Syracuse Orange at Virginia Cavaliers

Middlebrook's 2 rushing TDs help Virginia overcome 10-point deficit, beat Syracuse 28-24

Middlebrook finished with 95 yards rushing on 17 carries. Beau Pribula was 11-of-19 passing for 119 yards and a touchdown for Virginia (4-2, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference).

“The leadership of the team finally made a decision to say, ‘Hey, this is what we’re doing,’” Virginia coach Tony Elliott said. “And they went out there and played complimentary football and they executed.”

Down 17-7 at the half, Virginia began its comeback when Pribula found Da’Shawn Martin down the sideline for a 43-yard touchdown late in the third.

“In the second half, I thought we did a better job of just taking what was there, staying ahead of the chains,” Elliott said. “And then that allowed us to get to a position to take that shot and convert it. And then, again, momentum can change on one play in a football game.”

Middlebrook then capped Virginia’s next two drives with touchdown runs of 3 and 5 yards, respectively, to make it 28-17 with 5:20 left in the game.

“I saw (an) alley and I hit it,” Middlebrook said of his two touchdowns. “I mean, there’s nothing much to it.”

In his first start for Syracuse, Malachi Nelson was 16-of-29 for 217 yards and a touchdown. Amari Odom, who led the Orange to a 42-41 overtime win over UConn last week, was a game-time decision Saturday and did not play.

Virginia got off to an early 7-0 lead with a 14-yard touchdown rush from Xay Davis on its opening drive. But the Cavaliers struggled from there on, going scoreless across their next six drives, three of which were three-and-outs.

“We’ve been talking about, we need to kill that lull in the second quarter,” Virginia offensive lineman Monroe Mills said. “It’s kind of plagued us for the last few games.”

Syracuse (2-3, 0-3) outgained Virginia 142-27 total yards and held a 10-2 edge in first downs in the second quarter.

Down 28-17 late in the fourth, Danny Lauter came in at quarterback and connected with Daunte Bacheyie for a 46-yard touchdown with 2:50 remaining.

Syracuse outgained Virginia 430-288 total yards.

“At the end of the day, our guys were down 10 points at half and they found a way to come back and win an ACC game,” Elliott said.
”So, I mean, we’re gonna, we’re gonna enjoy this. We’re gonna celebrate it. We’re not gonna apologize for winning any football games around here.”

Up next Virginia: Plays next Saturday at No. 24 SMU.

Syracuse: Hosts Louisville next Saturday.

Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here, visit the Top 25 here and see AP’s full college football coverage here