, silencing the Wake fans in the crowd of 25,883.

The Cavaliers ran out the clock and walked off the field at Groves Stadium with a remarkable 38-34 victory.

"I've never been in a comeback like that before," said senior linebacker Merrill Robertson, who had a game-high 13 tackles. "It was a great experience."

U.Va. (1-1 ACC, 3-2) trailed 27-10 at halftime, and its deficit was still 17 well into the third quarter. But the Cavs, behind another superlative performance from junior quarterback Matt Schaub, scored the game's final 21 points to prevail in Al Groh's return to the school where he coached from 1981 to'86.

Schaub completed 22 of 27 passes for 312 yards and three touchdowns. His teammates produced numerous highlights, too. True freshman Wali Lundy threw a deflected TD pass to heretofore unsung wideout Ryan Sawyer, Kurt Smith kicked Virginia's first field goal of the season, and backup quarterback Marques Hagans ran 13 yards for what proved to be the winning touchdown with 6:13 left.

"They have a lot of be proud of," said Groh, U.Va.'s second-year coach. "They really stuck together. This was a game where, obviously, the offense had to trust that the defense would give them a chance to get back in. The defense had to trust that the offense would get them back in it. The players had to trust the coaches, and the coaches had to trust the players."

On the play before Blackstock sacked MacPherson, Wake (0-2, 2-3) appeared to have picked up a first down at the U.Va. 5. On fourth and 8 from the 18, MacPherson completed a 13-yard pass to star wideout Fabian Davis. But the Deacons were penalized for not having enough players on the line of scrimmage. The culprit was Davis, who otherwise played brilliantly, gaining 90 yards rushing and 53 receiving.

"Once I turned around," he said, "I knew the flag was on me."

In their epic victory over Virginia Tech at Lane Stadium in 1998, the Cavaliers rallied from a 29-7 halftime deficit to win 36-32. At the break last night, Virginia's hole wasn't that deep, but Wake had amassed 312 yards of offense and piled up 19 first downs. To make matters worse for the Cavs, they'd been penalized seven times for 50 yards and turned the ball over once.

Nevertheless, Virginia's locker room wasn't the scene of a halftime eruption.

"That wasn't the time for ranting and raving," Groh said. "It was a time for coaching. We needed to do some things to get our team back in the game."

Virginia opened the second-half with a touchdown drive capped by Schaub's 2-yard pass to tight end Heath Miller. Then, Wake resumed its assault on the Cavs' beleaguered defense, driving 65 yards for a touchdown that made it 34-17 with 7:36 left in the third quarter.

Two huge plays helped U.Va. cut its deficit to 10 points again. Freshman fullback Jason Snelling fumbled after gaining 6 yards on a screen pass, but Lundy recovered at the Wake 38. On the next play, Lundy underthrew Miller on an option pass, but Miller tipped the ball up. Sawyer caught it in midstride at the 3 and continued untouched to the end zone for his second score of the game.

Leading 34-24, Wake suddenly found the going tougher against the Cavaliers, who had "pretty much put in a whole new defense at halftime," Groh said. The Deacons, who'd punted only once in the first half, had back-to-back three-and-out series, and U.Va. capitalized.

A 40-yard completion from Schaub to wideout Michael McGrew moved the Cavaliers to the Wake 18. Three plays later, Schaub again found Miller in the end zone, and Smith's PAT made it 34-31 with 12:31 left. On U.Va.'s next series, on first and 10 from Wake's 13, Hagans replaced Schaub behind center, took the snap and raced through the line for the go-ahead TD.

"We knew if we could just put together a couple of three-and-outs, the offense would do the rest," sophomore defensive end Chris Canty said.

 

 

U.VA. NOTES
 

 		 Sep 29, 2002
 
QUICK LEARNERS: ESPN Magazine's all-true freshman team for September includes three U.Va. newcomers: offensive tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson, defensive end Kwakou Robinson and linebacker Darryl Blackstock. All three started last night against Wake Forest at Groves Stadium.

Also on the ESPN team is offensive lineman Randy Hand, who committed to Virginia last winter, then changed his mind and signed with Florida.

In addition to the Virginia trio, ACC players on the ESPN team are N.C. State tailback T.A. McLendon, Maryland linebacker D'Qwell Jackson and Clemson cornerback Justin Miller.

ICEBREAKER: Five games into the season, the Cavaliers finally made a field goal. Kurt Smith's 32-yarder with 10:19 left in the second quarter last night pulled U.Va. to 10-3. Moments earlier, Smith had connected from 27 yards, but a delay-of-game penalty on Virginia forced him to try again from 5 yards back.

TURNING POINT: On third and eight from his 22, Wake quarterback James MacPherson was stopped after a 2-yard gain. A personal foul by a Virginia defender, however, kept the Demon Deacons' drive alive. It ended with a 15-yard touchdown run by backup tailback Cornelius Birgs that gave Wake a 16-3 lead with 5:41 left in the opening half.

BANGED UP: Sophomore tailback Alvin Pearman, U.Va.'s second-leading rusher, had a cast on his right hand during warmups. He suited up for the game but didn't play in the first half. The Cavaliers already were missing their fastest tailback, true freshman Michael Johnson, who severely sprained his ankle Sept. 7 against South Carolina.

U.Va. played without three injured starters last night: center Kevin Bailey, linebacker Raymond Mann and safety Chris Williams. Injuries also kept true freshmen Johnson, Marcus Hamilton (cornerback), Willie Davis (safety/kick returner) and Kai Parham (linebacker) from traveling with the team. In the ACC, Davis ranked No. 2 in kickoff returns heading into this weekend.

INVITATION ACCEPTED: Senior linebacker Merrill Robertson will play in the Hula Bowl in Maui, Hawaii, on Feb. 1. Robertson, the Cavaliers' second-leading tackler, is a graduate of L.C. Bird High.

TRANSPLANTED VIRGINIANS: Wake has nine players from the state of Virginia: tailback Nick Burney (Richmond), defensive end Roderick Stephen (Colonial Heights), lineman Stephen Anthony (Norfolk) linebacker Mike Hamlar (Roanoke), defensive linemen and brothers Arthur Orlebar and Daniel Orlebar (Sterling), linebacker Chris Owen (Forest), nose tackle Cardell Richardson (Centreville) and tight end Josh Warren (Big Stone Gap).

Burney starred at Lee-Davis High; Stephen, at Thomas Dale High. Hamlar and Virginia punter Tom Hagan, a true freshman, were teammates at Cave Spring High.

FOND MEMORIES: Like his boss, Al Groh, Virginia assistant head coach Dan Rocco knows Groves Stadium well. Rocco, who began his college career as a Penn State linebacker, transferred to Wake Forest after the 1980 season to play for Groh. Rocco started as a junior and senior at Wake.

He earned his bachelor's degree from Wake in 1984 and three years later completed a 56-hour education and counseling master's curriculum there. Rocco was a grad assistant at Wake in'84 and '85 before being promoted to defensive line coach in 1986.

Until 2001, when the Deacons won 34-30 at Scott Stadium, their last victory over U.Va. had come in 1983, when Rocco was one of their captains.

MOVING UP: Junior quarterback Matt Schaub entered last night's game tied for eighth in career touchdown passes at U.Va., with 22. The Cavaliers' all-time leader is Shawn Moore, who threw 55 TD passes from 1987 to'90, but the rest of the pack is closer to Schaub. Tied for second are Scott Gardner (1972-75) and Aaron Brooks (1995-98), with 33 apiece.

UP NEXT: Virginia plays its second straight game on Tobacco Road, this time at Duke. The Blue Devils meet the Cavaliers next Saturday at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, N.C. Jefferson Pilot Sports will televise the noon game.

Duke, 0-1 in ACC play, improved to 2-3 overall by whipping Navy yesterday in Annapolis, Md.

U.Va. has won two straight over Duke and 11 of their past 13 seven meetings. The Blue Devils, however, lead the series 27-26. - Jeff White