Cavalier defense blankets Maryland in 16-0 victory

Virginia remained in the hunt for the ACC championship and BCS bowl berth.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Virginia is feeling good again about itself and its chances in the Atlantic Coast Conference -- just in time.
A dominating 16-0 victory against Maryland on Saturday allowed the Cavaliers to put behind them the sting of a rout by Florida State and prepare for another chance to prove themselves. The Cavaliers are at home next Saturday against Miami with both teams' ACC championship hopes on the line.
"I think we should be back to where we were" before losing 36-3 at Florida State, guard Elton Brown said of Virginia's confidence after the Cavaliers ran for 295 yards and limited the Terrapins to 214 total yards.
"We put up over 200 yards against a stingy run defense and our defense shut them out. We should be pretty close," the senior captain said.
Lundy scores twice
Wali Lundy ran for his 13th and 14th touchdowns and Virginia (7-1, 4-1) remained in a first-place tie by winning for the 11th time in 13 games in the series that's grown more intense since Al Groh became the Cavaliers' coach four years ago and Ralph Friedgen took over at Maryland. The teams have split the last four games, each winning at home.
Friedgen's team was coming off a stunning 20-17 victory against then-No. 5 Florida State last week, a win that restarted talk of bowl games and finishing strong, then just didn't show up against the Cavaliers.
"We were flat. We just didn't have anything in the tank," Friedgen said. "It was like the walk of the zombies. No one was home. We were talking to them, trying to motivate them. Nothing was registering."
That wasn't the case for the home team, which treated a crowd of 63,072, the largest in Scott Stadium history, to a determined ground game used rotating tailbacks to wear out the Terrapins (4-5, 2-4 ACC).
Pearman leads way
Alvin Pearman led the way with 170 yards on 31 carries, and Lundy added 107 yards on 24 attempts, including scoring runs of 4 and 15 yards.
"We knew something had to give, and we knew it wasn't going to be us," Lundy said, noting that Virginia came into the game with the league's top running game and Maryland had the stingiest run defense.
Virginia's defense also did its job, not allowing quarterback Joel Statham to follow up his 333-yard performance in the victory against Florida State, or Josh Allen to kill them again from his tailback spot.
Statham was 10-for-17 for just 115 yards with two interceptions before being replaced by Jordan Steffy in the fourth quarter. Allen gained just 39 yards after riddling the Cavaliers for a career-best 257 last season.
"Two picks. Forced a fumble. You couldn't ask for better," quarterback Marques Hagans said of the defense before also praising his own line. "They just took over. They just kept grinding and coming at them."