Collegiate Times

For the second week in a row Virginia Tech rebounded from a slow start to win, this time 30-14 at home against Boston College.

“I’m proud of our football team,” said Frank Beamer, head coach. “I thought we hung in there and battled a good football team, a team that came in here and played hard.”

After falling behind 10-0 in last Saturday’s win over Wake Forest, the Hokies (7-1, 3-1) scored 38 of the final 45 points in that game for a 38-17 win.

Today was pretty similar, as the Eagles (1-6, 0-4) capitalized off a nine-yard punt by Michael Branthover after Tech went three and out to start the game.

A 35-yard field proved easy to work with, as quarterback Chase Retting ran for a two-yard touchdown run on the third play of the drive to put BC up 7-0 less than two minutes into the game.

The rest of the first half wasn’t all that kind to the Hokies, as they scored only six points on two Cody Journell field goals, and trailed 7-6 going into the locker room.

Beamer said that there were no fiery speeches given at halftime, as he offered calm words to his team during the break.

“Well, our message was that we’re going to get better as we go along,” Beamer said. “You’ve got to go out there and keep playing hard. (We told the players) we’re going to get you in better plays, in betters defenses as the day goes along.

“If you practice that way and the feelings are real and the thoughts are real… I think you can just say what needs to happen and that’s the way we do it here at Tech.”

Beamer’s message paid off, as his team got off to a quick start in the second half.

After forcing the Eagles into a three and out, David Wilson took an option pitch from Logan Thomas 42 yards up the sideline to give the Hokies their first lead of the day.

“We ran (the option) the first possession of the game, and came up short on it,” Thomas said. “We knew we were going to come back to it, and they actually ran the same defense into it. I just made the outside linebacker miss, and gave it to (Wilson) and let him do the rest.”

After just six carries for 21 yards in the first half, Wilson said he was more than ready for more opportunities later in the game.

“I didn’t ask for more carries, I was just like, ‘Let’s run the ball more,’” Wilson said. “(Josh Oglesby) wasn’t getting carries, I wasn’t getting carries, we weren’t running the ball (in the first half).”

His coaches heard his pleas, as his touchdown run set the tone for an impressive second half. Wilson finished with 134 yards on 17 carries and the touchdown. For those keeping track, Wilson now has 1,037 yards on the season through just eight games.

“Somebody came up and told me I needed four yards for 1,000 right before I got my next carry,” Wilson said. “That was in the back of my head, and then the next play I got the ball and went over 1,000. It was definitely a benchmark, but I’ve got higher goals (than that).”

After Wilson’s touchdown run, BC took the ball all the way down to the Tech 22-yard line, and looked as if they would retake the lead. But, for the second week in a row, linebacker Tariq Edwards came up with a huge interception.

“I was watching the quarterback the whole time,” Edwards said.

Edwards noted that he saw Rettig look towards his tight end on the play.

“He came out a little late,” he said. “So I just waited for him and saw the quarterback’s eyes and came up with (the ball).”

Six plays and 69 yards later, the Hokies had the ball on the BC 20-yard line when Thomas threw a jump ball to Marcus Davis in the end zone.

Davis came down with his fourth TD catch of the season, and Tech never looked back.

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A version of this article appeared in the Oct 23 issue of the Collegiate Times.