MIAMI GARDENS – All it took was a kick as time expired to decide the outcome of Thursday night’s (Sept. 30) game between Miami and Virginia.
In their ACC opener, the Hurricanes had a prime opportunity to finish off a comeback attempt against the Cavaliers. The home team was actually in great position to steal a win here.
But with just three seconds left in the final frame, a 33-yard field goal attempt by Miami freshman kicker Andres Borregales veered to the left. The ball ultimately bounced right on the left side of the field goal post and off the upright.
It resulted in a shocking 30-28 loss for the Hurricanes (0-1 in ACC play; 2-3 overall), who never led in this tilt against the Cavaliers (1-2 in ACC play; 3-2 overall.)
“He was very disappointed,” Hurricanes head coach Manny Diaz said to media members in a postgame press conference. “The team rallied around him. What I told you, I told the team. Our guys love Andy. They have great confidence in him. I know the way that he is, he is built to bounce back from this. He is a mentally tough young man.”
Diaz spoke on how his team felt about Borregales attempting what would have been the game-winner.
“What I know is what I just saw in the fourth quarter when there was not a lot of evidence that we could do what we did right there and give us a chance to win the game,” Diaz said. “The guys believe in each other. There’s not a person I’d rather line up to kick that field goal than Andy Borregales. I think everyone on that sideline thought we were going to win the football game and that we had done enough to win the football game.”
With the ball for the final five minutes and thirty-six seconds of this one, the Hurricanes used clock control to take up 15 plays for 75 yards in the process. They were in the midst of overcoming a deficit that was as large as 13 points – 27-14 in the third quarter – to the Cavaliers.
Freshman quarterback Tyler Van Dyke (15-of-29 passing, 203 yards, one passing score, one rushing score) engineered the potential game-winning drive, which started at Miami’s 9-yard line.
Van Dyke completed three passes for 32 yards in the final minutes, while running back Cam’Ron Harris (14 carries, 111 yards, two touchdowns) broke through for a 22-yard run that got Miami to the Virginia 14-yard line with 2:05 left.
From there, Miami’s strategy was to either score or run the clock out for a game-winning kick attempt.
“We were trying to score,” Diaz said. “Obviously, we had gashed them on the run from about the 50-yard line in. We thought they were pretty whipped up front, fatigue-wise. They had been subbing and losing guys. We simply didn’t gain yards on first and second down and then it became third down and 10. They took a timeout late in the play clock and, at that point, we could control the clock and kick the walk-off field goal. We were trying to score a touchdown until it got to third down.”
Van Dyke touched on the game-winning try as well.
“We were just trying to go down there and set up the ball for Andy [Borregales],” Van Dyke said. “I thought we were in a good position to win the game right there. I had a lot of faith in Andy. He’s going to make a lot of big kicks for Miami, so no one should be disappointed in him.”
Virginia head coach Bronco Mendenhall shared his thoughts on how the game ultimately turned out.
“It’s just surreal to watch that,” Mendenhall said of the Borregales missed FG as time expired. “He is a good kicker. My heart goes out to him for that one play. He’s going to do a lot a great things for their program.”
Diaz recapped his team’s ACC opener and how it went from start to finish.
“It was a game of missed opportunities,” Diaz said. “Obviously, we started slowly and allowed them to take control of the game. I think, at one point, snaps were 35 to 11. We had a hard time getting a rhythm. We had a hard time running the football. We had a hard time protecting our quarterback. As time went on, we grew into the game and, like I said, I thought our fourth quarter effort was worthy of victory but, ultimately, we came up one play short.”
Miami has a bye next week and will have a little more than two weeks to prepare for its next opponent, which is on the road against another ACC opponent in North Carolina (1-2 in ACC play; 2-2 overall).
The Miami-North Carolina tilt is set for Saturday, Oct. 16.
“We have a chance to rest up,” Diaz said. “Where we’re at right now, physically wounded, mentally and emotionally wounded, we have a chance to get away and get ourselves back. We know we have a seven-game tough stretch coming, starting off in Chapel Hill, N.C…This team will battle. This team will fight. Despite all the adversity they have been through, we were on the verge of doing something really special and just came up short. We have to take that part of it and build off of that.”
PHOTO CREDITS: Keith Forde
