Canes

"Huge second half leads Canes to victory over Virginia"

Nov 14, 2009

Despite having two punts blocked and looking shaky at times in the first half, Miami cruised to a record-setting win over Virginia, improving their record to 7-2. The canes put up 28 points in the second half and gained a season-high 514 yards to just 149 for Virginia. We'll go ahead and call this a pleasant change of pace.

The Canes have played heartstoppers the last couple of weeks and it was nice to see the team pull away in the third quarter and glide through the fourth. The Miami defense looked as good as they have since the Oklahoma game, thanks in large part to Virginia's sputtering offense, lead on this day by backup quarterback Marc Verica. The Canes running attack also looked great, as good as it has all year, as they showed little issue having to deal with Virginia's 3-4 defense. Graig Cooper had a career-long 70 yard run as well as his first TD since the opener at FSU and Damien Berry continued his streak of scoring in every game he has played, finding paydirt twice.

Also nice to see AJ Highsmith throw his first career TD pass, as he came in to mop-up for Jacory Harris in the 4th. I think it's fair to say that this was a "taking care of business" type of win, as Miami did what they needed to do and handed Virginia a third straight loss. And so two years after UVA closed down the Orange Bowl with a 48-0 win over Miami, the Canes answered back with a dominating and enjoyable 52-17 Homecoming win.

Next up: a tough trip to Chapel Hill to take on Butch Davis and North Carolina. While the Tar Heels have had an up-and-down kind of season, they've had Miami's number and it definitely sets up to be a legitimate road test. For now, though, a chance to enjoy a dominating conference victory. A very welcome change of pace.