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TaQuon Marshall made the most of his only two completions. And, finally, Georgia Tech won a close game.
Marshall threw a pair of long scoring passes, including an 80-yarder to Ricky Jeune with 6 1/2 minutes remaining , and Ajani Kerr swatted away a fourth-down pass in the end zone to preserve Georgia Tech's 28-22 upset of No. 17 Virginia Tech on Saturday.
This one felt especially good for the Yellow Jackets (5-4, 4-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), who had lost three games by a total of six points .
It looked as though Georgia Tech was heading for another excruciating defeat when Virginia Tech rallied from a 21-9 deficit in the second half.
The Hokies (7-3, 3-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) went ahead 22-21 when Greg Stroman returned an interception 24 yards for a touchdown off a terrible pass by Marshall with 7:27 left.
The Georgia Tech quarterback made up for his mistake just two snaps later, after the Yellow Jackets fumbled the kickoff but fortuitously managed to recover after a wild scramble. Jeune got loose behind the secondary, hauled in the long throw and just managed to stick the ball inside the pylon before tumbling out of bounds.
It was the longest touchdown pass of the season for the Yellow Jackets (5-4, 4-3), surpassing Marshall's 60-yard scoring play to Brad Stewart early in the second half . The quarterback finished 2 of 8 passing out of the triple-option.
''He made, what, two completions and they were both for touchdowns and it ended up being 140 yards?'' Johnson said. ''We'll live with that. That's a pretty good average.''
Marshall also had a pair of short touchdown runs.
On its final possession, Virginia Tech converted a pair of fourth-down plays and faced third-and-1 at the Georgia Tech 32 with plenty of time to deal the home team another tough loss.
But, on a day when he made a number of curious decisions, Virginia Tech coach Justin Fuente called a pair of passes rather than running for the first down. Both were incomplete, including a deep pass down the middle for Cam Phillips that Kerr knocked away.
''We got the best matchup we could possibly get,'' Fuente said. ''That was as good a look as we were going to get.''
The Yellow Jackets rushed for 261 yards, led by KirVonte Benson with 86 yards on 22 carries. Nathan Cottrell had a 69-yard run, setting up Georgia Tech's first touchdown, a 3-yard run by Marshall. The quarterback also punched it over from the 1.
Georgia Tech appeared to be driving for a clinching touchdown late in the third quarter. But a chop-block penalty against center Kenny Cooper knocked the Yellow Jackets back 15 yards, and Brenton King missed a 43-yard field goal attempt.
The Hokies took advantage - with a big helping hand from Georgia Tech.
On third-and-14, Josh Jackson threw a pass into heavy coverage. A.J. Gray and Lamont Simmons both had a shot at picking it off, but wound up tipping the ball to Eric Kumah for a 26-yard completion - eerily similar to a play that led to a 25-24 loss to Miami .
Jalen Holston's 8-yard touchdown run on the final play of the third quarter brought the Hokies within 21-16.
THE TAKEAWAY
Virginia Tech: Any hopes of landing a major bowl bid faded away with the Hokies' second straight loss. A 28-10 setback at Miami the previous week knocked them out of contention for the ACC title. ''Mad, upset, disappointing,'' Kumah said. ''We felt like we should have won.''
Georgia Tech: By knocking off a ranked team, the Yellow Jackets gave their bowl prospects a huge boost. One more win will ensure postseason eligibility.
The Seminoles improved to 12-0 for the first time since 1999 and likely will earn a spot in the Bowl Championship Series title game by beating Duke in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game next Saturday.
No. 24 Blue Devils "The Are You Kidding Me ACC Team of The Year" made the once-unthinkable goal a reality. Ross Martin kicked a 27-yard field goal with 2:22 left for a 27-25 to beat North Carolina. Duke fans took over the Tar Heels stadium as the ACC Cinderella win face Florida State in the ACC Championship Game.
The Tigers (10-2) had never lost five consecutive games to their rival in a series that began in 1896 - which they still lead 65-42-4. The loss also left record-setting quarterback Tajh Boyd 0-for-4 against the Gamecocks. This was a painful loss for the Tiger, but this was still great season.
Yellow Jackets QB Vad Lee threw for two touchdowns and ran for one more in Georgia Tech's 70-0 destruction of Elon in their season opener.
Four different Georgia Tech players ran for touchdowns in the first quarter , and the Yellow Jackets added a school-record 173 interception return yards.
Tyler Marcordes had an impressive 95 yarde interception return for a score to put the Yellow Jackets up 42-0 at halftime.
Safety Chris Milton returned an interception 54 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter, and linebacker Jabari Hunt-Days also had a interception.
Georgia Tech has a bye next and will open up ACC play at Duke on Sept. 14.
The phrase “Basketball is a game of runs,” is something that basketball players hear from the elementary level. From Boston College’s performance on Thursday against Georgia Tech, it is evident that they have been listening to their coaches when they told them that.
Georgia Tech and Boston College had their only regular season match-up on March 9th, which was the last game of the regular season for both teams. It was a fierce battle that ended in BC winning by two points after starting out slow. This first-round match-up of the ACC tournament started off parallel to their only regular season match-up, but would be nowhere near as close of a contest. Georgia Tech came out of the gates strong, starting the game on a 15-0 run and they looked as though they would run away with the game. Fortunately for Boston College, basketball is in fact a game of runs, and their performance after facing this deficit attest to this. Boston College’s coach, Steve Donahue, called a timeout to regroup his young team, who started the game differently than they had planned, this timeout would prove to be the difference in Boston College’s performance the rest of the day. Boston College answered this run with a run of their own and closed the half on a 38-18 run; their combo guard and ACC rookie of the year, Olivier Hanlan, who finished the first half with 21 points, did majority of the damage to close the half out.
Boston College went into the break up 38-33, and came out of the second half as if they had never gone in the locker room. BC picked right back up where they left off, pushing their lead to double figures early in the half. Hanlan also continued his hot, soon to be record breaking, performance. He was hitting on all cylinders, and his barrage of threes in the second half killed any thoughts of a Georgia Tech comeback. He helped push his team’s lead to 25 points at one point in the second half and along with leading his team to a statement victory, he broke 3 Freshman records for the ACC Tournament. He broke the record for the most Field Goals Made (14); most 3-point Field Goals Made (8); and he broke the old record for the most points by a freshman in a tournament game by scoring a spectacular 41 points, one point better than the previous record that was shared between two UNC standouts, Harrison Barnes and Tyler Hansbrough.
BC completely dominated the second half with little resistance from Georgia Tech. Boston College won the game 84-64, a 35-point turnaround from how they started the game. Boston College will play Miami, the top seeded team in the tournament, tomorrow at 12 pm.
Megan Kurey of Georgia Tech has been named ACC Player of the Week.
She was instrumental in Tech's 4-3 victory over Florida State on Sunday. Megan went 3-1 overall for the Yellow Jackets.
"It is great for Megan to be named ACC Player of the Week this week," head coach Rodney Harmon said. "She has worked extremely hard all year both in practice and off the court. Megan has been playing extremely well in doubles with Kendal Woodard and had a huge singles win against Florida State. She is very deserving of the award."
Kurey and doubles partner Kendal Woodard improved to 14-4 overall and 10-1 in dual matches with a pair of wins.
The Yellow Jackets will play its fifth straight home match on Saturday when they take on No. 15 Notre Dame at the Ken Byers Tennis Complex. It will be the second meeting of the year after the Irish won a 4-3 decision at the ITA Kick-Off Weekend.
