lties.VIRGINIA TECH: The Hokies defense

BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Sam Rogers wasnt intentionally the focal point of Virginia Techs offense early against Virginia on Saturday, but with a couple of early touchdown runs to get the Hokies going, he became one, and he turned an emotional Senior Day into one hell not likely forget.Rogers ran for a career-best 105 yards and two touchdowns and Virginia Tech tuned up for next Saturday nights Atlantic Coast Conference championship showdown against No. 4 Clemson with a 52-10 victory -- their 13th in a row against their state rivals.Were not done yet, first-year Hokies coach Justin Fuente told the crowd after the game.Rogers, one of 13 seniors honored before the game, scored on runs of 8 and 32 yards for the Hokies (9-3, 6-2), whose ticket for the title game was punched when North Carolina lost to North Carolina State on Friday. It will be Virginia Techs first appearance since 2011.Rogers long run came on a between-the-tackles play that didnt set up the way it was supposed to.Everything just got jumbled up in the middle and I just peaked outside, Rogers said. Everyone was still running right, so I ran left.The victory sent Virginia (2-10, 1-7) to its seventh consecutive loss.Jerod Evans threw for two touchdowns and ran for another for Virginia Tech, allowing the junior college transfer to set school single season records with 26 touchdown passes (Tyrod Taylor had 24 in 2010) and 3,752 total yards (Logan Thomas had 3,500 in 2012).Fuente, whose team was going through a walk-through yesterday while the North Carolina game was going on, congratulated his team on earning the trip to Orlando, Florida, next week, and even in his first year at Virginia Tech, said he knew they would remain motivated.In this scenario, I would have been worried about it, but not in this game, he said. This game means too much.Virginia went with a quarterback rotation, sometimes from play to play, and was outgained 579-247.It is a little bit of a different challenge than were obviously used to, said Kurt Benkert, the starter for most of the season who was benched last week after struggling in several games. We felt like we were able to do everything we need to, but we just didnt.He finished 9 for 26 for 122 yards with one touchdown. Matt Johns was 4 for 10 for 17 yards and threw two interceptions.I struggled a bit with that, Johns said of the rotation. It was hard to find my rhythm and really get a feel for the game.THE TAKEAWAYVirginia: The Cavaliers have a long way to go to get to the talent level and mindset Bronco Mendenhall expects. Returning Benkert to the field after a series of skittish performances behind shaky protection and benching last week was probably meant to give him something to build on, but the Cavaliers will also have to rebuild their offensive line and replace Taquan Mizzell and Keeon Johnson, two key seniors.Virginia Tech: The Hokies three most recent victories were all by three points and all on the road: at Pittsburgh, at Duke and at Notre Dame. In between, they lost a home game to Georgia Tech in there, so dominating should bolster confidence heading into next weekend.It was good to get back and have a dominant defensive performance, Hokies defensive coordinator Bud Foster said.RECORDS AND MILESTONESEvans broke Taylors TD pass record on a 39-yard throw to Cam Phillips in the second quarter. ... Evans broke Thomas total yardage record on a 14-yard pass to Isaiah Ford in the first quarter. ... Ford caught four passes and became the 17th player in ACC history with 200 career receptions. Virginias Taquan Mizzell became the 19th Virginia player to rush for 2,000 career yards on an 8-yard run late in the first quarter. ... Mizzell needed six receptions to join Ford in the 200-catch club, but caught just one.HE SAID ITI think this game was a statement game, to tell Clemson that were coming. -- Virginia Tech defense end Ken Ekanem.UP NEXTVirginia Tech will face Clemson in the ACC championship game next Saturday in Orlando, Florida.---More AP college football: http://collegefootball.ap.org---Follow Hank on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hankkurzjr Swell Drink Bottle Sale . 1 position. The Mustangs (6-0), who beat Queens 50-31 last weekend, earned 17 first-place votes and 287 points in voting by the Football Reporters of Canada. Western was last ranked first in the country in October 2011. Swell Water Bottle Wholesale .Y. -- Sabres forward Drew Stafford has witnessed plenty of turmoil during his eight seasons in Buffalo. http://www.swellbottlesclearance.com/ . - Chris Tierney snapped a tie with a power-play goal late in the third period as the London Knights rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Erie Otters 5-3 in Ontario Hockey League action on Wednesday. Swell Water Bottle Floral . Ivanovic was leading 7-5, 1-0 when Hantuchova withdrew after falling 0-40 behind in the second game. The match started slowly for Ivanovic, who surrendered her first two serves as Hantuchova took a 5-3 lead. Swell Bottle Elements Collection . Already owning gold from competition in Vancouver in 2010, Loch posted a combined four-run time of 3:27.526. That included a track-record third run of 51. BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Virginia Tech coach Justin Fuente downplayed any personal satisfaction derived from his teams season-opening performance, but needless to say, he enjoyed most of what he witnessed in his debut as the Hokies head coach.Virginia Tech quarterback Jerod Evans threw for 221 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Hokies to a 36-13 season-opening victory over Liberty on Saturday, handing Fuente his first victory.Fuente, who spent the previous four seasons at Memphis, took over in January for Frank Beamer, who retired after 29 years as Virginia Techs head coach.The atmosphere here is fantastic, Fuente said. Its what college football is all about. People at Virginia Tech take a lot of pride in the game-day atmosphere, and they should. It was incredibleMy thought process coming into the game was how would our kids handle this? How do they respond when things dont go well. There were some times when things were kind of ugly looking, but I liked the way our kids dug in there and plowed away. The atmosphere was fantastic and Im pleased with the way the kids responded to adversity.Fuentes decision last week to name Evans the starting quarterback certainly looked like a good move after Evans completed 20 of 32 passes. He threw touchdown passes on the Hokies last two possessions of the first half to help Virginia Tech rally from a 13-10 deficit.It was a great feeling, Evans said. Its been nine months of hard work. We finally got to showcase what weve been working on for nine long months. We had some mistakes, for sure. I know on my part I had a lot of mistakes that I am going to clean up, but it was exciting.Evans, who won a three-man battle for the job, played less than three quarters. Fuente pulled him after he fumbled on an option pitch -- his second fumble of the game.Some good and some bad would be my first impression, Fuente said of his quarterback. We neeed to take care of the football.dddddddddddd He made some good plays in the passing game. My gut reaction is some good and some bad.Liberty amassed just 160 yards of offense, scoring all of its points off of Virginia Tech turnovers. The Hokies lost four fumbles.They made more plays than we did, but well bounce back, Liberty coach Turner Gill said. We will be a better football team from this ball game.THE TAKEAWAYLIBERTY: Liberty quarterback Stephon Masha got off to a rough start in his attempt to replace Josh Woodrum, a four-year starter. Masha completed 9 of 25 for 70 yards and two interceptions. It was a sloppy debut overall for Liberty, which committed 13 penalties, including eight false-start penalties.VIRGINIA TECH: The Hokies defense struggled with consistency a year ago, but looked good Saturday. Virginia Tech, which intercepted just 10 passes last season, had three, marking the 41st time under defensive coordinator Bud Foster that the Hokies have intercepted at least three passes in a game. Theyre 38-3 in those games.It was a good starting point for us today, Foster said. I was pleased with how we played. We didnt give up any explosive plays. All in all, I thought we did a nice job in some sudden-change situations and on third down. I think they had 11 turnovers last year, so that (forcing the turnovers) was big.UP NEXTLIBERTY: The Flames will serve as hosts to Jacksonville next Saturday in Libertys home opener. The game will be Libertys first against an opponent from the Pioneer Football League.VIRGINIA TECH: The Hokies now get ready to take on Tennessee at Bristol Motor Speedway next Saturday night in a game that could set college footballs single-game attendance mark. The two teams havent met in the regular season since 1937. ' ' '