Charlottesville, VA - After 1,510 days in Virginia Tech's possession, the Commonwealth Cup is going back to Charlottesville. Virginia outscored Virginia Tech 28-7 in the second half to turn a 14-7 half time deficit into a 35-21 win, ending VT's four-year hold on the Cup.

Matt Schaub threw for 358 yards on 32-of-46 passing, tossing two touchdowns to running backs Wali Lundy (1 yard) and Alvin Pearman (49 yards) against just one interception. Lundy also rushed for three touchdowns on runs of 1 yard, 1 yard, and 19 yards. Tight end Heath Miller tortured the Hokies all day long, catching 13 of Schaub's passes for 145 yards.

The Hoos erased a 14-7 Virginia Tech half time lead with three touchdowns in less than ten minutes. After the Hokies' initial possession of the second half stalled, Virginia went 74 yards in just 7 plays, with the big play being a 49-yard completion to Art Thomas, who got behind VT safety Jimmy Williams. That advanced the ball to the Hokie 25 yard line, and after an interference call on Virginia Tech on third down, Virginia had first and goal at the Tech six-yard line. Facing a fourth and goal from the one, Schaub threw a flanker screen to Lundy, who punched it into the end zone.

Bryan Randall threw a deep interception, one of two on the day, on Tech's next possession, and Virginia put together another long drive, 10 plays and 80 yards. The key play came on a fourth and 3 from the Virginia 27. Tech's Eric Green broke through, blocked Tom Hagan's punt, and took it into the end zone, but the Hokies'  Vince Fuller was flagged for offsides on the play.

That proved to be the turning point in the game. Facing third and 15 from the Tech 49, Schaub threw a scoring strike to Alvin Pearman, who got outside and behind Green on the play. That put the Cavaliers up 21-14, a lead they would not relinquish.

After a three-and out by VT, Virginia put together another long drive, going 48 yards in 10 plays and again scoring on fourth and goal from the one, on a 1-yard plunge by Lundy on the first play of the fourth quarter.

The Hokies responded with their only good drive of the second half, marching 84 yards in 18 plays and scoring on a two-yard run by Kevin Jones, who carried the ball 25 times but only had 75 yards on the day. On this drive, Jones caught 3 passes for 41 yards and rushed it 8 times for 12 yards, including the TD.

The drive wound the clock from 14:57 down to 6:59, and with time short, the Hokies gave up their third straight 10-play drive for a touchdown. Virginia started from their 31-yard line and moved the ball down to the Hokie 29, where they faced a fourth and 7. The Cavaliers caught the Hokies flat-footed with a fake field goal when Schaub rolled out from his holder's stance and hit a wide-open Heath Miller for 10 yards and the first down on the Hokie 19. On the next play, Lundy charged through a big hole in the deflated Hokie defense and scored the clinching TD with 2:29 to go.

Randall's second interception came on VT's next drive, when a well-thrown ball bounced off of Ernest Wilford's shoulder pads and was picked off by Almondo "Muffin" Curry.

Virginia's second-half outburst wiped out a first half that saw the Hokies go into the break up 14-7. Virginia controlled the ball and the clock early, running 20 plays on their first two possessions. The first possession ended in a missed 52-yard field goal by Connor Hughes, just his second miss of the season and his first miss from beyond 50 yards, where he was 3-for-3 coming into the game.

The second drive resulted in a 1-yard touchdown run by Lundy, however, and UVa was up 7-0. VT then got two big breaks. The first came when Jordan Trott tipped a pass and Vegas Robinson intercepted it at the Virginia 23. The Hokies capitalized and punched it in on a 1-yard run by Jones to even the score at 7-7.

The second big break for Virginia Tech came midway through the second quarter, with Tech facing a third and 7 from the UVa 43-yard line. VT went into a four-wide spread and the Cavaliers blitzed, leaving single coverage. Randall fired a short pass to Mike Imoh, who executed a spin move to break free and raced to the house for the score that would send VT into half time up 14-7.

With the loss, the Hokies finish the season 8-4 after a 6-0 start. With Miami's Big East-winning victory over Pittsburgh Saturday night, the Panthers were invited to play Virginia in the Continental Tire Bowl. That will almost undoubtedly send the Hokies to the Insight Bowl in Phoenix, AZ on December 26th against a PAC 10 opponent.

Game Notes

• Jones failed to gain 100 yards in the game for just the fourth time this season. The other games were UCF (22 carries, 83 yards), JMU (12 carries, 57 yards, injury), and WVU (11 carries, 57 yards).

• After holding their first six opponents to an average of 279.3 yards per game, the Hokies gave up 428.5 yards per game to their last six opponents. Four of VT's last six opponents had over 400 yards of offense, and the other two had 377 (Miami) and 393 (Temple).

• Virginia had four drives of 10 plays or more, and a fifth drive of 9 plays. The Hokies had just two possessions of 9 plays or more. Virginia's average possession, including their last possession in which they ran out the clock, was 6.5 plays and 39 yards. VT's average possession was 6 plays, 33 yards.

• Virginia had 9 plays of 15 yards or more. Virginia Tech had 8.

• After starting out 2001, 2002, and 2003 with records of 6-0, 8-0, and 6-0, the Hokies finished with records (regular season) of 2-3, 1-4, and 2-4. Those are combined starts of 20-0 and finishes of 5-11.

• For the season, Tech was outscored 97-87 in the fourth quarter. The Hokies outscored their opponents 324-150 in quarters one through three.

• Virginia was 9-of-18 on third down conversions, including converting one third and 6, one third and 7, one third and 10, two third and 11's, and a third and 15. The Cavaliers also converted all three of their fourth-down tries, including two for touchdowns and a fake field goal.

• With 75 yards rushing, Kevin Jones raised his season-record total to 1,494 yards. He has 3,322 yards rushing for his career, and is 137 yards behind Roscoe Coles (3,459 yards) and far behind Cyrus Lawrence (3,767 yards).

• With the bowl game left, Ernest Wilford has 118 career catches, just four receptions behind record-holder Antonio Freeman (122 catches).

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