Check It Out:

What are your favorite local places for shopping, pampering or entertaining? Vote now in this year's Best Of Holiday Shopping readers' choice poll.

Virginia beats BYU in season-opening thriller

Lightning from a nearby storm caused Saturday's game to be interrupted for two hours.

ANDREW SHURTLEFF|The Daily Progress

Brigham Young running back Jamaal Williams (21) attempts to leap over Virginia cornerback Demetrious Nicholson (1).

ANDREW SHURTLEFF|The Daily Progress

Virginia head coach Mike London signals to the fans after the 19-16 win over Brigham Young in Charlottesville.

ANDREW SHURTLEFF|The Daily Progress

Virginia safety Anthony Harris (8) laterals the ball to Virginia linebacker Henry Coley (44) after intercepting the ball from Brigham Young running back Jamaal Williams (21) during the second half of the game.

ANDREW SHURTLEFF|The Daily Progress

Virginia running back Kevin Parks (25) scores a touchdown in front of Brigham Young linebacker Alani Fua (5) during the fourth quarter.

Turn captions on

1 of 4

Virginia 19, BYU 16

at Scott Stadium

How they scored

BYU: 0 7 0 9 -- 16
Virginia: 0 3 9 7 -- 19

First quarter
None.

Second quarter
BYU — Falsley 4 pass from Hill (Sorensen kick), 5:12. Drive: five plays, 32 yards, 1:26. Key play: Falsley 17 punt return to UVa 32. BYU 7, UVa 0
UVa — Frye 53 FG, 0:00. Drive: eight plays, 42 yards, 0:57. Key play: Jennings 20 pass from Watford on third-and-10. BYU 7, UVa 3.

Third quarter
UVa — Jennings 11 pass from Watford (Frye kick), 13:51. Drive: three plays, 16 yards, 1:23. Key play: Harris blocked punt. UVa 10, BYU 7.
UVa — Safety (BYU quarterback Hill recovered fumbled snap in the end zone), 2:38. UVa 12, BYU 7.

Fourth quarter
BYU — Hill 1 run (pass failed), 6:26. Drive: 11 plays, 92 yards, 2:26. Key play: Williams 18 run to 1-yard line. BYU 13, UVa 12.
BYU — Sorensen 36 FG, 5:02. Drive: five plays, 9 yards, 1:15. Key play: Shepherd fumble and recovery by BYU’s Morgan at UVa 27 on kickoff return. BYU 16, UVa 12.
UVa — Parks 13 run (Frye kick), 2:36. Drive: one play, 13 yards, 0:05. Key play: Harris interception and lateral to Coley for return to BYU 13. UVa 19, BYU 16.

Team statistics

First downs
Rushes-yards
Passing
Comp-Att-Int
Return Yards
Punts-Avg.
Fumbles-lost
Penalties-Yards
Time of poss.

BYU
21
53-187
175
13-40-1
34
11-36.6
3-0
7-43
25:51

UVa
14
42-109
114
18-32-1
96
13-41.3
3-1
6-41
34:09

Individual statistics

Rushing
BYU, Williams 33-144, Hill 11-42, Alisa 2-9, Hine 2-5, Lasike 3-5, Team 2-(minus 18).
Virginia, Parks 20-65, Shepherd 5-18, Mizzell 7-16, Watford 10-10.

Passing
BYU, Hill 13-40-1-175.
Virginia, Watford 18-32-1-114.

Receiving
BYU, Falslev 3-32, Ridley 3-29, Apo 2-59, Williams 2-25, Thompson 2-20, Mi.Mathews 1-10.
Virginia, Jennings 7-62, Swanson 3-21, McGee 3-9, T.Smith 2-19, Terrell 1-4, Shepherd 1-0, Skrobacz 1-(minus 1).

Tackles (solo-assists-sacks)
Brigham Young, Manumaleuna 6-4-0, Unga 3-7-0, Fua 2-6-0, Hadley 3-4-0, Daniel 4-2-0, Leavitt 3-3-0, Bills 3-3-0, Sorensen 3-2-0, Peck 3-2-0, Van Noy 3-1-0, Morgan 2-2-0, Povey 2-1-0, Kaufusi 1-2-0, Jorgensen 1-2-0, Leuta-Doyere 1-1-0, Johnson 0-2-0, Wadsworth 0-2-0, Williams 1-0-0, Lasike 1-0-0, O’Mary 0-1-0, Hine 0-1-0.
UVa, Canady 9-4-0, Romero 6-6-0, Harold 7-4-2, Coley 3-8-0, Harris 3-8-0, Dean 1-6-0, Nicholson 2-3-0, Urban 2-3-0, Snyder 1-3-0, Phelps 0-3-0, Scott 1-1-0, Walker 1-1-0, Dockins 0-2-0, Brim 1-0-0, Shepherd 0-1-0, Garner 0-1-0, Moore 0-1-0, Lee 0-1-0.

Virginia report card

RUN THE BALL SUCCESSFULLY
C+ The Cavaliers rushed for 109 yards against a BYU defense that held seven opponents to 62 yards or fewer last season. The longest gain of the night came on Kevin Parks’ go-ahead 13-yard touchdown run.

DON’T GIVE IT AWAY
B Virginia had two turnovers, compared to one for the Cougars. Khalek Shepherd’s fumble on a punt return led to a BYU field goal, but was not as critical as the Anthony Harris interception that led to UVa’s go-ahead TD.

PLAY INTELLIGENTLY
B- The Cavaliers were penalized six times for 41 yards and the Cougars were penalized seven times for 43 yards — a wash. An interference call against UVa’s Drequan Hoskey was crucial on BYU’s 93-yard drive.

- Doug Doughty

Doug Doughty | 981-3129

Sunday, September 1, 2013

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Some coaches might have been left speechless by the late momentum swings in Saturday’s Virginia-Brigham Young football game.

UVa coach Mike London was voice-less.

London was reduced to whispering following a 19-16 triumph over Brigham Young in the longest game in Cavaliers’ history, at least in terms of elapsed time.

Scott Stadium was evacuated for more than two hours following a severe lightning warning and the game ended more than five hours after its 3:30 p.m. kickoff.

“I’m so proud of this team,” said London after his sixth victory in six opening games as a head coach, “I just wish I could tell them.

“I sound like a horror movie right now. We can play a lot better but we also beat a good football team.”

Virginia, which had a program-low four pass interceptions in 2012, learned the value of a timely pickoff against the Cougars.

Junior safety Anthony Harris, who had set up an earlier score with a blocked punt, picked off a Taysom Hill pass and lateralled to linebacker Henry Coley, who returned it to the BYU 13-yard line with 2:46 left.

Tailback Kevin Parks scored on the next play, restoring a Virginia lead that was erased when the Cougars needed just 2:26 to drive 93 yards for a touchdown that made it 13-12 with 6:26 left.

Justin Sorensen’s 36-yard field goal increased BYU’s lead to 16-12 with 5:02 to play.

When a subsequent UVa drive stalled, the Cavaliers were forced to punt with 4:18 left and hopes of an upset were fading.

However, on third-and-6 Brigham Young quarterback Taysom Hill’s pass slipped through the hands of Jamaal Williams and into Harris’ waiting arms.

“They had two guys in the same area, I just tried to break on the ball and the guy tipped it,” said Harris, who had one interception in 25 career games before Saturday.

Harris took the ball from the BYU 46 to the 40, at which point he lateralled to Coley, who took it for 27 more yards.

“He looked at me, I looked at him and he did it,” Coley said.

The Cavaliers didn’t have a lateral drill “but we might have one now,” he said.

BYU outgained Virginia 362-223 but that was a little deceiving because the Cougars gained 54 yards on a pass to Ross Apo on the final play of the game.

Williams finished with 33 carries for 144 yards but Brigham Young clearly missed senior wide receiver Cody Hoffman, who had 100 receptions in 2012.

Hoffman made the trip but did not play, apparently as the result of a balky hamstring.

“In ACC games, we exchange injury reports,” said London, who was unaware of Hoffman’s iffy status. “With out-of-conference games, you don’t have to. And we didn’t.”

Only one team rushed for more than 120 yards against Brigham Young last year, when the Cougars ranked third nationally in total defense. UVa rushed for 109 yards Saturday night, with Parks carrying 20 times for 65 yards.

Sophomore quarterback David Watford, making his first start, completed 18 of 32 passes for 114 yards and tossed an 11-yard touchdown pass to Darius Jennings that gave UVa a 10-7 lead in the third quarter.

That followed a 53-yard Ian Frye field goal at the halftime buzzer.

“I went in there and [holder] Matt Johns said, ‘You got this,’ Frye said. “Due to the elements, I knew I was going to need a lower trajectory to get it there. So, I kept that in mind and made sure to kick through the ball.”

No sooner had the game resumed after a 10-minute halftime than the skies opened again and it rained even harder but without the lightning.

The fear was that UVa might lose some of its fans in a crowd announced at 53,100.

“When I had a voice, I got on the radio and urged them to come back because I knew the BYU fans weren’t going anywhere,” London said.

As unusual as the circumstances were, they weren’t necessarily foreign to the UVa players.

“This was in the plans the whole time,” offensive guard Luke Bowanko said. “It actually happened at our final scrimmage last week. We got to move indoors, which wasn’t very practical today.”

Saturday, September 14, 2013