Box Score LEXINGTON, Va. - After spotting VMI an early lead, William & Mary came back in full force converting nine of 12 possessions into touchdowns and defeated VMI, 63-16 to spoil a Reunion Weekend crowd of 6,830 at Alumni Memorial Field in Lexington.

The Keydets dropped their first game of the year to fall to 1-1 while the Tribe evened its record at 1-1.

William & Mary junior quarterback Jacob Phillips played a nearly flawless first half, completing 13 of 15 passes for 242 yards and tossing three touchdowns passes before giving way to senior QB Michael Potts who played the entire second half.

William & Mary and VMI both gained 249 yards rushing on the ground, but the Tribe outpassed VMI, 275-22, in rolling up 524 total yards to VMI's 271 yards total offense.

Redshirt freshman Courtland Marriner led the William & Mary ground attack with 107 yards and one touchdown. Redshirt junior tailback DeBrian Holmes scored three touchdowns while running backs Tony Viola and Thomas Schonder each added scores for the Tribe.

The Keydets were led on the ground for the second straight game by sophomore fullback Howard Abegesah, who rushed for 80 yards on nine carries and a touchdown.

William & Mary fumbled on the second play of the game's opening drive as redshirt defensive end Damiso Alexander pounced on a muffed snap exchange at quarterback giving the Keydets the ball at the William & Mary 34 yard line.

VMI moved to the W&M 14 before settling for a 24-yard field goal by freshman Patrick Sweeney, his first collegiate field goal giving VMI a 3-0 lead with 10:52 left in the first quarter.

The Tribe quickly answered with an eight-play, 73-yard drive capped by Holmes' first of three scores- an eight yard run that put W&M up for good with 7:54 left in the opening quarter.

A William & Mary fumble recovery on the Keydet 41 on the next drive led to a four-play 41-yard possession topped by another Holmes scoring run to make it 14-3 with 3:34 left in the first quarter. A Phillips to R.J. Archer pass covering 34 yards on a third and seven keyed the drive.

Phillips hooked up with wideout Elliott Mack for a 31-yard TD pass on the Tribe's next drive to push the William & Mary lead to 21-3 with 13:20 left in the second quarter, but VMI answered to cut the margin to 21-10 with 11:26 remaining when Abegesah broke free on a 23-yard burst up the middle to the endzone capping a six-play, 70-yard drive that stayed all on the ground.

A 32-yard pass from Phillips to tight end Rob Varno to the VMI four set up Holmes' third touchdown of the day one play later to put the Tribe up, 28-10, with 9:15 left in the quarter, but William & Mary was able to take advantage of good field position late in the second quarter to produce two more scores before halftime and assume a 42-10 lead at the break.

William & Mary added second half scoring runs from Marriner (10 yards), Schonder (6 yards), and Viola (4 yards) while the Keydets produced a 10-play, 75- yard drive early in the fourth quarter that ended with senior running back Nat Jackson slamming in the from the W&M 1-yard line with 14:08 left in the game.

VMI opens a stretch of three consecutive road games next Saturday night at James Madison at 6:00 p.m. while William & Mary returns home to play host to Liberty at 7:00 p.m. at Zable Stadium.

VMI Head Coach Jim Reid - "We're not pleased with anything that happened today. We dropped the ball on the ground and came up with some key losses when we needed to move the ball. We're really extremely disappointed, we played like we were deer looking into headlights. We've just got a long way to go with a young team. I thought we played hard, but I thought we played scared a little bit. And you can't do that against that outfit....I'll tell you this. We have an opportunity to improve and we've got to do that. It just has to happen that way. We can't get down, we've gotta move forward and just get working."