Louisville and Virginia Tech will face off in the final of the NCR D1AA playoffs after both won their semifinals over the weekend.
Goalkicking and momentum shifts were hugely influential on this day.
For Virginia Tech this was a follow-on from the attitude they have had for the last two years—they don't care who they play or what tough teams beat them, they don't get discouraged. Instead they use those games to learn and get better.
St. Joe's started the game with plenty of possession and weren't fazed by Virginia Tech's power in the tackle. They finally got into Hokie territory and when Virginia Tech was penalized flanker Tom DeRosa put a penalty over. The Hawks started to win the territorial game and got another kickable penalty at 18 minutes. That one, however, drifted wide.
The Hokies attacked after that and spent a long period in St. Joe's territory, charging through tackles and causing the Hawks all kinds of trouble. But little handling errors, penalties, or turnovers meant they couldn't quite convert. After about 15 minutes of knocking on the St. Joe's door, Virginia Tech nabbed a loose lineout and ran through 21 phases before getting a penalty, tapping and bashing it over through Jack Murphy, who was involved several times in that sequence.
That put Virginia Tech up 7-3. St. Joe's defended doggedly but a couple of players paid for it with injuries—Connor Hohman hurt his hand quite badly, got it strapped up and kept going. But early in the second half the big lock had to finally go off for another knock.
That was a loss for St. Joe's as his size and power were missed.
St. Joe's spent move of the first 10 minutes of the second half in the Virginia Tech zone and looked to have an overlap to score, but wing Will Ritchie intercepted the final pass and took off for about 90 meters to score under the posts.
It was a massive turnaround and Virginia Tech had a 14-3 lead.
Now the Hokies were happy to defend—in the Rugby East they are used to that. But they had to stay disciplined. A penalty set up a St. Joe's lineout and when their maul was dragged down by Jack Murphy the Hawks had a penalty try and now were within four at 14-10.
Right after that, however, St. Joe's were penalized and captain and No. 8 Hunter Danesi was good on the ick to make it a converted try lead at 17-10.
Now they had to hold on. Slowly St. Joe's worked their way out of their end, and almost scored before the ball was stolen right on the Hokies' tryline. Finally flyhalf Will Woods called his own number and was over. DeRosa missed a kick he'd probably say he hits 90% of the time, and so Virginis Tech held on to a slim 17-15 lead.
Still there was time. Damesi had a shot to add three points but sliced the kick a bit. Still it allowed Virginia Tech to keep the ball in the St. Joe's end, and in fact the Hokies bottled the Hawks up really well and closed it out.
