DURHAM, N.C. -- Virginia Coach George Welsh said Saturday his team's victory over Duke would have been much closer if the Blue Devils would have stopped giving away the ball.
Duke lost four fumbles and the Virginia defense intercepted three passes as the ninth-ranked Cavaliers posted a 59-0 victory, the most lopsided result in Atlantic Coast Conference history.
'We're not that much better than Duke. They helped us a lot. They moved the ball, but they had too many turnovers,' Welsh said. 'If you keep giving it back to us, it's too easy for us.'
Duke Coach Barry Wilson said he was 'very disappointed' in the turnovers.
'You can't give a Top 10 football team the ball seven times and expect to beat them,' Wilson said. 'The game was virtually lost in the first half. They are too good to come back on from that big a deficit. We moved the ball pretty well in the first half, but we kept dropping it on the ground.'
Shawn Moore passed for three touchdowns and ran for another to lead Virginia. Moore connected on 11 of 17 passes, including scoring strikes of 41 and 36 yards to Herman Moore.
Virginia, 4-0 and 2-0 in the ACC, led 38-0 at halftime as a resultof four turnovers by Duke, 1-2 and 0-1 in the league.
Jake McInerney gave the Cavaliers a 3-0 lead with a 40-yard field goal with 10:06 left in the first quarter. Duke fumbles then set up three straight Virginia scores, beginning with Shawn Moore's 45-yard pass to Terrence Tomlin with 7:18 remaining in the period.
Nikki Fisher capped a 44-yard Virginia drive with a 2-yard run with five seconds left in the first period for a 17-0 lead.
The Cavaliers drove 87 yards for their third touchdown with 10:27 left in the half, as Terry Kirby went 37 yards for a touchdown for a 24- 0 margin.
Duke quarterback David Brown was intercepted twice, the second time by Jason Wallace at the Duke 20-yard line. Shawn Moore took the ball in from the 1 on a bootleg to make the score 31-0 with 6:47 left in the first half.
Shawn Moore hit Herman Moore with a 36-yard touchdown pass with 4:06 left in the half to make the score 38-0.
Shawn Moore completed his day with a 40-yard touchdown throw to Herman Moore to make it 45-0 less than three minutes into the third period.
Fisher scored from 4 yards out with 8:19 tp go in the third period to make the score 52-0. Virginia's David Brown closed the scoring on a 3- yard TD run that capped a 75-yard drive with 1:10 left in the third period.
