ATLANTA - Logan Thomas ran and passed for touchdowns in the first half, and Virginia Tech’s defense took it from there.
Thomas shook off a sluggish start to his senior season, Virginia Tech’s defense shut down Georgia Tech’s running game and the Hokies beat the Yellow Jackets 17-10 on Thursday night.
Thomas overcame an abdominal strain to complete 19 of 25 passes for 221 yards and 1 touchdown and had 16 carries for 58 yards and 1 touchdown.
“I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to make it through,” Thomas said. “I wasn’t able to practice pretty much all week.”
Virginia Tech (4-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) earned its fourth consecutive victory over Georgia Tech (3-1, 2-1).
The game often decides the Coastal Division’s representative in the ACC Championship Game. Virginia Tech (five) and Georgia Tech (three) are the only teams from the division to play in the championship game.
Kyle Fuller had two tackles for losses and a forced fumble, Brandon Facyson intercepted a pass and had a forced fumble and fumble recovery, and Derrick Hopkins had seven stops to lead a strong performance by the Hokies’ defense.
Georgia Tech’s fourth-ranked rushing offense was held to 129 yards - more than 200 yards below its average.
“That’s something we wanted to do, and we took pride in that,” Fuller said.
Georgia Tech Coach Paul Johnson said much improvement is needed in his spread-option offense.
“It’s been coming,” Johnson said about the offense’s struggles. “I’ve told you all along we’re not very good with the option. We’re terrible, in fact, and it showed. We’re not going to throw the ball 24 times and win very many games. That’s not us. We’ve got to be able to run the ball … and we didn’t do it.”
Vad Lee completed only 7 of 24 passes for 144 yards with 2 interceptions and lost a fumble.
Virginia Tech overcame a short practice week to find a defensive plan to contain Lee and the spread-option offense that was averaging 45.3 points per game.
“I think we’re fortunate to have some veterans up front that have played against their offense a couple of times,” Virginia Tech Coach Frank Beamer said. “It’s a rugged offense. You have to be rugged yourself to play it. You have to be very precise.”
Led by Hopkins, the 311-pound defensive tackle, Virginia Tech stopped running back David Sims on back-toback plays, including a fourthand-2 run, midway through the fourth quarter.
Sports, Pages 21 on 09/27/2013