Richmond Times-Dispatch from Richmond, Virginia • 33

-TT- 1 ITS rilUT SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 17 2000 Hidjmonll Simes-flispatd) SECTION Sports college football VIRGINIA TECH 49 RUTGERS 0 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IXVa foils Duke UCLA's Keith Short rejoices after an Interception ensured the 23-20 win over No 3 Michigan (Details top 25 roundup Page C6) STATE SCORES No 8 Va Tech 49 Rutgers 0 UVa26DukelO UR 31 UMass 24 Florida 26 JMU 7 Furman 34 10 Villanova 42 Norfolk State 0 Hampton 40 W-SSU 6 Liberty 19 Gardner-Webb 8 ETSU38VMI3 VUU 44 Livingstone 13 NX Central 33 VSU 32 Wash 3 Jeff 53 R-MC 12 37 Bridgewater 35 31 Guilford 6 Apprentice 20 AverettO Femim 17 Greensboro 14 Shenandoah 40 Gallaudet 6 Georgetown (Ky) 45 Va-Wise 17 Detals Pages C2-3 BRUCE NWKEAmMES-nSPATCH Rutgers defender Brandon Haw gets a hand on Virginia Tech QB Michael Vick near the goal Ine in the firat quarter Ellis-McMullen link spearheads air attack BY JEFF WHITE Times-Dbpatch St ait Wima DURHAM NX Billy McMullen almost invisible in the University of seasorvopening loss to Brigham Young has re-emerged in the past two games Not coincidental perhaps the Cavaliers have won two straight McMullen who had one catch against BYU had his way with the Duke sec- II ondary last night The farmer Henrico High DUKE 10 star caught eight passes for 189 yards both msiDfcRorida career highs to help Stats basts on North UVa whip the winless Carolina 63-14 Blue Devils 26-10 in front of 18776 at Wall- ace Wade Stadium "They had trouble with McMullen no doubt about said Virginia coach George Welsh it was short or it was long or a pattern where he went hi and came back This might be deepest receiving corps in years but there was no question about quarterback Dan favorite target last night think looking my way a little more McMullen a 64 sophomore who had six catches last weekend against Richmond Ellis threw touchdown passes of 55 and 31 yards last night to McMullen the latter coming with 9:19 left to seal the 10th victory over Duke in their past 12 meetings was a lot of one-on-one on McMullen out Welsh said know if rd ever do that" In the ACC opener for both teams Virginia (2-1) stumbled for much of the first half But the Cavaliers ended the half by SEE UVA PAGE C5 OTHER ACC SCORES it No 2 FSU 63 Carolina 14 Na 16 Clemson 55 Forest 7 Virginia 30 Maryland 17 Ga Tech 40 Navy 13 NC State 41 5 Methodist 0 ACC roundup Page C5 OTHER BIG EAST SCORES Pitt 12 Penn State 0 Temple 31 Bowling Green 14 Petals Page C4 Vick-led Hokies pummel Knights in league opener BY JEWRY UNDQUIST Tbos-Dspatch Sr act Warm BLACKSBURG If Virginia Tech careful it's going to turn the Big East Conference into the Big Least again In its conference opener yesterday the Hokies disposed of Rutgers 490 and it was almost too easy They had had two Tech notes touchdowns craning Pap C4 1:51 apart in a 21-point Pitt i OTHER TOP 25 SCORES No14UOA23no 3 Michigan 20 No 4 Wisconsin 28 Cincinnati 25 No 5 Texas at Stanford late No 6 Florida 27 No 11 Tenn 23 Na 7 Kansas St 76 Ball St 0 No 9 Wash 17 Colorado 14 No 21 Dame 23 No 13 Purdue 21 No 25 Miss at Na 15 Ahu late Na 17 Ohio St 27 Miami (OH) 16 No 19 Illinois 17 California 15 Na 20 TCU 41 Northwestern 14 Na 22 Mich St 13 Missouri 10 Na24Aubum34LSU17 Top 25 roundup Page C6 Complete scores Page C7 Rutgers offered little to test defense BLACKSBURG The numbers were truly hideous Frants allowed per game: 255 Yards surrendered per game: 411 Passeffidency defense rating: Worst in the Big East Total defense rank nationally: 91st Umm tell me Beano we are talking Virginia Tech football here we? Bud Foster insists not a stat guy That said the master mind of Tech's resistance forces have been thrilled with the numbers posted against his bunch by Akron and East Carolina neither a top 10 world-beater the first two weeks of this post-Corey Moore-John Engel-berger campaign Granted Tech is missing eight starters from the group that made legalized assault an art form led Division I-A in scoring defense and was No 3 overall And yes it's no cinch for their fuzzy -cheeked descendants to follow in their cleat marks Still two game tapes into a new season Foster couldn't help but feel a tad nostalgic for those marauders of yesteryear were a pretty dominating unit' he said Td like to get back to that point Eventually who knows? maybe we can" Maybe yesterday was a step in that di-EEE UPPER PACE C4 BRUCE MRKOVRMES-DtSWWCH Virginia Tack's Eric Gram aiama Into Rutgers punter Mite Barr as Barr fumbles a bad snap in the first quarter Vick watch Going deep Georgia Tech quarterback George Godsey who threw a career-high three touchdowns in a 40-13 win over Navy was not the only Godsey to have a big afternoon yesterday His brother Gary started at quarterback for Notre Dame and led the Irish to a 23-21 victory over Na 13 Purdue Details Pages C5-6 Florida State's 63 points were the most scored against North Carolina since the Tar Heels gave up 66 to Virginia in 1912 ACC roundup Page C5 The 47 first-half points scored by Washington Jefferson in its rout of Randolph-Macon were the most ever yielded in one half by the Yellow Jackets State roundup Page C2 firat quarter By half- Pom State Page time it was 350 as C4 Tech got two more TDs in a span of 1:33 en route to their eighth straight win over the Scarlet Knights Michael Vick left alter one series in the second half with 120 yards passing 104 running and grudging admiration from an opponent that came to Lane Stadium thinking it could spring an upset do what we believed we could Scarlet Knights coach Terry Shea said slapped us across the head" Ranked eighth and likely to go higher after what happened elsewhere in the country the Hokies (SO) took the opening kickoff and went 80 yards in 13 plays for a touchdown The drive required one pass completion and a high-wire balancing act by Vick He ran 19 yards to the Rutgers 47 after losing his footing in the back-field but managing to SEE TECH PAGE C4 PASSING 10 far 18 120 yards 1TD 0 UPSET Of THE DAY RUSHING 11 carries 104 yards 1TD STAT OF THE GAME Vick left the game after playing just one senes in the second half Ryan McCann passed for 236 yards and two second-half scores to rally Na 14 UCLA past Michigan 23-20 as the Bruins beat the Na 3 team in the country for the second time in three games Petals Page C7 PUYERS Of THE DAY Richmond air-drops upset on UMass Late passes to Tolhurst boost Spiders a Chris Weinke Florida State QB: passed for 262 yards and four touchdowns against North Carolina a LaDaMan Tomlinson Texas Christian RB: rushed for 243 yards and two touchdowns on 39 carries against Northwestern Woodrow Pantzler Clemson QB: ran for 166 yards and two touchdowns and threw a 52-yard TD pass against Wake Forest Cos DeMatteo Chattanooga WR: set Division l-AA record with six TD catches in 72-17 rout of Mississippi Valley State a Travis Henry Tennessee RB: rushed for 175 yards and a TD on 37 carries against Florida Heisman hopefuls Page C7 Also inside Small colleges roundup C2 Va Tech notes C4 UVa notes C5 Top 25 game summaries C6 10 Conference season by demonstrating that it can pass effectively and score points two areas in which the Spiders had not distinguished themselves They beat Bucknell 10-7 two weeks ago then fell 34-6 at Virginia last weekend UR totaled 41 passing yards in those games Sean Gust us completed just six passes yesterday but two went the distance As impressive and meaningful was rushing contribution (115 yards) which allowed Richmond to catch the Minute-men by surprise on the first-down TD completions showed me a lot of leadership from the quarterback UMass coach Mark Whipple said of Gust us a junior really come a long The Spiders were picked to finish seventh in the 10-team A-10 and the Minute-men were projected as the league winners So when UMass (1-1 1-1) bounced hack from a 1(H) deficit with 21 unanswered SEE UR PAGE C2 BY JOHN O'CONNOR Tmes-Dispatch Stact Write Ryan Tolhurst watched again and again from his wide-receiver position as the University of Richmond ran the option Some fans saw a dead end Tolhurst saw opportunity Massachusetts defensive backs crept closer and closer to the line to supply run support the safeties up bringing the safeties Tolhurst UR 31 The Spiders stung uce secondary UMASS 24 twice in the fourth quarter with long play-action touchdown passes to Tolhurst and sprung a 31-24 upset over Division I-AA'i third-rated team yesterday before 10200 at UR Stadium coaching staff knows what's going said Tolhurst who caught TD passes of 69 and 56 yards "They were setting it up the whole Richmond (1-0 2-1) opened its Atlantic NEXT SATURDAY VA TECH: idle UVJLi vs Clemson 3:30 pm RICHMOND: idle NATION: Notre Dame at Michigan St 3:30 pm Complete schedule Page C7 MTKA MITH EtXUMyllMIS DISPATCH congratulates Sean Gustos on a first-quarter touch-UR tad Him Richmond's Ryan Tolhurst (left) down against Massachusetts at.