Virginia Tech Hokies: Reach For Excellence (2012)

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No love

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Marshall game was played yesterday and should be posted today. Last non conference game before acc conference play begins.

[gorillapittpray]

nice hard fought win... reminds me of when I played Troy last season, the qb threw all over me and they almost beat me... Good luck. Im sure youll roll threw Marshall cant wait to see how you do against Clemson

[waytofailself]

Woah, Aplin looked super fast.

Good win, it's nice to come from behind like that but certainly scary when it's coming against a team who's supposed to be an easy win for the home crowd and boosters.

Good job sticking with what works and continuing to pump the ball to Wilson. Glad to see he was eventually able to break through.

[JLWebb]

Curious to see how that Marshall game went.. naturally!

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Hokies' Defense Too Much For Cato



- The Hokie defense locked-down Cato, rendering the 'Herd offense irrelevant -
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Blacksburg, VA (AP) -- Thanks in large part to Bud Foster's defense, the Hokies moved to 4-0 on the season and closed out their non-conference schedule with a perfect record before entering the bye week, and ultimately, the conference stretch.
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The Hokies were coming off a narrow victory a week ago when they survived the upset scare from Arkansas State, and were looking to finish off the non-conference schedule with a perfect 4-0 record before embarking on their grueling conference schedule. The cold and rainy conditions made it a difficult road trip to Huntington, WV -- the Hokies' first trip to Huntington since 1970. The Hokies honored the Thundering Herd team of 1970 who tragically died in a plane crash while traveling home from a narrow loss to the East Carolina Pirates. 75 lives were lost in the accident, and the Hokies' honored them by wearing decals on their helmets to signify the players who perished in the crash. Frank Beamer lost close friends in the accident, and it was his first trip back to the campus since those young men died in a horrific manner. The emotions were running rampant, and certainly gave Marshall the advantage in Saturday's contest.

As has been the trend as of late, the Hokies started off slow and lethargic as the Thundering Herd would be the team to grab the momentum first. In almost a repeat from last week, the Herd struck fast on offense thanks to the feet and vision of Tron Martinez. Hokie Nation quickly got a glimpse of the youngster that is a star-in-the-making for Marshall. After a few plays resulted in pushing the Hokie defense back to near midfield, Martinez (13 carries, 139 yards, 2 touchdowns) finished off the drive with an explosive 52-yard touchdown run right into the heart of the defense, and the Herd jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead.


-Tron Martinez busted a 52-yard run on the stingy defense of the Hokies for the contest's first score-

As the Hokies would look to bounce back and knot the score up, Sophomore Logan Thomas showed his lack of experience, forcing a pass on 3rd down that was picked off by Marshall, and returned back for a touchdown, and just like that, the Hokies were down 14-0 before they even knew what hit them.

Thankfully, Logan has short-term memory loss, and answered right back on the ensuing drive by leading the Hokies down the field, and capping off the drive with a 46-yard touchdown bomb to Marcus Davis (Thomas' favorite target) to climb back to within 7 points at 14-7.


-Davis beats the man coverage, and hauls in the 46-yard toss from Thomas-

With this touchdown drive, the Hokies used it to establish momentum -- momentum that would take them through the end of the game and would never relinquish to the Herd. The defense, who has had a knack for takeaways all year, had unarguably the best performance of the year, and maybe even the best ever under Bud Foster. The defensive front continuously destroyed the offensive line of Marshall, and had Cato running for his life. The young quarterback only completed 6 of 22 passes for 48 yards, and threw not one, not two, not even three, but five intereceptions to the Hokies' defense -- 3 of which were returned for touchdowns.



Jayron Hosley seemingly was Cato's favorite target, as the Junior grabbed 2 interceptions. However, it was Kyshoen Jarrett that had the most impressive game of any defender. The true-Freshman racked up 7 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, 1 sack, 2 interceptions, and 1 defensive touchdown. His first interception went for a defensive touchdown, and was the play that tied the game up for the Hokies, and set the stage for the massive rally after falling behind early.



While the interceptions were staggering in and of itself, the statistic that leaped off the page and caused jaws to drop was the amount of sacks the Hokie defense racked up. Cato was constantly running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, and frequently found himself in the grips of the Tech defense. James Gayle, Derrick Hopkins, and Bruce Taylor recorded 2 sacks a piece, and the rest of the defense accounted for 3.5 more sacks to a grand total of 9.5 sacks. The staggering amount of sacks took a toll on the young quarterback, and it eventually got to a point where the Doc Holliday had to take Cato out of the game. It was an embarrassing display of blocking from the offensive line, and is one of the main reason's that Cato tossed nearly more interceptions than he did receptions to his own receivers.

Bud Foster's defense played with a purpose, and brought the pain from the early-going. There were big hits after big hits, with turnovers and sacks coming from both sides. The physical nature of this game can be summed up with this clip from the game:


-Antone Exum unloads on a helpless Marshall receiver-

The defense wasn't the only positive for the Hokies', as Beamer-Ball was in effect. Early in the game, with the Hokies only clinging onto a 19-14 lead, the Thundering Herd forced the Hokies' to punt, however the returner forgot to call the fair catch, and Telvion clark hits him full speed forcing the fumble, and Kyle Fuller pounced on the loose ball to give the Hokies' the ball deep in Herd territory.


-Clark hits the returner at full speed, separating him from the ball and giving the ball back to the Hokies'-

It would only take the Hokies one play to take advantage of the miscue, as David Wilson powered his way into the endzone for one of his 3 touchdowns on the afternoon. Wilson finished the day with a solid 32 carry, 130 yard performance with 3 touchdowns. Through 4 games, the Junior has racked up over 500 yards rushing, and 9 touchdowns on the ground. His name has quickly risen to the top of the Heisman candidates list, and if he can keep it up, the Hokies may have their biggest play maker since the days of Michael Vick.

Elsewhere on offense, Logan Thomas effectively ran the Hokie offense going 16-31 for 217 yards with 3 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. The Sophomore made mistakes that are expected this early in the season, but he made plays when they counted most, and took leadership of the offense as they get ready for a grueling conference schedule in 2 weeks. Marcus Davis proved to be Thomas' favorite target yet again, as the "freak" hauled in 6 passes for 109 yards and a touchdown. The offense did what they needed to do, and the defense took over the game and was the sole reason the Hokies handled the Thundering Herd with ease. With the interceptions, sacks, batted passes, and even the lockdown of the spread option offense, Virginia Tech left Huntington with the lopsided 57-21 victory over Marshall.


-Cris Hill intercepts the option pitch, and returns it for a touchdown in the 3rd quarter-

The Hokies have a much needed bye week next week as they get prepared to host the NC State Wolfpack to open their conference schedule. While they finished off the non-conference schedule with a 4-0 record, there has to be cause for concern with the turnovers and the slow starts. One has to think that as the Hokies' take on more formidable opponents, the slow lethargic starts will come back to bite them. With a narrow defeat over Arkansas State, the Hokies know that they can take no one lightly. They are 8 games away from the ACC Conference Championship, and it starts in two weeks when they host the Wolfpack at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg.

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GO HOKIES!!!
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[JLWebb]

Man... not a good outting for my Thundering Herd... you guys had Cato's number.

Although that was a nice run from megaTRON Martinez!

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Oh yea dude we abused cato. Some of the hits he took should earn him awards for getting back up after the play. He couldn't catch a break. But martinez was unstoppable dude torches my defense.

Nc state game played will be posted later.. twas a good one!