Beau Pribula threw three touchdown passes in the first quarter and No. 25 Virginia cruised to a 59-3 victory against Norfolk State on Friday night in Charlottesville, Va.
The Cavaliers (2-0) improved to 7-0 after a bye week under head coach Tony Elliott. The FCS-level Spartans (1-2) fell to 2-13 under second-year head coach and former NFL star Michael Vick.
Pribula completed 12 of 14 passes for 162 yards and one interception before sitting out the second half with a big lead. Backup Eli Holstein added two touchdown passes, and Jacquon Gibson made two touchdown catches.
Deljay Bailey finished 15 of 25 for 142 yards and two interceptions for Norfolk State, which was outgained 466-223 in the first meeting between the programs separated by approximately 170 miles.
Brandyn Hillman helped Virginia take control quickly with interceptions on Norfolk State’s first two possessions.
His 50-yard interception return gave the Cavaliers a short field and Pribula capitalized, opening the scoring with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Gibson on a fourth-and-2 play.
Following Hillman’s second pick of the game (third of the season), Pribula lofted a 27-yard TD to Da’Shawn Martin to make it 14-0.
On Virginia’s third drive, Gibson turned a short pass from Pribula into a 30-yard score and a 21-0 lead with 3:12 left in the first quarter.
Marco Peery put the Spartans on the board with a 40-yard field goal with 4:05 left in the second quarter.
The Cavaliers took a 28-3 lead into halftime after a 3-yard run by Peyton Lewis.
Holstein made it 42-3 in the third quarter with touchdown passes of 1 yard to Ty’Lyric Coleman and 5 yards to Isaiah Robinson.
Will Bettridge’s extra point after Robinson’s TD was his 333rd career point, breaking the Cavaliers’ all-time scoring record set by kicker Connor Hughes from 2002-05.
Virginia pushed it to 59-3 in the fourth quarter with third-string QB Cole Geer’s 12-yard TD pass to Hayden Rollison, Bettridge’s 30-yard field goal and a 50-yard pick-six by Justin Rowe.
–Field Level Media
