A thunderstorm an hour before kickoff sent the home crowd to the parking lot, and the Virginia Tech football team, like the fans, seemed to have trouble getting settled at the outset.
But the Hokies rallied from an early 10-0 deficit to score a dominant 28-13 win over North Carolina State Friday night.
It was an early must-win game for Virginia Tech (3-3, 1-1 ACC), which had come in on a two-game losing streak, and had already lost two games at home in 2015.
The Wolfpack (4-2, 0-2 ACC) owned the 16 minutes, gaining 145 yards in the first quarter and going up 10-0 a minute into the second quarter on an 8-yard touchdown pass from Jacoby Brissett to Jumichael Ramos.
It was all Hokies from there. Brenden Motley and Isaiah Ford connected on three second-quarter touchdown passes to send Tech into the break up 21-10.
The Pack got the game back to a one-score margin late in the third on a 36-yard field goal by Kyle Bambard, and had two chances in the fourth quarter with good field position.
The Hokies forced three-and-outs on both possessions, and then put the game away on a 59-yard TD run by Trevor McMillian, who ran for 96 yards on 11 carries.
Motley was 14-of-28 passing for 156 yards and three touchdowns. The State D only recorded one sack, a vast improvement for a beleaguered Virginia Tech offensive line, which gave up seven sacks to Pitt last week in a 17-13 loss.
Tech ran for 200 yards on 36 carries Friday night, also a big improvement from last week’s effort, when the Hokies had nine yards on the ground for the game against the Panthers.
Brissett was 12-for-25 passing for 113 yards and a touchdown, and he was intercepted in the fourth quarter, his first INT in 242 attempts.
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Chris Graham
