CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Virginia quarterback Anthony Colandrea threw for 297 yards and 2 touchdowns in a dominant 34-13 victory Saturday night over the University of Richmond in the season opener for both teams.
The Cavaliers learned their lesson from last year’s home-opening loss to James Madison. In that game, Virginia appeared to have the game in hand, but a weather delay shifted the momentum and led to a Dukes victory.
Saturday night’s game went into a weather delay late in the second quarter, with Virginia leading 20-7. When play resumed 2 hours and 17 minutes later, Virginia quickly scored a touchdown, and kept its foot on the gas through the third quarter before turning to clock-running mode.
“I think about last year … we had a similar situation and we didn’t finish,” coach Tony Elliott said. “I’m really proud of the staff and the guys for finding a way to finish tonight.”
Elliott said one takeaway from last year was that the players got hungry during the downtime. This year, food from the concession stands was brought down so the players could have something to eat – Colandrea said he had a barbecue sandwich.