CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - A 17-point outburst in the second quarter helped lift Virginia to a 48-7 win over VMI Saturday afternoon before a crowd of 43,592 at Scott Stadium.

Virginia quarterback Marc Verica completed 16-of-23 passes for 224 yards and tossed three touchdown passes to spark the Cavaliers to the win in the first meeting between state rivals in 19 years.

VMI fell to 1-2 on the season while UVA improved to 2-1 with both teams opening respective conference schedules next week.

The Keydets were led by redshirt junioir quarterback Cam Jones who completed 10-of-15 passes for 130 yards and one touchdown.

After holding VMI to a three-and-out on its opening drive of the game, The Cavs took over at the VMI 42 and produced the game's first points five plays later when Verica teamed with Dontrelle Inman for a 25-yard touchdown pass to put UVA up, 7-0 at the 11:02 mark of the first quarter. Inman hauled in two receptions for 39 yards on the drive that was aided by a Chase Minnefield 20-yard punt return to the Keydet 42-yard line.

The Keydets missed a scoring opportunity later in the quarter with a missed 30-yard field goal try, but battled back to tie the game late in the first quarter when a scrambling Cam Jones dumped a one-yard TD pass to redshirt sophomore Robbie White, who snagged his first career touchdown reception. The Jeff Sexton extra point tied the game at 7-7 with 2:35 remaining in the first quarter. The scoring drive was set-up by career-long receptions by junior T.J. Talley (36 yards to the UVA 27) and Chaz Jones (25 yards to the UVA 2) and covered 63 yards in seven plays.

All momentum VMI had captured quickly vanished on the ensuing kick return when Raynard Horne raced 87 yards for a touchdown to put Virginia back on top for the rest of the afternoon.

Leading 14-7 entering the second quarter, The Cavliers broke the game open with scoring drives over the next two possessions. Verica completed three of four passes for 54 yards including a 27-yard score to wideout Kris Burd to make it 21-7 at the 12:52 mark of the second quarter. The drive was aided by a face mask penalty that moved the ball into VMI territory. 

The Cavaliers extended the lead to 28-7 at the 9:07 mark when Minnefield's second interception of the half set up Verica's eight-yard touchdown slant pass to Inman.

Virginia added a 33-yard Robert Randolph field goal with 52.7 remaining and took a 31-7 lead at the break. Randolph later tacked on a 44-yarder on UVA's first possession of the second half.

The Cavaliers added touchdowns later in the half on Robert Matheny to Jared Green 15 yard scoring strike and a 17-yard touchdown reception by Colter Phillips.

Burd led all receivers with eight catches for 119 yards while Inman caught five aerials for 72 yards and two touchdowns.

Virginia outgained VMI, 466-179 on the afternoon including 341 yards passing and held a 25-8 advantage in first downs.

The Keydet forced three takeaways with fumble recoveries by redshirt junior Kris Ware and a fumble recovery and interception by junior safety Trae Watkins.

Keydet senior cornerback Michael Rainey-Wiles led the VMI defensive charts with seven solo tackles.

VMI opens Big South Conference next Saturday when it faces Presbyterian College in Lexington. Kickoff at Foster Stadium will be 1:30 p.m.            

Post-game Quotes -  VMI Head coach Sparky Woods 

Opening Statement:

"I'd just like to congratulate the University of Virginia. Boy, that was a good team. They were very well coached and are good athletes. This stadium has a great atmosphere and it was a good opportunity for us. I wish we were a little better prepared for the game than we were. They tackled. They had a lot more broken tackles than we had and they had a lot fewer missed tackles than we had. It really came down to special teams. In order to be competitive in this game, we had to play our best and not make mistakes. I thought our plan was okay; we just didn't execute it well. I think that we had one huge turnover in the first half. Overall, I thought they were a much more intense football team than we were. We couldn't put pressure on their quarterback. I think they only punted the ball once in the first half. We got them to third and long but we couldn't get them off the field and we had to do that. Certainly, part of that was a result of their defense. They whipped our blockers at times. I think they are a really good team and have a chance to have a great season."

On what he expected coming into today's game:

"I see it as an opportunity. Obviously there are monetary reasons to play a game in a place like this but the kids also want to play in a game like this, as they should. Virginia is first class. Everything they do is super. This game was a chance for us to measure ourselves. The disappointing thing is that we played poorly as a team. When you're not executing well and you're punting the ball, that's okay but if they do it because you're out of position, that's not okay. That's something that you can control no matter what level of football you play."

On playing a much physically larger team:

"I was worried in the second quarter. When we came in at halftime, we thought about playing a couple more people. We held up second in the better in the second half than we did in the first. That could have had something to do with the anticipation and excitement that comes with playing at a place like this. We talked about executing because we knew that the players would be excited about playing but we wanted them to be somewhere between hyper and not quite as intense. There were some times when we stepped up. Coach London played a lot of his players down the line so you would think that we would have matched up better at times so that was disappointing."