College Sports NCAA

By Solange Reyner
MIAMI GARDENS (CBS4) ― Surrounded by six Virginia tacklers, Thearon Collier scrambled right to find an opening. Raymond Buchanan, Colin McCarthy and Chavez Grant provided bone crushing hits as Collier turned the corner, opening the door for his 60-yard punt return that put Miami ahead 17-10 late in the first quarter.

The Hurricanes (7-2, 4-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) never looked back.

Graig Cooper rushed for a career-high 152 yards, Jacory Harris threw for 232 yards and two touchdowns, and the Miami Hurricanes routed the Virginia Cavaliers, 52-17, on Saturday afternoon.

"Just a great individual return [by Thearon]," Virginia coach Al Groh said. "In the special teams meeting last evening, it was stated that there is another player that has more reputation and more statistics and he's the most dangerous guy. He lived up to it."

Down 10-3 early, the Hurricanes answered back in a hurry. Miami scored two touchdowns in just over a minute late in the first, with Leonard Hankerson and Collier providing the highlights.

Hankerson put a nice spin move on Rodney McLeod to get to the end zone for a 35-yard score, and Collier got past Virginia's Patch Duda and Raynard Horne to score one minute later.

The win at Land Shark Stadium gave the Hurricanes satisfaction – some of Miami's seniors were still upset about losing their last game at the Orange Bowl in 2007, 48-0, to the Cavaliers (3-6, 2-3).

"Coming off the last time we played them at home in the Orange Bowl, this was a big win for us," Miami coach Randy Shannon said. "To see those guys like Jason Fox who were here for the last time we played them to come out and play the way they did today was unbelievable."

Virginia's lone touchdown on offense came in the first quarter, when Rashawn Jackson broke a few tackles and scampered 34 yards into the end zone.
Bill Schaultz returned a blocked punt for the Cavaliers to make it 24-17 with 2:28 left in the first half, then it was all Miami from there.

The Hurricanes scored 28 unanswered points, with touchdown runs from Damien Berry – who had two – and Graig Cooper, and a scoring pass-play from backup quarterback AJ Highsmith to Kendal Thompkins.

Virginia had trouble moving the ball on offense. Quarterback Marc Verica, starting in place of the injured Jameel Sewell, had 75 yards on 11 of 27 passing. Jackson had 77 yards rushing, but Verica was pressured by a Miami defense that registered two sacks and an interception.

"It makes things a whole lot better," Harris said of Miami's defense. "You can go onto the field without any worries. You can just run your offense and not feel like you need big plays. The defense stepped it up a whole lot this week."

Things got feisty for a moment between the ACC teams. Before Berry's second touchdown in the third quarter, Virginia linebacker Cam Johnson and Miami's Harris got into a scuffle after Johnson sacked the quarterback.

The two got called for personal fouls, and Johnson was called for a facemask penalty after a video review, putting Miami on Virginia's 13-yard line.

That's a new one on me, too," Groh said of the penalty called after the review, not wanting to delve too much into it for fear of being fined by the conference. On Friday, Florida's Urban Meyer was fined $30,000 for criticizing the referees for failing to call a hit on quarterback Tim Tebow. 
"Urban makes a lot more money than I do," Groh said.
 
The Hurricanes took advantage, scoring on the drive to make it 38-17 with 27 seconds left in the quarter.

How they scored:
Fourth Quarter
Hurricanes 52, Virginia 17
Kendal Thompkins catches a 15-yard touchdown from backup AJ Highsmith.
The drive: 4 plays, 20 yards, 1:28.

Hurricanes 45, Virginia 17
Cooper scores a touchdown to put the game well out of reach.
The plays: Cooper breaks away for 70-yards on the drive to get Miami close.
The drive: 5 plays, 85 yards, 2:28.

Third Quarter
Hurricanes 38, Virginia 17
Berry scores from one yard out for his second TD of the game.
The plays: Harris and Virginia linebacker Cam Johnson get called for personal fouls after scuffling, with Johnson getting a facemask penalty to get Miami on Virginia's 13-yard line.
The drive: 15 plays, 82 yards, 6:15.

Hurricanes 31, Virginia 17
Damien Berry scores from 3-yards out.
The plays: Harris connects with Byrd for 29 yards, and Tervaris Johnson 17 to get Miami into Virginia territory.
The drive: 10 plays, 72 yards, 4:46.

Second quarter
Hurricanes 24, Virginia 17
Linebacker Bill Schaultz returns a blocked punt 20 yards for the score.
The play: Trey Womack comes up the middled untouched to get to Miami kicker Matt Bosher.

Hurricanes 24, Virginia 10
Jimmy Graham catches his fourth touchdown of the season.
The plays: Miami gets good field position in the beginning of the second after the Cavaliers punt the ball 12 yards.
The drive: 5 plays, 25 yards, 1:15.

First quarter:
Hurricanes 17, Virginia 10
Thearon Collier returns a punt 60 yards for the score.
The plays: Collier eludes seven tacklers, scrambles right, then gets a hard hitting, highlight-reel block from Chavez Grant.

Hurricanes 10, Virginia 10
Leonard Hankerson puts a nice spin move on Rodney McLeod to get to the end zone.
The plays: Harris drives Miami down field with quick passes to Laron Byrd and Hankerson.
The drive: 2 plays, 51 yards, :17 seconds.

Virginia 10, Hurricanes 3
Rashaun Jackson scores on a 34-yard scamper for the Cavaliers.
The plays: Virginia gets on Miami's 45 after Terence Falls-Denver blocks Bosher's punt.
The drive: 3 plays, 43 yards, :57

Virginia 3, Hurricanes 3
Kicker Robert Randolph hits a 34-yarder to tie it.
The plays: The Cavaliers settle for a field goal after Ras-I Dowling takes a Jacory Harris interception back to the Miami 19-yard line.
The drive: 3 plays, 2 yards, 1:10

Hurricanes 3, Virginia 0
Matt Bosher has a 42-yard field goal to open things up.
The drive: 9 plays, 22 yards, 4:19.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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