GAFFES COST CAVALIERS IN THRILLER

U.Va. drives for tying field goal to force OT, then misses to lose opportunity for more

ATLANTA — In the end, it wasn’t an inability to stop the triple option that beat Virginia on Saturday.

It was the Cavaliers’ inability to get out of their own way.

TaQuon Marshall rushed for107 yards, and Wesley Wells kicked a 40-yard go-ahead field goal in overtime to lift Georgia Tech to a dramatic 30-27 victory over U.Va. in a key ACC Coastal Division contest at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

The Cavaliers (7-4, 4-3 ACC) entered the day alone in second place in the jumbled Coastal. The loss only further muddies the race for second behind division champion Pittsburgh, which clinched the title Saturday by winning at Wake Forest.

U.Va.’s Brian Delaney attempted to answer Wells’ game-winner with a 35-yarder of his own. But he badly mis-hit it well left, and the Yellow Jackets’ fans poured onto the field to celebrate.

Regulation ended with a flourish. Down three, the Cavaliers got the ball on their own 34 with 56 seconds left. Quarterback Bryce Perkins orchestrated a breakneck drive that ended with Delaney’s pressure-packed 32-yard field goal with one second to go.

Delaney, a true freshman who won the job midway through the season, had just connected from 27, but a false-start penalty took the points off the board and doubled the pressure on him

MICHAEL CHANG/GETTY IMAGES Georgia Tech running back Clinton Lynch beats Virginia cornerback Bryce Hall to run for a 2-point conversion in the fourth quarter Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta. The conversion turned out to be critical.