‘Thank God for Andy Borregales’: Miami kicker makes history with another clutch kick

There’s something about those games against the Virginia Cavaliers for Andres Borreagles.

“I don’t know what it is,” the kicker said after the Miami Hurricanes’ second straight overtime win.

When he was a freshman in 2021, Borregales pinged a potential game-winning 33-yard field goal off the left upright at the buzzer and Miami lost to Virginia at home. Last year, he scored all six of the Hurricanes’ points in regulation, and then six more in the first and second overtimes before Miami finally beat the Cavaliers in quadruple overtime in Charlottesville, Virginia.

For his latest act, Borregales did something no other Hurricane ever has and was maybe the most important player in Miami’s 29-26 win against the Cavaliers. The junior hit from 47 yards in the first half, 50 in the fourth quarter and then drilled a game-tying 48-yard field goal with 1:23 left to force overtime, becoming the first player in Miami history to hit three field goals from 45 yards or longer in the same game.

“Thank God for Andy Borregales,” quarterback Tyler Van Dyke said after throwing a pair of interceptions and no touchdowns in his return from an injury. “Without him, we would have lost the game.”

Borregales’ feat also made him only the second kicker in Hurricanes history to hit three kicks from 40-plus yards in the same game, joining older brother Jose Borregales.

“That’s something that I can have one up on him,” the younger brother said. “I’ll probably see him later and brag about that.”

In each of the last two weeks, Miami (6-2, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) has needed heroics from Borregales just to get to overtime.

Last Saturday, the Hurricanes, playing without Van Dyke, rallied from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter and set up Borregales for a game-tying field goal in the final two minutes. With 1:51 left in regulation, Borregales nailed a 38-yard field goal and Miami went on to beat Clemson in double overtime.

A week later, the Hurricanes’ offense was similarly sluggish and Miami again trailed in the fourth quarter. When the Hurricanes stalled out around the 30-yard line, Borregales again stepped into the spotlight and hit another clutch kick.

“It’s like a guarantee,” All-American safety Kamren Kinchens said.

The weather added another challenge, too.

Although it appeared to be a picturesque fall day in Miami Gardens, a swirling wind kicked up to about 20 mph throughout the afternoon and made some of Borregales’ kicks unpredictable. The wind helped him when his field goal appeared to be headed wide － “the wind took it and I was like, Thank God,” Borregales said － and then forced him to hit line drives to cut through the gusts for the rest of the game.

For Borregales’ final kick, the Hurricanes felt comfortable trying anything inside 55 yards and Borreagles, whose last-second miss two years ago derailed Miami’s hopes at making a run at the 2021 ACC Championship Game, kept the Hurricanes’ slim ACC hopes alive by getting them to overtime.

“I think of every kick the same, even when we’re talking about a game-winning or game-tying kick,” Borregales said. “I just have a mentality that I only get one shot. That’s how it is as a kicker and you just have to go into it like that.”