Beau Pribula threw three touchdown passes in the first quarter and No. 25 Virginia cruised to a 59-3 victory against visiting Norfolk State on Friday night in Charlottesville, Va.
The Cavaliers (2-0) improved to 7-0 after a bye week under head coach Tony Elliott. The FCS-level Spartans (1-2) fell to 2-13 under second-year head coach and former NFL star Michael Vick.
Pribula completed 12 of 14 passes for 162 yards before sitting out the second half with a big lead. Backup Eli Holstein added two touchdown passes and Jacquon Gibson tallied two touchdown catches.
Deljay Bailey was 15-of-25 passing for 142 yards and two interceptions for Norfolk State, which was outgained 466-223 in the first meeting between the programs separated by approximately 170 miles.
Brandyn Hillman helped Virginia take control quickly with interceptions on Norfolk State’s first two possessions.
His 50-yard interception return gave the Cavaliers a short field and Pribula capitalized, opening the scoring with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Gibson on a fourth-and-2 play.
Following Hillman’s second pick of the game (third of the season), Pribula lofted a 27-yard TD to Da’Shawn Martin to make it 14-0.
On Virginia’s third drive, Gibson turned a short pass from Pribula into a 30-yard score and a 21-0 lead with 3:12 left in the first quarter.
Marco Peery put the Spartans on the board with a 40-yard field goal with 4:05 left in the second quarter.
The Cavaliers took a 28-3 lead into halftime on a 3-yard run by Peyton Lewis.
Holstein made it 42-3 in the third quarter with touchdown passes of 1 yard to Ty’Lyric Coleman and 5 yards to Isaiah Robinson.
Will Bettridge’s extra point after Robinson’s TD was his 333rd career point, breaking the Cavaliers’ all-time scoring record set by kicker Connor Hughes from 2002-05.
Virginia pushed it to 59-3 in the fourth quarter with third-string QB Cole Geer’s 11-yard TD pass to Hayden Rollison, Bettridge’s 30-yard field goal and a 50-yard pick-six by Justin Rowe.
