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BLACKSBURG, Virginia (Ticker) -- Second-ranked Virginia Tech moved closer to the national championship game, thumping No. 20 Boston College, 38-14, in a Big East Conference clash to close its first perfect regular season in 81 years. Freshman Michael Vick threw a trio of long touchdown passes and ran for a score for Virginia Tech (11-0, 7-0 Big East), which totaled 555 yards of offense and finished its first unblemished regular season since 1918. The Hokies have one game left, likely the Sugar Bowl against top-ranked Florida State on January 4 in a battle of the top teams in the Bowl Championship Series. Florida State has clinched a berth in the Sugar Bowl. Virginia Tech entered the day slightly ahead of Nebraska in the BCS, but the Cornhuskers survived in overtime against Colorado today to keep the college football world in suspense. "There've been a lot of things flying around," Hokies coach Frank Beamer said of the BCS. "And the one thing I can say is that this football team never quit playing. We never got caught up in things. There's something about that that's right, and there's something right about us playing in New Orleans. "Against ranked teams we've played, the score is 178-38, and we gave up a cheap one there at the end (today). We've done better than FSU against common opponents. There's no question we should play in the big ballgame." Boston College (8-3, 4-3) had a three-game winning streak snapped but appears headed to a bowl game for the first time since 1994. Tim Hasselbeck hooked up with Dedrick Dewalt on a 97-yard TD pass, the longest in school history. "We're 8-3. We're two years off a gambling scandal," Boston College coach Tom O'Brien said. "I showed up in December of '96. I was the fourth head coach there in eight years. These kids have made a remarkable turnaround in three years." The Hokies are a victory away from the first national championship in school history. They have had winning seasons each of the last seven years but have not gone without a loss since 1954, when the team was 8-0-1. Vick completed 11-of-13 passes for 290 yards and carried 16 times for another 76 yards. He hooked up with Andre Davis for TDs of 69 and 59 yards in the second quarter, building a 21-0 lead. Davis, a sprinter on the track team, was part of a record-setting day for a trio of Hokies. He had five catches for 172 yards, setting a school record for receiving yards in a season with 962. Shyrone Stith tied a school record for rushing touchdowns in a season with his 13th and kicker Shayne Graham set a Big East record for scoring in a season with 105 points. Stith, a junior, carried 23 times for 97 yards. His three-yard run 3:36 into the first quarter opened the scoring. Vick was left out of the record book but he was the star of the game, leading three drives of at least 69 yards and capping a fourth with a five-yard TD run, which increased the lead to 38-7 in the fourth quarter. "He's the difference-maker," O'Brien said. "He was the difference in the first half. We couldn't contain him. He's the wild card factor. He's playing at a level that Charlie Ward and Donovan McNabb did their third and fourth year." Hasselback's bomb to Dewalt, two plays after a goal-line stand, cut the deficit to 24-7 with 68 seconds left in the third quarter. He completed 6-of-19 passes and was sacked six times. Cedric Washington gained 105 yards on 16 carries for the Eagles, who had 319 total yards while committing 10 penalties for 86 yards.
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