Armstrong Throws Five Touchdowns, Virginia Rolls over Illinois 42-14

It was a point of emphasis this week in practice that the Virginia football offense get off to a better start after scoring just three points in the first quarter of UVA’s season-opening victory over William & Mary last week.

In the blink of an eye, the Hoos erased any doubts about the team being able to start strong, especially given the early 11am kickoff time.

The Cavaliers got the ball first and 86 seconds later, Virginia found the end zone. The UVA defense followed that up with a three-and-out and when the offense got the ball back, it took the Hoos all of one minute and 37 seconds to score another touchdown.

It was the definition of a dream start for the Cavaliers, who found themselves up 14-0 less than five minutes into the game. Although Illinois managed to score a couple of touchdowns and keep things interesting, Virginia delivered a solid performance all-around from start to finish and defeated the Fighting Illini 42-14 on Saturday at Scott Stadium.

After missing a large part of the game against William & Mary with what seemed to be leg cramp issues, Oklahoma State tight end transfer Jelani Woods made his presence felt immediately in this one. Brennan Armstrong threw to Woods in the middle of the field on the first play from scrimmage for a 31-yard reception. Armstrong then ran for 17 yards on the next play to the Illinois 32-yard line. Two plays later, Armstrong found Woods again for a 32-yard touchdown catch to put the Hoos up 7-0 just 1:16 in.

Woods recorded 63 yards on the two receptions during that initial four-play drive. The 6’7” 265-pound junior finished with five receptions for 122 yards and the touchdown and averaged a ridiculous 24.4 yards per catch.

"If you choose to put a linebacker on, and most likely he's not as fast, and there aren't many linebackers that are over six foot six," said UVA head coach Bronco Mendenhall of Jelani Woods. "Then if you choose the secondary route, there's not many secondary players that are six-seven, and they might be fast, but they probably don't weigh 250. And so really there's a matchup issue, no matter what direction you go."

The Virginia defense picked up right where it left off and forced two straight three-and-outs and shut out the Illini in the first quarter.

The UVA offense scored a touchdown on another lighting-fast four-play drive. Armstrong completed a 39-yard pass to Ra’Shaun Henry on a crossing route. Then, Armstrong found Dontayvion Wicks on the right side for a 28-yard touchdown catch to make it 14-0.

Wicks finished with three receptions for 69 yards and two touchdowns. Armstrong threw for 171 yards in the first quarter, a career-high for passing yards in a single quarter.

After another Illinois three-and-out, Virginia threatened to score again before the Illinois defense held the Hoos to a field goal. Sophomore Justin Duenkel’s 46-yard attempt went wide right and the Cavaliers came up empty.

The Illini and Cavaliers traded punts on the next two drives before Illinois put together an eight-play, 72-yard drive capped off by a 33-yard touchdown reception by Deuce Spann from Artur Sitkowski, who started his second straight game as Illinois quarterback after starter Brandon Peters was injured early in Illinois’ first game of the season.

Suddenly, Illinois was right back in the game.

Virginia put together another solid drive on the ensuing possession, but the offense stalled and Duenkel’s 31-yard field goal attempt went wide right again.

In a crucial sequence, the UVA defense came up with a huge three-and-out on Illinois’ next possession. Sitkowski tried to leap for the first down but was knocked out of the air just shy of the marker and Illinois was forced to punt just as momentum was beginning to build on the side of the Illini.

Virginia responded with a seven-play, 62-yard touchdown drive to go back up by two scores. Armstrong completed an 18-yard pass to Jelani Woods to the Illinois 12-yard line, which set up a six-yard touchdown pass to Dontayvion Wicks three plays later to make it 21-7 with just 1:17 left in the first half.

The UVA defense shut down Illinois’ attempt to score before halftime with back-to-back sacks on Artur Sitkowski. Noah Taylor wrapped up the Illinois quarterback and the Illini elected to let the clock run out on the first half. Taylor finished with 7 tackles and two sacks.

Illinois threatened to stage a comeback again to start the third quarter, as the Illini strung together a quick four-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, ending with a Chase Brown 21-yard touchdown run down the right sideline to make it a one-possession game once again.

However, Brennan Armstrong and the Cavaliers were up to the task.

UVA picked up 18 yards on a wild play in which Armstrong handed the ball to Jacob Rodriguez, who pitched it to Dontayvion Wicks who, as he was about to be hit by an Illinois defender, threw it back to Armstrong who made the catch. It was the first-career completion for Wicks and the first-career reception for Armstrong.

Virginia continued to march down the field and eventually scored on a two-yard touchdown pass from Armstrong to Billy Kemp in the flat for Kemp’s first touchdown of the season which made the score 28-14.

Armstrong put up career numbers in Saturday’s game, completing 27 of 36 passing attempts for 405 passing yards and five touchdowns.

“He's unmatched in terms of how competitive, how tough in his determination," said Mendenhall of Armstrong.

After another Illinois three-and-out, Virginia scored again, this time on a tough eight-yard touchdown run by Keytaon Thompson, who took the direct snap and shed multiple tacklers on his way into the end zone to make it 35-14.

Thompson recorded 24 rushing yards and the touchdown on four carries and hauled in five receptions for 68 yards.

Virginia did turn the ball over twice in Illinois territory in the 4th quarter when it appeared that the Cavaliers were going to score to ice the game. Wayne Taulapapa had the ball stripped and recovered by Jake Hansen while Taulapapa was on top of another Illinois defender. After Illinois turned the ball over on downs, Armstrong found Jelani Woods for a 28-yard gain on the ensuing Virginia possession. On the next play, however, Armstrong threw an accurate ball to Keytaon Thompson, who had it in his hands before it was ripped away by Kerby Joseph as they went to the ground at the Illinois one-yard line.

Fortunately for the Cavaliers, the UVA defense continued to shut the Illini offense down. Illinois managed just 116 rushing yards and punted seven times during the game. Nick Jackson, Noah Taylor, Antonio Clary, and Joey Blount each had seven tackles. Nick Grant had three tackles and a forced fumble and Anthony Johnson recorded five tackles and an interception late in the game.

“We played consistently for the majority of the game,” said Mendenhall. “There was very few breakdowns and very few things that didn’t exactly fit right.”

Virginia added one final touchdown on a Wayne Taulapapa three-yard reception in the left flat for Armstrong’s fifth touchdown of the game and Taualapapa’s first-career touchdown reception.

The Cavaliers amassed 423 passing yards for the game and had 556 yards of total offense. The Cavaliers have scored 85 points and recorded 1,101 total yards through their first two games.

Virginia improves to 2-0 on the season and will travel to Chapel Hill to play #24 North Carolina next Saturday night.

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