Hokies less than impressive in home win over WK

By Nathan Warters
Published: October 5, 2008

BLACKSBURG — Doing just enough to win might be impressive on the road against the likes of North Carolina and Nebraska. But at home against Western Kentucky? Not so much.

No. 20 Virginia Tech pulled out an uninspiring 27-13 win against the Hilltoppers on Saturday afternoon at Lane Stadium.

The Hokies struggled offensively and gave up a couple of big special-teams plays, but they weren’t exactly disappointed with the end result.

How they won didn’t matter much to Tech’s players, just as long as they did win.

“A win is a win,” Hokies senior cornerback Macho Harris said. “At the end of the day, they’re going to ask, ‘Did Virginia Tech win or lose?’ We won today, so that’s all that counts.”

That philosophy has worked all season for the Hokies (5-1), who beat Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Nebraska by a combined 11 points and even had trouble putting away Football Championship Subdivision opponent Furman at home.

Still, they were hoping to assert themselves heading into a difficult conference stretch that includes road games against Boston College, Florida State and Miami.

Tech has next Saturday off before visiting BC on Oct. 18. Then it plays at Florida State, hosts Maryland and visits Miami in consecutive weeks.

“Five and one sounds pretty good, but we’ve still got our work cut out for us,” Tech coach Frank Beamer said.

The Hokies rushed for 151 yards on 51 carries (three yards per carry), lost their first fumble of the season and failed to score any points in the final 25:38.

They were seemingly on their way to their first blowout win of the season after running back Darren Evans scored on a 2-yard touchdown run to make the score 27-3 with 10:39 left in the third quarter.

But those would be Tech’s last points. The Hilltoppers (2-4), who lost to BCS conference opponents Indiana, Alabama and Kentucky by a combined score of 113-23, out-scored the Hokies 10-0 to end the game.

WKU struck its biggest blows on special teams. It was successful on a fake punt in the second quarter, which led to the first of two Tanner Siewert field goals, and converted an on-side kick in the third that it eventually turned into its only touchdown.

“We took a lot of pride in trying to match one of the best special teams teams in the country,” Western Kentucky coach David Elson said. “We executed well, and I am very pleased with the way they played.”

The Hilltoppers’ offense came to life when backup tailback Dexter Taylor starting taking snaps at quarterback with five minutes remaining in the third.

Taylor, who played for the same Indianapolis high school team (Warren Central) as Evans, led the Hilltoppers on back-to-back scoring drives in the second half. He didn’t attempt a pass, but he rushed for 96 yards on 14 carries.

While Taylor and WKU thrived in the third and fourth quarters, the Hokies, who are still looking for a breakout offensive game, couldn’t get going.

They couldn’t reach the 300-yard plateau (293) against a team that yielded 557 yards against Alabama and 450 yards to Indiana.

Tech sophomore quarterback Tyrod Taylor completed 10 of 15 passes for 125 yards and his first touchdown pass of the season. He also fumbled three times, losing one.

“I told the guys early in the year that I thought every game was going to be a dogfight for us. You never let your guard down,” Taylor said. “Every team is going to play us hard. You’ve just got to go out there and keep playing.”

The Hokies’ most productive offensive player might have been junior running back Kenny Lewis, who averaged 5.4 yards per carry before leaving the game with a season-ending Achilles heel injury.

He ruptured his left Achilles tendon in the third quarter.

Evans, who rushed for 79 yards and two touchdowns, is expected to move into Lewis’s starting role.

“He’s been a big leader to us on the field and off the field, vocally and with his play and everything, so not having him around is going to be big for us,” Evans said of Lewis, who leads Tech with 486 all-purpose yards.

Taylor led the Hokies on five scoring drives in the first 34 minutes. He threw his first touchdown pass of the season — a 27-yarder to tight end Greg Boone — with 2:11 left in the third quarter.

Tech scored 10 points in the final half-minute of the first half.

Harris returned a punt 32 yards to the WKU 38 to set up Evans’ first touchdown run, which came on fourth-and-1 with 25 seconds left before halftime.

Less than 20 seconds later, Harris intercepted David Wolke’s pass at the Virginia Tech 46 and returned it 49 yards to the Hilltoppers’ 5. Dustin Keys kicked a 22-yard field goal with a second left before halftime to put the Hokies up 20-3.

Tech had a wave of momentum heading into the locker room, but instead of pouncing on the Hilltoppers in the second half, it allowed them to stay in the game.

“It’s somewhat nerve-wracking,” Harris said, “but at the same time, we’ve been in this situation before, so I have faith in the players and the coaches and stuff like that, that I know we’re going to come up out of it.”