Dear Old U.Va.

Cavs Dominate Early, Beat Terrapins 31-0

Saturday, October 04 2008 by Tiki

That’s more like it.   

The Cavs scored 3 first half touchdowns, equaling their previous season total.  Taking a 21-0 lead into halftime, with memories of MD’s 2006 comeback hanging around, the Cavs continued their domination in the second half, picking up their second win of the season. 

When Cedric Peerman scored on a 4th down carry to make it 31-0, any thoughts of a Maryland comeback were over.  The only question remaining was whether the defense would get the shutout.  With a Ras-I Dowling interception inside of a minute left, that question was answered as well. 

After trading punts for most of the first quarter, the Hoos broke through on Mark Verica’s first career TD pass, a 51 yard strike to Kevin Ogletree.  Ogletree beat his man on a deep post, and was able to corral a slightly underthrown ball and avoid the safety, diving into the endzone for his first score of the season.  Ogletree would score again, late in the second quarter, sandwiched around a 5 yard Mark Verica TD run. 

As bad as Mark Verica was last week in Durham (and he was awful), Verica was that good this week.  Verica completed 73% of his passes, finishing with 222 yards, 2 TDs and no interceptions.  He looked poised in the pocket, made good decisions, showed an ability to make plays outside the pocket, and made nearly every throw in the playbook. 

Of course, it helps when the offensive line dominates the line of scrimmage.  And that is exactly what the big uglies did today.  After averaging only 66 yards rushing over the first 4 games of the season, the Hoos rushed for 203 yards against Maryland.  Cedric Peerman, finally healthy, led the way with 115 yards on 18 carries, including the TD.  Mikell Simpson spelled him successfully, rushing for 75 yards.  Much of that came in the 4th quarter, as Virginia ran the clock out. 

Defensively, the Hoos gave up only 78 yards on the ground, and only 302 total yards.  Much like last week, the Virginia defense was dominating early on.  The difference this week was that they didn’t have to spend so much time on the field, so they remained fresh.  Maryland picked up only 4 first downs in the first half, and one of those came on a Virginia penalty.  The Terps didn’t perform much better in the second half, despite a somewhat less aggressive defense.

Stay tuned for more in depth coverage this week, as we break down the first successful game of the season.