By Tyler Bright and Derek DeBurger

The Louisville Cardinals open up ACC play with a win against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on a day that they honor the jersey of Harry Douglas.

Twice Puryear

After forcing a punt on defense, the Cards marched down the field and set up for a field goal. Brock Travelstead’s field goal attempt was blocked by Georgia Tech’s special teams, keeping the scoreboard blank.

The Yellow Jackets then drove down the field, with Haynes King rushing for a 23-yard touchdown to put the Jackets up by seven-points.

Another stalled drive gave the ball right back to Tech, albeit in a precarious situation. While Georgia Tech’s offense was pinned at their own 5-yard line, King ran an option play and lateraled past the line of scrimmage, but Quincy Riley swatted the pitch back and the ball was quickly picked up by Ramon Puryear, tying the game at 7-7.

The fumble recovery is Puryear’s second touchdown of the season after having none prior in his career.

On the ensuing drive, Georgia Tech drove down the field quickly but missed a field goal after stalling.

Louisville then put together a seven-play 71-yard drive capped off by a 37-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Shough to Chris Bell, giving the Cardinals their first lead of the day.

A three-and-out for the Cards defense set up another long 11-play drive. Travelstead’s was able to convert his field goal attempt to finish the drive, extending Louisville’s lead 17-7.

Needing to keep a pulse before the half, the Yellow Jackets’ offense drove 75 yards down the field to the one-yard line. Louisville’s defense was able to stuff the Jackets’ goal-line attempt on 3rd-and-goal, but Jamal Haynes was able to punch in a run on fourth down to cut the lead 17-14 right before the half.

Special teams supremacy

Coming back in the second half, Louisville had a long drive with no results. Shough took two deep shots to end the drive, but neither yielded a reception or a penalty flag.

Georgia Tech spent their first drive of the half chewing up most of the clock in the third quarter. The seven-minute-22-second drive ended in a field goal to tie the game up at 17 apiece.

To balance out the Yellow Jackets, Louisville took no time on their next drive. Ja’Corey Brooks caught an incredible go-ahead 57-yard touchdown pass to put the Cards back up 24-17.

Tech was able to march right back down the field to Louisville’s one-yard line, but this time was stuffed on 4th-and-goal to give Louisville the ball on downs.

Shough, however, tripped over himself in the end zone, resulting in a Georgia Tech safety and a lessoned 24-19 lead.

Once again, Tech moved the ball down the field effectively and set up for a field goal to cut the lead down to two.

When the Yellow Jackets executed their kick, the Cardinals defense blocked the field goal and returned it for a touchdown.

With over seven minutes left in the game, Tech tried one final time to make something happen on offense, but took too long and came up empty handed.

Louisville won 31-19.

The Cardinals move to 3-0 on the season and 1-0 in the ACC. They will face their toughest test yet against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in South Bend on Sep. 28th.

Photo by Vinny Porco