Virginia Tech Beats California 42-34 in Double OT Thriller

Virginia Tech hosted Cal in Lane Stadium in a crucial Friday night ACC matchup. Virginia Tech was in desperate need of a win, losing their last two and sitting at 2-5 on the season. Phillip Montgomery and Co. did more than deliver a win, they delivered a classic in the 42-34 double overtime win.

"I couldn't be more proud of our football team and our coaching staff," Interim Head Coach Phillip Montgomery said after the game. "These guys have been through a lot, that's a tough ball game. That's a good [California] team. [They] came in here, 5-2, been playing extremely well. We knew we were going to have our hands full tonight and we knew it was going to take all three phases to get this thing done."

Early on in the game, the Hokies looked like the far and away better team, jumping out to a 10-0 lead and not allowing Cal to get a first down until their third drive. That third drive is where things began to turn around, though. Cal was able to drive the ball 55 yards on 10 plays and put their first points on the board, a 38 yard field goal.

That scoring drive was followed by four consecutive scoreless drives for Virginia Tech, where Cal took advantage and scored 20 unanswered points leading into the half. After that, Cal would not score again until there was less than three minutes remaining in the game.

The Hokies came out swinging in the second half though, putting together a 13 play, 40 yard drive that allowed John Love to make it a one score game again. The Hokies then were able to get a stop and score a touchdown on a four play, 86 yard drive, ending it with a 44 yard touchdown to Takye Heath.

During this time, a growing shirtless student section formed in the North End Zone despite the 40-degree weather.

That Takye Heath touchdown tied the game and the two teams swapped touchdowns and missed field goals in the late fourth quarter to allow the game to go to overtime. Opening up overtime, Cal went and scored on the first play, then it took the Hokies just two, with a Kyron Drones power run as he fought his way across the goal line.

It was the second overtime where things began to just feel different. Starting from the 25, the Hokies took five plays to score a touchdown, finishing it with another touchdown pass from Kyron Drones to Takye Heath. They would convert the two-point try with a Kyron Drones run into the end zone.

Que Enter Sandman.

Once that touchdown gets the Hokies the lead, the half-empty Lane Stadium sounded like it did in 1999. What was left of the crowd was the loudest I've heard it in my life.

First down - Sagapolutele looks right and sees Kelvin Gilliam giving chase. He rolls out a few steps left and aims it to Mason Mini, who is unable to come down with it.

Second down - Sagapolutele fires it deep left, looking for the touchdown, incomplete. Targeting is called. They go to the video review and it's overturned.

Enter Sandman comes back on and the stadium is erupting.

Third down - Here. We. Go. Cal is in trouble with their backs to the wall. Sagapolutele looks over the middle on the run, and who else but Kelvin Gilliam to hit him as he throws and force an incomplete pass. Fourth and ballgame for the Golden Bears.

On the final play of the game, Sagapolutele has time in the pocket, looks, hurls one deep left. Isaiah Brown-Murray, with absolute blanket coverage, was never going to give that pass a chance. It falls to the ground and the Virginia Tech sideline floods the field.

Kyron Drones finished the game by completing just nine of eighteen passes, but for 119 yards and three touchdowns. He also had 137 yards on the ground with two more scores. He graded out with a 78.2 overall grade and a grade of 83.1 when Cal sent pressure.

"Kyron played unbelievable tonight," Mongomery said. "Made some great reads, made some great runs, made some great throws. ... We couldn't have done that without him."

Virginia Tech finished with 357 (Yes, 357) rushing yards on the ground. Marcellous Hawkins (167 rushing yards) and Kyron Drones both totaled over 100. That is an unbelievable feat that the Hokies haven't been able to complete since... well Bhayshul Tuten almost did that himself last year.

"We made some adjustments at halftime. And I thought we added a couple of different layers to it," Montgomery said. "Being able to attack a little bit more outside, we really got Kyron [Drones] a lot more involved in the run game in the second half. He did a tremendous job of that."

While the rushing game was dominant for Virginia Tech, the same can't be said about Cal. They were held to a measly 39 rushing yards on just 1.4 yards per carry on the game. Their longest rush was 11 yards.

"It's just a test of what we've been doing," Kelvin Gilliam said about the team's rush defense. "Teams should not run the ball on us, especially with our defensive front."

Lastly, let's talk about the environment down in Lane Stadium. Press members are allowed down on the field during the last five minutes of the game, so I went down there and it was one of the most electric atmospheres I have ever been a part of.

"No, no," Gilliam said when asked if he'd ever played in an atmosphere like that. "That was a dream I'll never forget. I think it was the Virginia Tech, Miami game when they played Enter Sandman right before the clock ran out. For us to experience that on a Friday night game in Lane, it was just unreal."

“The crowd was unbelievable, especially there in the overtime period and in the second overtime when defense went back out," Montgomery said. "I've been on the other side of that with fans like that. But I don't know that I've I've felt an environment as electric as what it felt right then. And the amount of noise, the amount of of spirit that was in the stadium was absolutely tremendous."

The impacts of fans and students even amidst a rough season is part of what makes college football special and we were reminded of that Friday night as the Hokies completed off a comeback that may have been ignited in part by a bunch of future engineers, business leaders, doctors, and more taking off their shirts and waving them over their heads. No other sport are you getting that.