Lewis, Snyderwine lead Duke past Virginia 28-17
Published: October 31, 2009
CHARLOTTESVILLE — Thaddeus Lewis hit Conner Vernon on a 42-yard touchdown pass with 3:45 remaining and Duke rallied to beat Virginia 28-17 on Saturday.
Will Snyderwine made five field goals for the Blue Devils (5-3, 3-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), who added a touchdown when Charlie Hatcher recovered a fumble by Jameel Sewell with 3:22 left to clinch it. The victory is Duke’s third in a row — all in ACC play — the first time since 1989.
The victory also kept Duke in the thick of the ACC Coastal Division race. The Blue Devils and No. 11 Georgia Tech each have one loss in league play, and their meeting on Nov. 14 in Durham, N.C., could be decisive.
Virginia (3-5, 2-2) lost its second in a row as its pass defense, ranked fifth in the nation coming in, was unable to slow the Lewis-led sixth-best passing attack in the country.
Lewis was 24 for 40 for 343 yards, despite being sacked six times.
Before he and Varner hooked up for the big play down the middle of the field, the Cavaliers looked like they might pull of a somewhat dramatic victory of their own.
Trailing 12-10, Virginia drove to the Blue Devils 40, where Sewell rolled left and hit Joe Torchia for a 19-yard completion on fourth-and-1. On the next play, they teamed up again, Sewell rifling a pass to Torchia down the middle of the field to put Virginia up 17-12.
The Cavaliers’ chances improved when Chase Minnifield made a diving interception in the end zone to stop another Duke drive, but Virginia went conservative on offense and had to quickly punt. The Blue Devils took over at their 33, and five plays later, Lewis found Varner in one-on-one coverage in the middle of the field and he pulled in the go-ahead pass.
Until then, Virginia had allowed Lewis to move up and down the field with a possession passing game, but forced Duke to settle for field goals of 44, 28, 34 and 25 yards.
The Cavaliers came into the game having scored a total of two offensive touchdowns in three ACC games, and managed just 81 yards of offense and trailed 9-3 at the end of the half.
But Sewell led a 66-yard drive to his 1-yard dive with the first possession of the third quarter, giving the Cavaliers their first lead, and then gave them the lead again later.
The Blue Devils added a late touchdown and field goal after the go-ahead touchdown.
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Reader Reactions
Duke is played well over 30 true freshmen and red shirt freshmen. David Cutcliffe can flat out coach and his has great assistant staff that. All the coaches are well paid and first rate football facilities are being built. This is only Cutcliffe’s second year but Duke will be a bunch better when we have four years of his own recruits. He has two top ten quarterbacks already in school who will replace Thaddeus Lewis. Get used to Duke being good again, like it was when we were dominant in the ACC.
Does losing at home to William and Mary and Duke cost Al his job??? It is sad how this program has declined,after George Welsh spent the better part of 20 years building it.There is no fire,anger,passion on the sidelines from the coaches or the players,when I was coming up.if u were getting ur butt whipped,someone would be angry on the sidelines.Two years n a row 2 Duke,enough said
If there’s anyone on the planet who still thinks David Cutcliffe can’t coach (re: Ole Miss), they need to check themselves. No one’s gonna mistake Duke for Florida, but five wins at Duke is like 12 at Florida.
I’d like to say this shows Duke’s resurgence into the ACC football elite, but it was UVA…lol
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahha!
Bwhahahahahahahahahahahaha
Al Gorh on his best day could never be half the coach Cutcliff is on his worst day. Groh’s swan song continues…
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