California Scores Twice in the Last 4:06 to Beat Virginia Tech
Three touchdowns went through the last 4:06 of this one, and the only one that mattered was the last. Ashten Emory ran it in from two yards out with 0:18 left, California turned a one-point deficit into a 25-20 win, and Virginia Tech went home 4-2 with a loss it had in its hands.
Virginia Tech looked like the team in charge early. Ethan Grunkemeyer found Ayden Greene on a 30-yard touchdown in the second quarter, Marcellous Hawkins Jr. made it 14-7, and the Hokies carried that lead into the fourth, 14-13, after California's second field goal (a 22-yarder from Towns McGough with 0:28 left in the third). Cal had scored just one touchdown in that stretch, Emory's five-yard run, and kicked for the rest.
Then the fourth quarter got silly. Jackson Brousseau hit Carson Perry-Smith from three yards out at 4:06 for a 19-14 lead (the two-point try failed, as all three of the game's attempts did). Grunkemeyer answered with a one-yard sneak of his own at 1:15 to make it 20-19. Emory had the last word with the 2-yard run. Flip any one of those failed conversions and the ending looks different, but nobody converted, so here we are.
The yardage was a coin flip: California 403, Virginia Tech 401. Neither team turned the ball over. Cal threw it 43 times for 321 yards and ran for just 82, while the Hokies split it 288 through the air and 113 on the ground. The Bears finished with three sacks to Tech's one, and that was about the only edge on the stat sheet. California is 3-3 now.
Fantasy-wise, Emory is the name to circle. A back who had been sitting around 10 points a game put up 23.6 on two touchdowns, and both of them came when his team needed them.