19 hurt in field rush after UVA football win

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - 19 people were treated at the hospital after fans rushed the field at Scott Stadium following Friday night’s win against Florida State, UVA Health confirmed.

The nature and seriousness of their injuries were not disclosed.

The chaotic celebration was sparked by the Cavaliers’ surprise 46-38 victory over the team visiting from Tallahassee in double overtime.

“Every single small point we got it would blow up,” said Caitlyn Graves, a UVA student in attendance. “We were getting pushed around, but we didn’t care.”

When the matchup ended, enthusiastic fans swarmed the gridiron from the Hill, a portion of the stadium where spectators can stand to view the game with no barriers to the field.

“I didn’t even realize at first. I kind of thought like, ‘oh, maybe we have to wait a second,’ but people just went and started running and now looking back at the videos, you can see it, it’s like instantaneous,” said Porter Delucu, another UVA student.

“We were kind of one of the last ones down because we got a little bit stuck in the crowd, so we had to get some people to pull us over walls and stuff to actually get out,” said Ruthie Soccorso. “When we got down, we saw like three people laying there kind of unconscious. There was a girl who broke both her legs.”

The university later released a statement saying officers provided medical care on site and worked to restore safety.

“[Others] were just telling me about they saw people having to be stretchered out and they saw a girl who had broken both her legs and that kind of thing, so that was definitely hard to hear,” said Delucu, who did not witness any injuries herself. “I hope everyone’s okay. It’s so sad, because that was such an insane game and insane moment and it’s really sad that people got injured in the process.”

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