Hokies End Eagles Five-Game Winning Streak With a 48-22 Win

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A bright and beautiful Saturday afternoon awaited the Boston College Eagles (6-4, 3-3) and Virginia Tech Hokies (5-5, 4-2) at Alumni Stadium. An important game for both teams for different reasons. For the Hokies, they still need a couple of wins to become bowl-eligible. For the Eagles, they have already reached that level with their win at Syracuse last Friday night. Now it is about moving up the ladder in the conference and creating a better situation for themselves moving forward. Bringing a five-game winning streak into the game never hurts. However, games vs Virginia Tech have not always gone well. Would Saturday be different?

The Hokies won the opening coin toss and deferred to the second half. BC started the game on offense. The day did not get off to a great start for quarterback Thomas Castellanos, as on the first play of the game his pass was picked off by CB Dorian Strong on the right sideline. It set up the Hokies at the BC 37-yard line. The Eagles defense did its job and forced VT to kick a 27-yard FG by John Love. The Hokies took an early 3-0 lead with 12:40 left in the first quarter. It would take all of eight plays on the next Eagle drive to take the lead. Seven of those plays on the ground as the combination of Castellanos and RB Alex Broome took the team downfield. Broome had the big play, a 36-yard run up the middle that put the Eagles in the red zone at the Hokies 4-yard line. Next play Broome took a handoff and broke the plane for a 4-yard TD and the Eagles were up 7-3 with nine minutes left in the first. The third BC drive ended like the first one did, with Castellanos being intercepted by Strong. The Hokies offense started at their 31-yard line. Ten plays later they were in the endzone, and Bhayshul Tuten finished the drive with a seven-yard TD run. Tech took a page out of the BC playbook, as ten of the eleven plays on the drive were running plays 10-7 Hokies. This was shaping up as a game that was to be won at the line of scrimmage. Head coach Brent Pry uses an on-side kick to get the ball back for his offense. The play worked and the Hokies were back in business at their 49-yard line. The first quarter ended with VT on the move toward the Eagles endzone.

As the second quarter started, the Hokies running game was becoming the story. They had 79 yards on the ground in the first with an average rush per play of 4.6 yards. They also had six first downs in the quarter. The running game set up the play-action pass, as Kyron Drones hit WR Steven Gosnell over the middle for a 22-yard TD pass and run. Gosnell was wide open over the middle and raced into the endzone toward the left corner untouched. VT was now up 17-7 and had 156 yards of total offense on 26 plays. After an Eagles punt. VT was at it again. A 59-yard run by Drones which was the longest run by the Hokies this season. Two plays later, Drones hit Jaylin Lane in the left flat and he walked into the endzone for a TD. It was now 24-7 VT. At this point, Drones were destroying the Eagles defense. He had run for 116 yards and thrown for another 70 yards on 4-of-7 with two touchdowns. VT was back in the red zone thanks to a 70-yard completion by Drones to Da’ Quan Felton down the right sideline. Two plays later Tuten barrels his way into the end zone from 4 yards out and the rout looks like it was on 31-7 with 1:33 left before half. Drones were single-handedly the difference in the half. He ran the ball for 104 yards on 15 rushes. He threw the ball for 182 yards on 8-of-12 passing with two scores. The Hokies already had 340 yards of total offense to BC 138.

The Hokies started the third quarter with the ball. Ten plays later they were back in the endzone, Tuten (16 carries, 78 yards, 3 TD) with his third touchdown of the day. This one from four yards out, as he just bullied his way to paydirt. If the rout was not on it was now. VT had a 38-7 lead with 8:50 left in the third quarter. The Eagles took the ensuing kickoff and marched down the field. The 13-play drive was finished by an eight-yard TD pass from Castellanos (10-of-20,110 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT) to Jaedin Skeete. The Eagles tried and got a 2-point conversion to make the score 38-15 Virginia Tech with 2:52 left in the third quarter. The third quarter ended with VT driving on a short field after an on-side kick by BC that was recovered by the Hokies.

The fourth quarter began with Virginia Tech in position to score again. On the first play of the quarter, Malachi Thomas took a handoff from Drones (12-of-17, 219 yards,2 TD. 20 carries for 135 yards) and ran up the middle untouched for a 35-yard TD run. 45-15 VT. The reserves took over the game for the rest of the way in the fourth. John Love added a 46-yard FG his second of the day to make it a 48-15 score. The only mistake Virginia Tech made all day came when backup QB Grant Wells on a quarterback draw took off down the right sideline. Only to be caught from behind by Eagles C.J. Clinkscales who stripped the ball away. The football went through the endzone and became a touchback with the Eagles in control of the ball. BC added a late TD on a 1-yard run from Xavier Coleman with 4:26 left. It made the score 48-22 Virginia Tech. By the time the game ended most of the 33,665 in attendance were back outside the stadium tailgating. The Hokies finished with 600 total yards, 363 were rushing yards. The final score was 48-22 Virginia Tech. A short week for the Eagles, as they head to Pittsburgh for a Thursday night game.

After the game, the theme of the post-game comments was pretty much the same. Head Coach Jeff Haffley, Thomas Castellanos, and Defensive End Donovan Ezeinuaku all said pretty much the same thing. “We did not execute” We did a poor job tackling” Haffley added “We need to play better,” Castellanos said “We got humble today” Everything that was said was on target. This was the second time this season that VT ran for over 300 yards. They did it vs Syracuse (318 yards) back on October 29. The last time they finished a game with 600 total yards was on September 22, 2018, vs Old Dominion. The 48 points is a season high, last time they did that was vs Duke in 2021. The Hokies are now 21-11 all-time vs the Eagles. They are now 10-6 at Alumni Stadium.