Virginia Tech Pulls Away from Old Dominion 44-21
Old Dominion lost two fumbles, and one of them became a touchdown. That swing came in the first quarter, and Virginia Tech never looked back on the way to a 44-21 win.
The Hokies were never behind. John Love kicked a 39-yard field goal, Marcellous Hawkins Jr. ran 20 yards for a score, and then Tyson Flowers scooped up a fumble and carried it 14 yards into the end zone for a 17-0 lead with 2:29 left in the first quarter. Old Dominion answered with a 34-yard Nathanial Eichner field goal, but Luke Reynolds caught touchdowns of 10 and 16 yards from Ethan Grunkemeyer in the second quarter, and Love added a 22-yarder for 34-3. A 51-yard Eichner field goal at the buzzer made it 34-6 at the half.
Old Dominion woke up late, thanks mostly to its quarterback. Quinn Henicle threw a seven-yard touchdown pass to Leon Haughton Jr. late in the third (13-37), and then ran 76 yards for a score and the two-point conversion with 7:49 left, which cut it to 44-21. Grunkemeyer had pushed the Hokies to 44 with a one-yard run at 11:03. Henicle ran 16 times for 83 yards, threw for 187 and lost both of the Monarchs' fumbles. Virginia Tech lost two fumbles too, and gained 416 yards, 327 of them in the air.
Virginia Tech is 2-0 and Old Dominion is 1-1. Take away the fumble return and this is still a 37-21 Hokies win. If you held Reynolds, you know it already: 30.6 points from a tight end.
The real tell is the first quarter, which was 17-3 before anyone had settled in.