Miami survives as Hokies’ Hail Mary TD overturned
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Andrea Adelson, ESPN Senior Writer
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Miami and Virginia Tech took turns celebrating a victory Friday night after a wild final play that left anger and heartbreak for one team and wild jubilation for the other. There could be only one winner, of course.
Though Miami’s Isaiah Horton emerged from a tangle of seven Miami and Virginia Tech players in the back of the end zone, officials ruled that Virginia Tech receiver Da’Quan Felton had come down with the ball before it was wrestled away from him.
Touchdown, Virginia Tech.
The Hokies then ran onto the field in celebration, helmets raised high, believing they had won the game on a 30-yard Hail Mary heave into the end zone from Kyron Drones. Both teams milled on the field, Virginia Tech believing it had won, Miami incredulous over the call.
Confusion reigned. Head referee Jerry Magallanes ordered them back to their respective sidelines, and a replay review began.
Virginia Tech felt confident the call on the field would stand; Miami felt confident the replay officials would call the pass incomplete. At least six minutes passed, an interminable wait that Miami coach Mario Cristobal described as “liability issues that come with that, with the cardiac condition of everybody on the sideline.”
Magallanes got on the mic and announced the touchdown call on the field had been overturned, allowing the Hurricanes to celebrate a 38-34 victory.
In a statement issued two hours after the game ended, the ACC said, “During the review process of the last play of the Virginia Tech at Miami game, it was determined that the loose ball was touched by a Miami player while he was out of bounds, which makes it an incomplete pass and immediately ends the play.”
Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry, visibly upset, said afterward, “The way the game ended, I hope they got that call right. To take that, to overturn it and take it from our kids, our coaches, our fans, I hope they got it right.”
After the play ended, Pry said he ran over to the officials and asked, “How did you rule it?”
“He said, ‘Touchdown,'” Pry said. “Normally, when you look at something that long, it does not get overturned. I didn’t think there was enough evidence to overturn it. So, like I said, I hope they got it right.”
The ending capped a four-hour game that featured more Cam Ward magic, a stuffed fake field goal attempt, an Xavier Restrepo fourth-down catch while on his back, Bhayshul Tuten running roughshod over the Miami defense and Drones nearly willing his team to victory.
Miami overcame a 10-point, fourth-quarter deficit — their largest of the season — to move to 5-0 for the first time since 2017. Virginia Tech, meanwhile, dropped its third one-score game this season. In the aftermath, both coaches addressed an ending so wild, it seemed hard to comprehend an hour later.
“I saw an incomplete pass. That’s all I can say,” Cristobal said.
When asked later what his emotions were like waiting for replay to make a ruling, Cristobal said, “It’s wild. [In] college football, you’re never all the way clear and easy to win a game, you’re never all the way out of it. It just keeps going. We did talk about it, that you don’t leave a game like this in the hands of the officials because you might be disappointed. At the end of the day, we just found a way to win.”
While Miami players went through various stages of emotion waiting for the final decision from the officials, Virginia Tech was left with overwhelming disappointment in the result. The Hokies led 34-31 with 8:40 left. But a quick three-and-out gave the ball back to Miami.
Though Ward had three turnovers in the game — two interceptions and one fumble — he was a wizard on what turned out to be the winning drive. On fourth-and-3 from the Virginia Tech 50, Ward went to Restrepo, who slipped and fell but still made the catch. He threw another third-down completion to Horton before his best play of the game.
On first-and-10 from the Virginia Tech 27, Virginia Tech defensive end Keyshawn Burgos had Ward in his grasp, but Ward slipped away. Then Kaleb Spencer tried to take him down. Ward thought quickly and flipped the ball to a waiting Riley Williams, who ran to the 2-yard line, stiff-arming an approaching Keli Lawson in the process. Ward said he always tells Williams in situations like that not to block but to wait for a possible outlet pass.
A play later, Ward threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Horton to give Miami the lead with 1:57 left. Drones then got to work, marching Virginia Tech down the field. With 8 seconds left, he scrambled to the Miami 30-yard line, leaving 3 seconds for one final play. Virginia Tech sent Felton, Jaylin Lane and Stephen Gosnell to the end zone; Miami had Horton, Mishael Powell, Jadais Richard and D’Yoni Hill. They all jumped for the ball at the same time. Felton came down with it, but he, Lane and Horton all appeared to be out of bounds, and the ball appeared to be moving on replay. Miami players involved in the play told their teammates it was an incomplete pass. “I thought it was going to be overturned just because everybody was out of bounds,” Ward said.
But because the play was called a touchdown on the field, Virginia Tech felt that was enough to win. “I don’t know how that call gets overturned,” Drones said. “Probably because we played here.”
Pry said it was hard to find the words to tell his team in the locker room afterward.
“They’re hurting. That’s why I said I hope they got it right,” Pry said. “I can tell them I’m proud, and I did, but that ain’t helping them right now.”
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Jorge Castillo
TORONTO — Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s playoff career before Saturday was not befitting a $500 million franchise cornerstone. The Toronto Blue Jays first baseman managed just three hits in 25 plate appearances and didn’t hit a ball over the fence across six games. More important, the six games, split into two-game slices over three postseasons, were all Blue Jays losses.
That all flipped in a 10-1 win over the Yankees, the franchise he has long openly despised, in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Saturday.
Starring in front of a raucous Rogers Centre crowd hungry for playoff baseball, Guerrero delivered an all-around clinic in the Blue Jays’ first playoff win since Game 4 of the 2016 AL Championship Series with a diving catch and three hits to fuel an offensive explosion.
“He’s the face of our franchise and a big reason why we go, a big part of why we’re here,” Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman said. “So it’s been nice to see him have the night that he had.”
At the plate, Guerrero swatted his first career postseason home run and finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored to fuel an offense that pounded 14 hits, including three home runs and three doubles. Defensively, his diving catch of Ryan McMahon‘s lineout at first base — while a bat shard whizzed by him — initiated an inning-ending double play in the second.
Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk complemented Guerrero’s effort with his first two career postseason home runs. Right fielder Nathan Lukes contributed two hits, including a two-run double, with three RBIs and a diving catch down the right-field line. Shortstop Andres Gimenez went 2-for-4 as the Blue Jays chased Luis Gil after 2⅔ innings and forced the Yankees to use six pitchers.
“I think having him get the scoring going, the double play at first with McMahon, it’s nice,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said of Guerrero. “It gives you a little bit of a jolt because it’s Vlad and what he means to this team.”
Guerrero did not waste time in providing that energy, swatting a 90 mph changeup from Gil in the first inning to give the Blue Jays a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. He added singles in the second and eighth innings and a sacrifice fly in the Blue Jays’ game-busting four-run seventh, igniting the sellout crowd on a gorgeous day in Ontario with the building’s roof open.
That it happened against the Yankees was fitting. Guerrero’s dislike of the Yankees, he has said, dates back to two incidents over two decades ago: the Yankees pulling a contract offer for his father, a Hall of Fame outfielder, in 2003 and Yankee Stadium security telling his father to take him off the field when he was a boy.
“For me, I bring the same energy every game regardless who I’m playing, especially now in the playoffs,” Guerrero said. “That’s all I’ve got on my mind is to go out there and play hard.”
Whatever his motivation, the five-time All-Star has enjoyed facing the Yankees during his seven-year career. Entering Saturday’s matchup — the first ever between the two clubs in the postseason — Guerrero was batting .302 with 22 home runs and an 0.918 OPS in 102 career games opposite the Yankees.
He improved those gaudy numbers Saturday, adding another highlight reel to a year that began with him committing to Toronto with a 14-year, $500 million contract extension in April and that he hopes ends with the franchise’s first championship since 1993 later this month.
“For me, my goal always is to win a World Series, to bring the World Series here,” Guerrero said. “My father, he never had the chance to win a World Series. That’s one of my goals, always been one of my goals, to do that for me, for him.”
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