CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The VMI Keydet defense generated two first-quarter turnovers to help keep the game scoreless after one period, but the Virginia Cavaliers scored 21 points in the second quarter to pull away en route to a 49-0 win in NCAA football action Saturday at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Va.

Interceptions by James Fruehan and Doug Moore, recorded on the last two Virginia (2-1) drives of the quarter, helped keep the home team's offense off the scoreboard early. Both picks were the first career interceptions for the Keydet (1-3) corners, but UVA used a 61-yard touchdown run by Kevin Parks early in the second quarter to take the lead for good.

The Cavaliers scored 21 points in both the second and third quarters and added a touchdown late, boosted by Parks and fellow running back Daniel Hamm combining for 271 yards rushing on 38 carries. That helped UVA post a 36:47-23:13 edge in time of possession.

The Keydets got off to a good start, as on UVA's second-to-last drive of the opening quarter, the Cavaliers marched to the VMI 9. Moore then picked off UVA quarterback David Watford in the endzone for his first career interception, stalling the 11-play drive. On the next Cavalier possession, Fruehan picked off a first down pass to end yet another Virginia drive and send the game to the second quarter scoreless.

The first UVA drive of the second period, however, put the home team on the board, thanks to Parks' 61-yard run. After a missed field goal, Virginia added on thanks to a 12-play, 62-yard drive that featured nine running plays. Parks scored from two yards out to make it 14-0, and a 38-yard touchdown pass by Watford with two minutes on the clock wrapped up the first half scoring.

Despite the strong start by the VMI defense, UVA held the ball for 17:39 in the first half and had a 277-47 edge in total yards. The Cavaliers kept up the momentum early in the second half, needing only two plays to go 61 yards and add another score. A 54-yard Watford to Parks pass led to Hamm's seven-yard touchdown and a 28-0 UVA lead.

The margin grew to 35 on a Watford to McGee touchdown at the 8:27 mark, and the Virginia quarterback pushed it to 42 with a one-yard keeper with 3:06 left in the third. Hamm added a fourth-quarter touchdown run to account for the final margin, 49-0.

For the Keydets, Brendon Bock had a career-high seven tackles while outside linebacker Chris Harper and cornerback Mike Smith saw their first action of the season. Harper recorded four stops while Smith logged five. Offensively, Deon Watts had 25 yards rushing on eight attempts, while also logging a team-high three receptions.

Watford finished 18 of 25 for 206 yards and two scores, while Kordenbrock was held to 9 of 27 for 38 yards. The 38 yards was the lowest total for the VMI QB since his freshman campaign of 2010, when he regularly shared time every game with two other signal-callers.
A.J. Augustine was 0 for 4 in relief late as UVA outgained VMI 580-79 in total yards. The visitors also tied a school record with 13 total punts.

VMI football will return to action next Saturday, taking on Robert Morris at Foster Stadium. Game time is set for 1:30 p.m.

QUOTES - Head Coach Sparky Woods
Opening Statement
"Congratulations to Coach London and the University of Virginia. We appreciate the chance and opportunity to come here and play in this first class place with an impressive football team. I wish them well and think they'll do well. I just want to congratulate them on how well they played and how well they'll do this year."

On Offense
"They were stronger than us up front, especially on their defensive line. We've got to find a way to help our offense some more. They (Virginia) were able to stop the run pretty good and then stop the three-step drop passing game because they were knocking down passes well. The biggest trouble for us was trying to get something going against their defensive front."

On Defense:
"I thought our defense played as hard as they could, but they had to play too much; we couldn't get any first downs and they (defense) had to go back out and play again."

"I am really encouraged by our defense. I think we've made great strides from a week ago. If we can continue to build on that, we're not going to play a team as strong as Virginia is up front on defense, and I think we can try and get something going offensively."

Cornerback James Fruehan
On Close First Half
"We just tried to go one play at a time. When you go into it and you get that three-and-out and they punt on the fourth down, momentum swings back to our side. You just try to keep the momentum on your side. On defense we were in sync, we had a really good game plan going in, we prepared really well in practice. You go into practice every week just trying to win that day. And today we did a good job of that, especially in the first half."

On preparing for Virginia:
“We did not prepare any differently for a conference game or non-conference game, for a big school or a small school. We go into practice that week just trying to win that day. We came in and did a really good job, especially in the first half of winning that next play. Coaches put us in positions to make plays and we did that a couple of times.”

On the worthiness of playing Virginia:
“It is definitely worth it. You come up here and perform that well in the first half. We have something to build on now. We got better at a lot of things.”

On focusing for next week:
“We need to keep doing what we are doing and come to play everyday.”

Offensive Lineman Will Lucas
On playing Virginia's defensive line:
“They were big and strong, and I thought we did our best to hold our own out there, but there were obviously some breakdowns on some plays.”

On the offensive performance today:
“I was pretty embarrassed in how we played offensively. I think we are a much better offense, one of the best offensive units that we've had, and we just failed to execute today. We had a good game plan going in, but we just failed to execute mentally and it cost us.”

On moving forward from this game:
“That was definitely the biggest, most athletic line that we will see. We got better playing them today. We won't face anyone as good. Nobody had that combined speed and size that they had.”