University of Richmond Athletics
No. 17/20 Spider Football Falls At Virginia
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 17/20 Richmond football team fell to the Virginia Cavaliers, 45-13, Saturday afternoon at Scott Stadium. With the loss, the Spiders fall to 1-1 on the season, while Virginia improved to 1-1 on the year.
"Seven turnovers," commented Richmond head coach Danny Rocco. "I don't even know where to begin with that. I don't even know if I'll be able to answer any questions about that very clearly, because I just don't know enough about where to go from here. That's two weeks in a row we have turned over the ball. I really thought our defense was hanging in there and statistically it probably bodes out that way. We were pretty stiff against the run and weren't giving up any really huge creases. There were too many short fields, too many repetitive series, and offensively we kind of sputtered and turned the ball over. We couldn't protect our quarterback. I was scared going in, but I thought that we would have performed a little better."
Despite the loss, the Spiders outgained the Cavaliers, 422-330, in total yards, 363 of which were passing. Virginia-transfer QB Michael Strauss led both teams with 266 yards off 24-of-36 passes, while WR Stephen Barnette also picked up a game-high 124 receiving yards on 10 receptions for his eighth 100-yard game in his career.
WR Rashad Ponder also collected a 100-yard game, his second of his career, as he followed Barnette with 100 yards on eight catches, while WR Reggie Diggs just missed the 100-yard mark, totaling 80 on the day.
Another UVA transfer, QB Michael Rocco, returned to Scott Stadium to help lead the Spider offense. The redshirt-senior threw 5-of-11 for 97 yards and a rushing touchdown.
Defensively, Richmond held the Cavaliers to just 173 passing yards and forced two turnovers. LB Eric Wright led the Spiders with a career-high 12 tackles, while DB Reggie Barnette followed with 11. DE Justin Williamson also had a career day as he picked up eight tackles, including four solo and a pass breakup.
In the first possession of the game, Richmond got things rolling as Strauss connected on three-straight passes to get the Spiders in Cavalier territory. Rocco made his first appearance on the fifth play of the game as the redshirt senior rushed for five yards for a Richmond first down.
The two quarterbacks helped Richmond get to the Virginia eight-yard line to set up an easy 28-yard field goal attempt for K Peter Yoder to be the first on the board and take a 3-0 lead.
Virginia answered with 14-straight points to go into the half with a 14-3 lead.
The Spiders outgained the Cavaliers 174-143 in total yards and out passed Virginia by 110 yards in the first half. Strauss led the offense with 13-of-20 passes for 172 yards, while Ponder picked up five catches for 82 yards, including a long of 29, in the first 30 minutes of play.
DB Ayo Ogunniyi gave Richmond some momentum to start the second half when the junior made a diving interception that picked off Virginia QB Matt Johns on Richmond’s 38 yard-line. Strauss then led the offense down field, going 3-for-5 with two passes over 10 yards that set up a 32-yard field goal for Yoder with 6:49 left in the third.
After 10-straight points from Virginia, Richmond picked up seven points with a touchdown run. Rocco capped off a nine-play, 71-yard drive with a diving rush into the endzone to make it a 31-13 ball game going into the fourth quarter.
14 more points in the fourth quarter by the Cavaliers gave Richmond its first loss of the season.
The Spiders will be back in action Saturday, Sept. 13 when they return home to host Hampton at 6 p.m. at Robins Stadium.