MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Virginia Tech's Dorian Porch (right) returns his interception in the end zone interception off a pass by Virginia's Marc Verica late in the fourth quarter of the Hokies' 17-14 win.

BLACKSBURG -- Thanks in part to Dorian Porch and a second-half shutout, Virginia Tech is headed back to the ACC title game.

Vic Hall gave Virginia Tech plenty of trouble in the first half, but the Hokies held Virginia scoreless in the second half of a 17-14 win Saturday at Lane Stadium.

Porch, a fourth-year junior rover, saved the game with the first interception of his Tech career.

Down 17-14, UVa had driven to the VT 25. On third-and 11, Marc Verica threw a pass that Porch picked off in the end zone with 2:15 to go.

"He didn't see me coming. I kind of was baiting him into it," Porch said. "When he threw it up in the air, it was just like gold falling out of the sky.

"I've got a lot of Thanksgiving food left over, so I'll probably be ... making me a meal."

The Hokies were in zone coverage on the play. Porch said when he saw UVa in its "trips" formation -- with three receivers lined up on one side, one receiver on the other side and Verica in the shotgun set -- he figured a pass to the back of the end zone was coming.

"I [had] seen him looking over there the whole time," said Porch, who returned the interception 40 yards. "I didn't want to run over right away.

"I kind of knew just by [the] alignment and studying them that the No. 3 receiver would come across the field. ... I read the quarterback and went and got it."

Porch had other key plays during the series.

Three plays earlier, Hall had sprinted for a 39-yard gain. Porch prevented a touchdown by running him down and corralling him at the VT 24.

Hall had stiff-armed Porch while running for a touchdown in the first quarter, so Porch didn't want that to happen again.

"I knew I had to get him down," Porch said. "It was a tough position, to try to make the tackle on him. He's a fast guy, good upper-body strength."

Hall, a former Gretna High signal-caller who has been starting in the UVa secondary, took snaps at quarterback Saturday. He ran for 109 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries, but only 32 net yards came in the second half.

Defensive coordinator Bud Foster said the Tech staff assumed Hall would make his UVa quarterback debut Saturday because "we heard somewhere they were working on that."

Tech freshman running back Ryan Williams even played the part of Hall in practice during the week.

Still, the Hokies had plenty of trouble stopping Hall in the first half.

"It caught us off guard," cornerback Macho Harris said. "We didn't see [any] type of film of Vic Hall being back there in the backfield, so it was kind of odd when he was back there.

"We didn't really prepare for the 'Wildcat' formation. ... He ran it to perfection."

Despite their hunch about Hall, the Tech coaches had to adjust on the fly.

"We had to see exactly what formations they were getting into, what personnel groups they were getting into, how they were attacking us," Foster said. "Those were the things we had to dissect and talk about."

The Cavaliers led 14-7 at halftime but mustered just 108 yards of total offense in the second half. UVa ran for 117 yards in the first half but only 55 yards in the second half.

"We made a couple little wrinkles on some of their personnel groupings -- how they were blocking it, what we needed to do with our front," Foster said.

Purnell Sturdivant sacked Verica at the UVa 6 with 52 seconds left to end the Cavaliers' final series. Foster celebrated by pumping his fist as he ran up the sideline.

"I wish they'd clocked me -- somebody might want to sign me," Foster joked. "But I think I pulled everything from my low back down, so I might be in the training room tomorrow."