Escaping the storm

By Jay Jenkins

Published: September 6, 2008

It seemed quite fitting that Al Groh tore a page out of Richmond coach Mike London’s celebration playbook on “Retro Day.”

With 2:08 left in the game and the contest hanging in the balance, Virginia’s coach sprinted towards the end zone to congratulate cornerback Vic Hall on a 60-yard touchdown return in London-like fashion.

Groh promptly paused at the 5-yard line, well out of the coaches’ box, and clapped with fervor. Virginia was en route to a 16-0 victory in front of a sparse crowd at sun-drenched Scott Stadium.

“I remembered the visit from the supervisor this year and the video that they showed us, which was basically ‘Don’t have any fun,’” Groh recounted. “Frankly, I remembered that and thought I better wait for Vic to come to the sidelines.”

The widespread hoopla that unfolded on Virginia’s sidelines told a bigger story: the Cavaliers had survived a nail-biting experience.

In fact, it took a pair of blocked field goals and two late touchdowns to finish off the Spiders, who entered the game ranked No. 3 in the Championship Subdivision, formerly known as NCAA Division I-AA.

“I’m proud of our team for hanging in there time after time,” Groh said, obviously relieved to have upended London, Virginia’s high-spirited defensive coordinator the past two seasons. “That is what teams have to do in order to put wins together.”

The victory also brought back memories to Virginia’s unconventional ways of winning in 2007. The Cavaliers won six games a year ago by six points or fewer.

“We were able to [hang in there] quite a bit last year, but that type of mentality has to be re-established and solidified with each particular team,” Groh said. “It doesn’t just grow back.”

Saturday’s game appeared headed in the same direction until the fourth quarter.

Leading 3-0 with 12:49 left, Virginia (1-1) put together its most complete offensive possession of the game. The 12-play, 54-yard drive included nine running plays, the last of which came from tailback Mikell Simpson.

After struggling to get past the line of scrimmage the entire game, Simpson followed several blockers into the end zone from 1 yard out with 7:17 left on a pivotal 3rd-and-goal play, making the score 10-0.

“That was a pretty significant play,” Groh said. “It was going to put us in a tough position if we didn’t get that one in to decide what to do.

“It made it a lot easier for me.”

Richmond attempted to counter on its ensuing drive and appeared to have its first touchdown of the game just two minutes later. On 2nd-and-goal from the Virginia 5, Spider quarterback Eric Ward scrambled his way to the 1-yard line before a massive collision forced the ball loose and eventually into the hands of his teammate, Jordan Mitchell, in the middle of the end zone.

The play, however, was negated after Richmond was penalized for illegal procedure. Two plays later and after Ward was sidelined for one snap with an injury, Virginia cornerback Chase Minnifield collected an errant pass for the first interception of his career.

It was one of three turnovers for Richmond, which was also plagued by seven penalties.

“If the spider has eight legs, I think we shot ourselves all eight times,” London said. “It was just so close and it’s a shame the outcome was what it was, but it was a learning experience, and these guys will learn from it and I’m really proud of them.

“[Virginia is a] BCS school and we’re an FCS school and everybody thought we’d get clobbered and, for a really long time, we really held on.”

Minnifield returned the Spiders’ miscue 28 yards, but Virginia punted for the fifth time after failing to convert a first down.

Once again, Ward made a costly mistake. Hall stepped in front of the pass at the Virginia 40 and sped towards the end zone, needing only to beat one defender, which happened with ease from one simple juke move.

“At the start, a nickeback’s job is to keep the wide receiver from getting too far downfield,” Hall said. “As I was standing there, I looked back towards the quarterback and the ball was there. I was in the right place at the right time.

“We always stress to our defense that when you get the ball you turn into an offensive player, so I did what I had to do to get away from [the defender].”

Groh, typically reserved, let his emotions take over.

“I was just happy for [Hall],” Groh said. “He is such a great kid. He does everything that we ask of him. He had done a fine job throughout the game and it really shows his maturation as a corner there to step up and do that.”

Virginia could have erased the doubt in the game’s outcome much earlier, but its first scoring drive stumbled after reaching the Richmond 1. Instead, the Cavaliers were forced to settle for a 26-yard field from Yannick Reyering.

“We really wanted to come up with a score on the first possession,” Groh said. “More particularly, we wanted to be first on the board. We chose the more prudent way to go on the field goal.”

Richmond (1-1) had two chances to tie the game, but a pair of Andrew Howard’s field-goal attempts from 29-yards out were blocked by two of Virginia’s redshirt freshmen. The first was tipped by redshirt freshman Matt Conrath and the latter was batted to the ground by Nick Jenkins.

“Coach [Bob Diaco] just called field-goal block and we lined up for it,” Jenkins said. “Antonio Appleby and I were on the guy and I just got free I guess.

“Clearly, I can’t jump that high so I didn’t get too high off the ground. The guy just kicked the ball [low] I guess.”

Virginia finished the contest with 295 yards of offense, 204 of which came through the air by quarterback Pete Lalich. The sophomore finished 21 of 39 passing and had a pair of interceptions.

Richmond, managed 17 first downs, but amassed only 194 yards of total offense, and allowed Virginia to register its fifth shutout in three seasons.

“To have a shutout and play the way that we did on both sides of the ball in key situations was big,” Virginia linebacker Clint Sintim said. “The offense had some problems, but they came in the fourth quarter and ran the ball well, and they stepped up and made a lot of big plays.”

Virginia returns to action Saturday at Connecticut (2-0) at 7:30 p.m.