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Sept. 18, 2004
Final Stats|Quotes|Notes | Video Highlights
By HANK KURZ Jr.
AP Sports Writer
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Defensively dominant and offensivelyunstoppable, at least so far, No. 12 Virginia started the season with threestraight wins for the first time since 1998 with a 51-0 victory against Akronon Saturday.
Wali Lundy ran for three touchdowns for the third straight game and MarquesHagans threw two scoring passes to Heath Miller as Virginia led 34-0 byhalftime, then held the Zips (0-3) to 16 yards in the second half.
Charlie Frye, who passed for 336 yards against Virginia two years ago, hadno such luck this time. Frye, the owner of 49 school records, finished10-for-23 for 72 yards, was intercepted twice and sacked four times beforeleaving late in the third quarter trailing 44-0.
The Zips finished with 84 yards in 58 plays and six first downs.
Lundy had first-half scoring runs of 1 and 6 yards, then broke loose for acareer-long 44-yarder in the third quarter. Alvin Pearman added a 27-yard burstdown the right sideline for a TD in the second quarter.
Hagans threw his first interception of the season on a pass that bounced offa Virginia receiver, but completed 16 of 25 passes for 148 yards. He hit Millerfor touchdowns of 16 and 3 yards in the first half.
Lundy gained 142 yards on 22 carries before he and Hagans left the game inthe third quarter, allowing coach Al Groh to get reserves playing time.
Among them, Michael Johnson gained 102 yards on just six carries.
The Cavaliers defense asserted itself from the outset. After Sean Johnson’spunt was downed at the Akron 1 following the opening series, Virginia stuffedone run and forced Frye into two hurried passes, neither of which was close toa completion, to quickly force the Zips to punt.
Pearman returned it 11 yards to the Akron 34, and it took just three plays -a 5-yard run by Jason Snelling, a 13-yard run by Lundy and Hagans’ 16-yard passto Miller – to start the Cavaliers on their third rout.
They previously beat Temple 44-14, and North Carolina 56-24.
The only drama came in the second quarter, after Pearman was leveled for thesecond consecutive time on a punt return, each time drawing a 15-yard flagagainst the Zips. With Groh jawing at an official, Pearman ran 9 yards and thenbroke off the 27-yard TD run.
Virginia finished with 522 yards – 326 on the ground – and got their lasttouchdown on Brandon Isaiah’s 5-yard run with 5:04 remaining.