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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia (Ticker) -- Freshman Kevin Jones rushed for a season-high 184 yards and Grant Noel threw three touchdown passes as No. 17 Virginia Tech posted a 31-17 victory over Virginia. The highly touted Jones carried 36 times and bettered his previous best of 155 set last week against Temple in his first career start. "He was running, but there were some cracks up there," Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said. "You don't have cracks unless you have offensive lineman working their butts off. That offensive team stepped up to the plate." Noel completed 12-of-22 passes for 190 yards and threw all three of his touchdowns in the first half as Virginia Tech (8-2) built a 31-0 lead at halftime. Virginia Tech won its third straight meeting with the Cavaliers to earn the Commonwealth Cup, which is awarded to the winner of the annual meeting between the schools. Jarett Ferguson caught a 17-yard touchdown pass to open the scoring with 9:22 left in the first quarter. After a field goal by Carter Warley, Noel connected with Andre' Davis for touchdowns of 27 and 59 yards less than five minutes apart for a 24-0 lead. Davis caught three passes for 126 yards. Jones scored from one-yard out with 4:38 left in the first half to cap the Hokies' offensive output. "I was proud of our team," Beamer said. "The way we came in here and played in the first half was exceptional. We were ready to play." The Cavaliers (4-7) scored 17 unanswered points in the second half as quarterback Matt Schaub ran for a one-yard touchdown and threw a one-yard TD pass to Tyree Forman. But Virginia was held scoreless in the final 10 minutes. "We played the way we were supposed to play in the first half," Virginia coach Al Groh said. "But I don't think we should be proud of that. You're supposed to do that all the time." Schaub completed 19-of-28 passes for 243 yards and backup Bryson Spinner connected on just 2-of-8 for 18 yards. Each quarterback was sacked three times by the Hokies, which limited Virginia to 289 yards, including just 31 rushing. "I thought they played well, we played bad," Groh said. They made plays, we didn't. They just played a lot better than we did." The Hokies forced three fumbles and had two interceptions, both by safety Willie Pile. Linebacker Ken Taylor had a sack, forced a fumble and made 10 tackles. "We were very alert, very focused," Beamer said. "One of my coaches came up to me and said 'this is the best we've played all year.' And maybe it was." Billy McMillan caught seven passes for 130 yards, but was overshadowed by the inefficency of the Cavaliers' running game, which did not have a player average better than three yards per carry. Virginia Tech piled up 241 of its 433 yards on the ground. Keith Burnell rushed for 36 yards on nine carries and Ferguson carried five times for 25 yeards.
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