GREG MADIA
Charlottesville Daily Progress
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Virginia had turned to running back J'Mari Taylor repeatedly when it needed a yard on Saturday afternoon, and over and over again, he came through.
So why not, once more inside the red zone on fourth-and-1 with the game on the line?
He'd been so steady, so shifty and extremely difficult to tackle. He had only proven to be trustworthy.
"The key is just to get a first down. There ain't no dancing in the backfield," Taylor said. "You've just got to get a first down."
This time, though, NC State's defense delivered a swarming stop of Taylor when the Cavaliers called a toss right for their ball-carrier. It was the same play call, Taylor said, that he scored a touchdown on against Coastal Carolina last week.
But that NC State stand -- the first of two with the Hoos knocking on the doorstep of going ahead for good in the last seven minutes -- helped the Wolfpack secure a down-to-the-wire 35-31 victory at Carter-Finley Stadium to take the non-conference bout between two ACC members.
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"We've got to find a way [to win]," fourth-year UVa coach Tony Elliott said. "I think all those guys in that locker room are hurting, because they came down here with the expectation to win. I told them that the message was, 'We're not coming down here to have a good showing. We're not coming down here to play the game ... we were coming down here to find a way to win.'"
That wasn't the last time the Hoos tried to give Taylor a chance to win the tilt for them either with him back in his home state and only 20 minutes from where he formerly played college football at FCS North Carolina Central in Durham.
After UVa marched 49 yards into Wolfpack territory in the final two minutes, Cavaliers quarterback Chandler Morris attempted to throw Taylor, who was on a wheel route in the end zone.
Morris' throw was intercepted, though, by NC State defensive end Cian Slone, who sealed the win with 1:07 left.
Taylor said he was open.
"I got flushed [from the pocket] a little bit," Morris said, "and I was trying to make a play. I saw [Slone's] back to me, so I threw the ball and then he turned around and he made a play."
Until that stop on the ground of Taylor, he and NC State running back Hollywood Smothers -- two Charlotte natives -- spent the afternoon under the sweltering sun in Raleigh trading jabs and exchanging highlight-reel runs that revealed so many flaws in the run defenses of both the Cavaliers and the Wolfpack.
Taylor finished with 150 rushing yards and three scores, becoming the first UVa player to score three rushing touchdowns in a game since Mike Hollins did it in 2023 against North Carolina. Smothers ran 17 times for 140 yards and two touchdowns.
"He's younger than me," Taylor said, "but we're both from the same city and we both showed out today."
But Smothers' 9-yard touchdown run with less than a minute to go in the third quarter proved to be the difference in the contest.
It was the cap on NC State's 21-point third-quarter that catapulted the Wolfpack in front of the Cavaliers.
NC State rushed for 145 yards alone in the third frame and scored all three of its third-quarter touchdowns on the ground.
Smothers had a 57-yard run that set up his go-ahead touchdown.
"If you watch [Smothers], he's going to have some more big games," Elliott said. "Prior to that big run, we were boxing him in a little bit. But if you give him space, he's going to make you pay. He's got tremendous speed and great contact balance. He knows how to run. ... I was just hoping he wasn't going to have a big run."
Smothers opened the third period with a 12-yard touchdown run that pulled NC State within a field goal of the Hoos, and then quarterback CJ Bailey rushed for a touchdown to put the Wolfpack ahead for the first time with 6:39 to go in the third quarter.
Taylor's 66-yard touchdown run on a third-and-1 briefly swung the advantage back in favor of the Cavaliers until Smothers' second touchdown.
Taylor fit behind left tackle McKale Boley and got another block from left guard Noah Josey before sprinting outside and racing toward the pylon for a 31-28 advantage with 5:11 to go in the third quarter.
"That was a long one," Taylor said, "so I was like I've got to run. You can't be slow because if you get caught by a guy when you're like 10 yards ahead of him, you'll hear it on the sideline."
But that was the last lead the Hoos would have after they hadn't trailed NC State until the third stanza.
Taylor began the game's scoring by turning a handoff on a fourth-and-1 into a 39-yard touchdown run less than five minutes into the action. He bounced off a pair of defenders before racing into the red-painted end zone.
His second rushing touchdown, which came with four minutes to go in the first quarter put UVa ahead 14-7.
And through the first half after each time the Wolfpack evened the score, the Cavaliers had an answer to go back in front on the scoreboard. The home team was playing catch-up.
Kicker Will Bettridge's 29yard field goal pushed UVa ahead, 17-14, on the heels of Bailey's 27-yard touchdown throw to Noah Rogers.
Then, late in the second quarter with the Cavaliers clinging a three-point edge, their defense had its best stretch of the afternoon and forced a second-consecutive three-and-out, prompting the Wolfpack to punt.
And there was the Cavaliers' speedster Cam Ross, a wide receiver and return man, waiting for the booming kick to fall from the sky.
Upon catching the punt, Ross accelerated up the field and navigated around tacklers while flipping the field on a 48-yard punt return that finished at the Wolfpack's 27-yard line.
UVa used the last three minutes until the break to perfection, scoring on Morris' 3-yard touchdown pass to tight end Sage Ennis to gain a double-digit edge heading into the locker room.
They could not hold the advantage, though, while obviously struggling to corral Smothers. UVa gave up six runs of 30 yards or more in the loss. Four of those six long runs for NC State happened during the third quarter.
"We could've been better coming out of halftime," Cavaliers defensive end Mitchell Melton said. "That was a critical turning point in the game."
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