2009 FedEx Orange Bowl
Oh, how right they were. Darren Evans had 28 carries for 153 yards and a touchdown, Virginia Tech's defense came up with four interceptions and the 21st-ranked Hokies beat the 12th-ranked Bearcats 20-7 on Jan. 1 to join Southern California and Texas as the only schools to win 10 games in each of the past five seasons. They were the underdogs again Thursday, plus were driven by the chance to avenge last year's Orange Bowl loss to Kansas. For the first 2 minutes, they seemed very much in trouble. Pike - who wasn't even on Cincinnati's depth chart at the start of the season before blossoming into an all-Big East quarterback - threw for 239 yards and a touchdown, but had his night marred mightily by the four picks and getting stopped on a fourth-and-goal in the fourth quarter. Mardy Gilyard had 255 all-purpose yards and a touchdown catch for Cincinnati (11-3), which had its six-game winning streak snapped. Evans, the game's MVP, got the clinching score early in the fourth, after Pike threw his third interception - albeit on a highlight-quality play by Virginia Tech defensive end Orion Martin. Deep in his own territory, Pike rolled right and threw back to the left, hoping the misdirection would pay off. Martin never bit, made a diving interception at the Cincinnati 10, and Evans rumbled in from 6 yards out for a 20-7 lead with 11:29 left. Pike got the Bearcats to the Virginia Tech 1 on the next drive, tried to run in on fourth-and-goal, and was stuffed by Barquell Rivers with 7:25 left to end Cincinnati's last realistic comeback chance. His fourth interception came 5 minutes later, capping a night to forget by the quarterback who wasn't even on the Bearcats' three-deep when spring ball began. The Hokies' best defense was their ball-control offense. Virginia Tech held the ball for nearly 40 minutes. Virginia Tech entered the stadium to the familiar sounds of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" - the song that usually blares when the Hokies enter Lane Stadium in Blacksburg. Nonetheless, it was Cincinnati that appeared at home early in its BCS debut. The Bearcats took the opening kickoff, sent their spread offense onto the field and made the Hokies look very confused. Pike found Gilyard for a 38-yard pickup on the third play from scrimmage, and they hooked up for a spectacular 15-yard touchdown three plays later to open the scoring. Facing a third-and-9 from the right hash, Pike waited ... waited ... waited ... before lofting a fade to the far left of the end zone. Gilyard took off on a sprint, made a diving catch as he sailed out of bounds and managed to just barely drag his right toe on the turf painted in Virginia Tech's colors for a 7-0 Cincinnati lead. It looked easy. Ah, but the nation's seventh-ranked defense would eventually get its bearings. The Hokies held Cincinnati to 137 yards, stifled the Bearcats running game (eight carries, 11 yards) over the remainder of the half, and battled their way to a 10-7 lead by intermission. Taylor tied the game with a zig-zig-zag rushing effort from 17 yards early in the second quarter. Out of the shotgun on third-and-9, he started straight ahead, darted right, cut back left and then made a sharper move to run just past the pylon - the quarterback's seventh rushing score of the season. Cincinnati had a great chance to reclaim the lead later in the second, until Pike made the sort of error he avoided all season, throwing into what essentially was triple-coverage while trying to force the ball to Dominick Goodman in the back of the end zone.
First Quarter Second Quarter Third Quarter
Rushing-- Cincinnati: Ramsey 4-34, Goebel 9-26, Pead 2-10, Pike 5-4, Barnett 1-(-3). Virginia Tech: Evans 28-153, Taylor 15-47, Roberts 2-34, Boone 2-19, Oglesby 3-8, Coale 1-7, Team 4-(-10).
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