Isaac Brown and Keyjuan Brown help No. 16 Louisville rush past Virginia Tech in 28-16 victory

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Isaac Brown rushed for 130 yards and a touchdown before leaving late with a leg injury and Keyjuan Brown scored twice in the second half to lift No. 16 Louisville to a 28-16 victory over Virginia Tech on Saturday.

Miller Moss added a touchdown pass for the Cardinals (7-1, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), who rallied from a 16-7 halftime deficit to win their third straight game. Louisville also kept alive its hopes of making it to the ACC championship game.

“Every week, the stakes get higher,” Louisville coach Jeff Brohm said. “That’s what’s great about football. We’re putting ourselves in position right now. Do we have a long ways to go? Yes. Is it going to be easy? Heck no. It’s going to be tough every single week, and we know that.

"We just have to figure out ways to improve a little bit and play cleaner and crisper.”

Moss threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Caullin Lacy early in the third quarter to pull the Cardinals within two points at 16-14. Lacy’s 65-yard punt return minutes later then set up Keyjuan Brown’s 2-yard touchdown run that gave the Cardinals a 21-16 lead.

Keyjuan Brown put things away for the Cardinals late in the fourth quarter after taking over when Isaac Brown left with a right leg injury with less than six minutes remaining. Keyjuan Brown put things away for the Cardinals late in the fourth, scoring on a 25-yard run with 2:16 to go. He finished 94 yards, part of a day during which Louisville rushed for 235 yards.

“I knew after IB went down that I had to step up,” Keyjuan Brown said. “I just came in and did what I had to do in that moment.”

Virginia Tech (3-6, 2-3) was led by Kyron Drones, who rushed for 85 yards and a touchdowns and also threw for a score. But the Hokies were shut out in the second half and amassed less than 100 yards in the final 30 minutes.

“We just never captured the momentum,” Virginia Tech interim coach Philip Montgomery said. “We never got into the flow of it. We never had any rhythm in the second half. … You just kind of grind it out until that momentum starts and that rhythm starts. I thought we did a good job of that in the first half, but just never consistently got it going in the second half.”

The takeaway

Louisville: The Cardinals showed championship mettle on the road, scoring three second-half touchdowns and shutting out the Hokies. But the win possibly came with a cost as Isaac Brown, who entered as the ACC’s second-leading rusher, left with his injury.

“He might be out for a little while,” Brohm said.

Virginia Tech: The Hokies simply didn’t do enough offensively in the second half to pull off the upset. They only had seven first downs and got into Louisville territory just twice in the second half.

Rallying for wins

For the fourth time this season, Louisville rallied from a deficit and came back to win. On three of those occasions, the Cardinals trailed in the second half — all by a touchdown or more.

“That’s the best thing we’ve got about this team,” Brohm said. “It’s not easy to do what we’ve done. To show the grit we have and hang in there until the end, it’s just not (easy). People start to doubt themselves, doubt the coach, second-guess this, second-guess that. ... We find a way to take a couple of deep breaths at halftime, refocus and come out swinging. You’ve got to come out swinging and hope you do enough to win.”

Up next

Louisville: Hosts California on Saturday.

Virginia Tech: Plays at Florida State on Nov. 15.

—