Florida State Strikes Quickly Against Virginia, 47-21

No. 3-ranked Florida State scored touchdowns on three of its first five plays from scrimmage and went on to a 47-21 Atlantic Coast Conference victory over Virginia Saturday night at Charlottesville, Va.

The Seminoles, 7-0 overall and 5-0 in the ACC, led 24 seconds in the game after Travis Minor went 87 yards on the first play from scrimmage.

Two years ago in Charlottesville, Virginia handed Florida State its only ACC loss in 45 games, but the Seminoles dominated this one.

After Minor’s touchdown, Peter Warrick returned a punt 36 yards to the Cavaliers 38 on the ensuing series, and Thad Busby followed two incomplete passes with a 38-yard touchdown pass play to Warrick, making it 14-0 after just 4:46.

Virginia (4-3, 3-2) went three-and-out on its next series and, after Frank Rotella’s punt went out of bounds at the Seminoles 26, Busby passed to E.G. Green over the middle on the first play and Green completed a 74-yard scoring play.

With 8:44 left in the first quarter, the Seminoles had the ball for all of 53 seconds, had not picked up a first down but led, 21-0.

Clemson 20, Maryland 9--Raymond Priester ran for a 204 yards in a school-record 36 carries and scored both Clemson touchdowns as the Tigers (4-3, 2-3) beat the Terrapins (2-6, 1-4) at College Park, Md.

Clemson trailed, 9-7, at halftime before Priester took over, running 22 times for 128 yards and a score in the second half.

Wake Forest 38, Duke 24--Kito Gary’s six-yard scoring run with 6:33 left helped cap Wake Forest’s best ground attack in 3 1/2 seasons as the Demon Deacons (4-4, 3-3) overcame five turnovers to defeat the Blue Devils (2-6, 0-5) at Durham, N.C.

The Demon Deacons, last in the ACC in rushing at 88 yards a game, ground out 309 as Herman Lewis rushed for 160 yards and Morgan Kane added 146.

Duke has lost 15 consecutive ACC games.