Virginia Tech forced three turnovers and posted a season-high 462 yards of total offense in its 30-13 victory over Wake Forest on Saturday
After a slow start, the Hokies (3-4, 2-1 ACC) scored 17 points in the second quarter and pulled away from the Demon Deacons (3-3, 0-3 ACC) late.
Bhayshul Tuten opened the scoring with a 3-yard touchdown run, and John Love tacked on a 37-yard field goal to give the Hokies a 10-0 lead with over four minutes left in the first half.
Things got crazy, however, when Wake Forest’s Desmond Claiborne had a 96-yard kick return for a touchdown, silencing the sold-out Lane Stadium crowd. It was the first by an opponent in Blacksburg since Jeyson Wilson did so for Syracuse in 1993.
Virginia Tech had a quick response, though. Kyron Drones, who finished with a career-high 321 yards on 20-of-29 passing and 59 rushing yards, had a 75-yard strike on the next offensive play to Jaylin Lane, Tech’s longest play from scrimmage this season. Two sides that struggled before Saturday’s game combined for 17 points in 24 seconds.
Drones is the third Hokies quarterback since 1987 to pass for over 300 yards and rush for 50, joining Jerod Evans — who did it twice in 2016 against Syracuse and Georgia Tech — and Bryan Randall.
Wake Forest placekicker Matthew Dennis converted a 28-yard field goal with 20 seconds left in the first half, giving the Hokies a 17-10 headed into intermission.
The scoring was minimal in the second half — two field goals from Love, his second and third of the day from 26 and 36 yards, respectively, in comparison to Dennis’ second from 34 yards out — but the Hokies dominated. Lane had his second touchdown of the game with just under three minutes remaining when he caught a 12-yard pass from Drones, extending the lead to 30-13.
They forced three punts, two turnover on downs and a fumble on an afternoon they finished with 14 tackles for loss and seven sacks. Defensive end Antwaun Powell-Ryland posted four sacks, forced a fumble and recovered a fumble, too.
All four sacks came in the second half, three on Wake Forest’s final drive of the game. He’s the third Tech player in school history with four sacks in a game, the first since J.C. Price — his defensive line coach at Tech — in 1995 vs. Miami.
The first fumble, which Powell-Ryland recovered, was early in the second quarter. And Derrick Canteen added an interception, his first with the Hokies, on the series before at the end of the first quarter.
It was an all-around solid performance for the Hokies, who controlled time of possession (33 minutes to 27), outgained the Demon Deacons by 200 yards (462-262) and averaged 7.1 yards per play. They held Wake Forest to just 35 rushing yards on 31 attempts, too. The only red flag was the eight penalties they committed for 79 yards.
Tech has an open week before it hosts Syracuse (4-3, 0-3 ACC) on Thursday, Oct. 26 at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Box Score: Virginia Tech 30, Wake Forest 13
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the refs were awful. The only reason there were so many reviews was because they were making so many bad calls!>>>>
Can’t wait to watch replay this a.m. It seems like the officiating is even worse this year. One of the worst things is that it’s so inconsistent.
Maybe our Back Judge can just give an overall critique of the bad calls. Yeah – the refs are only human – but I could’ve made better calls from row BBB in Section 9.
Wake found out they could hold every play and never get called for it. But, yes, horrible overall.
I noticed, not only this week but last week also, we are getting horrible spots from the refs. Look at the first punt we did. Guy fair caught up at the 31 and hopped forward to the 32. They marked the ball on the 32. When we received their first punt it was caught on the 21, and placed inside the 20. And the horrible spot that preliminarily gave WF a first down which was reviewed and, uh, no, it wasn’t a first down.
The most blatant bad call though was the targeting by #91 on WF. Come on, this is our QB. He lowered the helmet and came full force and Drones had already thrown the ball. Wow
Abysmal – is what I called the refs at the game yesterday and that was givng the word Abysmal a bad name.
Tech player getting kicked on the ground and no flag, half a dozen holdings by WF that were ignored many right in front of the ref. Guess they were looking at the rain clouds or birds flying around the field.
GO HOKIES BEAT THE orange. And get rested and healed over the bye week.
The pipeline for referee has apparently fallen off dramatically in recent years. They’re not getting close to the best anymore; you mostly just getting what they have. And it’s only going to get worse. The best you can hope for is that it’s equally bad for both sides (and it generally is).
Pry is smart winning a lot of home games is a great way to get everyone on your side.
Some of you would be negative if they hung you with a new rope. Try being positive for a change and enjoy the progress. Go Hokies!!!
I think we’ll be favored vs. Syracuse (0-3 ACC) at home. We are starting to assert our will over these lil’ ol’ basketball schools like we should. Embarrassing that we ever lost to these kinds of schools. Wish Duke and UNC were on the sched so we could show them what’s what.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves
Agreed, one game at a time.
instead of congratulations should worry about the past and other seasons. Its gone from the memory. Just say we are starting a new foootball program in 2023
We are future oriented.
Good overall game
Keep it up
Beat Cuse
Even the penalties not as bad as it seems. 7 of the 8 were in the first 1/2 so better focus in the 2nd 1/2
giving up a long kick off return is not Beamer Ball! Need to get to work on that.
You forgot the second half rd. This reads like we only had/2 fg
Thanks for pointing that out. Was writing quickly and forgot to include Lane’s TD.
Great to see the progress. I’ll be at the Louisville game and am hoping we can be competitive! Drones looks more and more confident each game and I think he has dragged Bowen along.
Only scoring in the second half was 2 field goals? Sounds like you need one of those Reviews the refs were so fond of.
Haha.
Sorry, forgot to add the touchdown by Lane. Could’ve said it in a nicer way, though.
David we appreciate your quick turnaround on these write-ups! Thank you!
Some just do not have the capacity to pass up an opportunity to post a good “snark”…..
Really thought it was just a joke in the context of a game with more reviews than I have ever seen. No doubt there have been more but I haven’t seen it and don’t want to. You got up quick and edited quickly as well, pretty hard to argue with.
Geez, the refs were awful. The only reason there were so many reviews was because they were making so many bad calls!
Nice job Hokies! Keep it up
I agree. These refs were about as sorry as I have seen in a while.
No complaints here. I would say they took the time to get it right.
Right and it seemed like there was an unusual number of plays that ended up very close to first downs and had to be checked. And then there were several injuries. Being therein person, it seemed very slow with lots of interruptions.
Good to see progress. Hokies are looking better on O and D.
+1