The gates of Scott Stadium flooded with fans as the Virginia Cavaliers suited up to play the BSC 7th ranked UCLA Bruins. The Bruins, lead by their redshirt junior quarterback, Brett Hundley, walked away with a 28-20 win, but their power house offence was not what put them over the top this game.
While Brett Hundley did make one of the biggest plays for the Bruins on his feet, pushing past Virginia’s All-American and true freshman safety, Quin Blanding, it was the Bruins defense that gave them their spark.
The Virginia offense struggled throughout the first half, resulting in three defensive touchdowns in the second quarter. Lambert threw two picks, one of which was tipped and intercepted by Ishmael Adams, and another that was taken 37 yards to the end zone by Eric Kendricks. But the play that seemed to be the most deflating for the Cavaliers was the pass thrown to Kyle Dockins by Grayson Lambert. It looked like a 3rd down conversion and the crowed erupted only to find out that the ball popped out before Dockins was ruled down and was recovered by the Bruins’ Randal Goforth. Goforth ran it down field for a 75-yard touchdown, and the Bruins were up 21-3.
Though the Cavaliers were struggling to put points on the board, that all seemed to change when Matt Johns stepped in at quarterback late in the second quarter. Johns wasted no time, leading his first drive for a touchdown. He found his receiver Canaan Severin, which helped him move the chains down field, setting them up perfectly for the next play where Johns connected with Andre Levrone for a 29 yard touchdown. This led the Cavaliers into halftime with a little momentum and making it 21-10.
Though the game did not end the way the Cavaliers may have wanted it too, there were plenty of positives to walk away with. Virginia’s defense had a spectacular performance against UCLA’s solid offense, sacking Brett Hundley, a Heisman hopeful, five times.
Mike London told his players in the locker room, “When you go toe-to-toe and play a good football team like that, there’s nothing to hold your head down about.” Max Vallas, a second year and outside linebacker for Virginia’s defense went on to say, “Today we learned to keep fighting as a family. That’s the biggest thing we went over in the offseason; to have great team unity no matter if it’s a good situation or a bad situation.”
So despite the loss, Cavalier fans should rest assured that good things are coming their way in the near future. Next week the Cavaliers suit up against the Richmond University Spiders in what should be a good follow up game to this weeks match up versus the Bruins.