A week after a demoralizing loss to Akron at home, Pitt came out flat again in the 1st half against Virginia and ultimately fell 24-19 to the Cavaliers in Charlottesville, VA.
To the average fan, it didn’t look like Virginia had that much more talent than Pitt. However, the Cavs dominated the first half behind strong running from RB Kevin Parks, who finished the night on 19 carries for 169 yards and 1 TD.
On Virginia’s first possession, Parks ran the ball effectively with gains of 12 yards, 9 yards and 5 yards on a series of plays that resulted in an Ian Frye 32 yard field goal to put the Cavs up 3-0 over Pitt.
After trading series, Pitt was able to tie the score. Panther QB Chad Voytik took to the air and found superstar sophomore WR Tyler Boyd for 34 yards and then later WR Kevin Weatherspoon for 23 yards to the Cavalier 17 yard line. The drive would stall there and eventually PK Chris Blewitt kicked a 36 yard field goal to tie the score at 3-3.
In the second quarter, though, it was all Virginia and Kevin Parks. After a couple of series that ended in punts, Parks took a hand off off-tackle and busted through for a 48 yard TD run untouched to give the Cavs the 10-3 lead.
After stopping Pitt on the next series, Virginia got the ball back again and Parks ran it for 9 yards to the Pitt 40. The play was then extended when Pitt safety Terrish Webb was called for a 15 yard unnecessary roughness penalty. Then, Cavaliers’ freshman QB Matt Johns ran twice for 10 yards and 3 yards before going to a trick play in which WR Miles Gooch threw a pass out of the backfield that found WR Zachary Swanson for 28 yards to the Pitt 4 yard line. A few plays later, Johns found Khalek Shepherd with a 3 yard TD pass to put Virginia up 17-3.
In a matter of 3 plays, Virginia would extend the lead. Voytik dropped back and found a wide-open Max Valles, except that he plays for the Cavaliers and the pick 6 interception put the Cavaliers up for good 24-3 at halftime.
Pitt did regroup in the second half and played their hearts out to make the game interesting.
On Virginia’s first series of the 3rd Quarter, Pitt made a play on special teams when Dontez Ford blocked Virginia punter Alec Vozenilek’s kick and Pitt ended up with a 1st down at the Cavalier 31 yard line.
Pitt RB James Conner, who finished the night with 21 carries for 83 yards, ran for gains of 5 yards and 8 yards that ultimately set up Voytik finding WR Manasseh Garner on a 17 yard corner route TD to pull Pitt within two scores. Virginia led Pitt 24-10.
After Pitt’s defense forced a Virginia turnover when freshman cornerback Pat Amara intercepted a Matt Johns errant pass on the following series, perhaps the game’s most controversial series would ensue.
Voytik first scrambled to find Pitt TE Scott Orndoff for 6 yards to the Virginia 41 yard line, which was subsequently aided by Cavalier Mike Moore’s penalty that gave Pitt the ball deep in Cavalier territory.
Following Tyler Boyd’s run for 6 more yards, Pitt went to seldom-used senior tailback Isaac Bennett who busted open a big 23 yard gain to the Virginia 15 yard line. Voytik would creep Pitt a bit closer with 9 more yards to the Cavalier 6 yard line when Conner re-ntered the game.
Connor then ran 3 plays inside the Cavalier 5 yard line, the last of which looked like he broke the plane of the end-zone. However, after further review, the officials upheld the ruling on the field that he was down at the 1 yard line. Like clock-work, Pitt would suffer a false start penalty and ultimately settled for a 24 yard Chris Blewwitt field goal to pull Pitt within 24-13 of Virginia.
Pitt’s defense would go on to shut down Virginia’s offense in the second half, despite strong running by Cavs RB Kevin Parks.
It would ultimately lead to a late Pitt touchdown with two minutes left in the 4th Quarter when Voytik found TE JP Holtz for a 6 yard TD pass at the back of the end-zone. The two point conversion failed and so did the ensuing Pitt on-sides kick. Virginia would win the game 24-19.
Next up: Virginia Tech at Pitt, Thursday 10/16, 7:30PM EST at Heinz Field, Pittsburgh ESPN