CHARLOTTE, N.C. — What West Virginia did well to end the regular season as one of the hottest teams in the country couldn't be duplicated Saturday afternoon at Ericsson Stadium. The No. 15 Mountaineers were beaten in all phases of the game en route to a 48-22 whipping by a young, hungry Virginia team in the inaugural Continental Tire Bowl. Virginia freshman tailback Wali Lundy, the game's Most Valuable Player, scored four touchdowns — one in each quarter — and rushed for 127 yards to pace the Cavaliers, the second-place team from the Atlantic Coast Conference. Virginia ended the season at 9-5. West Virginia, the second-place team from the Big East Conference, finished 9-4. The Mountaineers just couldn't stop the Cavaliers' offense. "I'm very disappointed in how we played," West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said. "We had breakdowns in all three phases of the game. "We never established anything defensively, and offensively, we made a few crucial errors. We played a very good football team and played poorly." West Virginia came out flat against Virginia, and it cost them. After the Mountaineers grabbed a 10-7 lead late in the first quarter on a 6-yard touchdown run by tailback Avon Cobourne, Virginia scored 31 consecutive points, including 21 in the second quarter, to turn the game into a rout. Virginia quarterback Matt Schaub, who completed 16 of 22 passes for 182 yards, scored on a 1-yard run on fourth-and-goal with 10:12 left. Schaub dropped back to pass, avoided pressure from West Virginia linebacker Leander Washington and dove into the end zone to give the Cavaliers a 14-10 lead. "They kept us off balance, and we didn't tackle very well," Rodriguez said. "We have to learn from this loss." The Cavaliers offense used numerous trick plays to draw in the Mountaineers. They scored their first touchdown when reserve quarterback Marques Hagans, who lined up at wide receiver, tossed a 14-yard touchdown pass to Lundy after he took a lateral from Schaub. Virginia coach Al Groh, who kept his practices closed to the public all week, had his team well prepared for the Mountaineers. The Cavaliers executed perfectly and looked and played like a confident team. "This game was about us making a statement, and our players did that," Groh said. "We like to win. It makes no difference who we are playing." West Virginia linebacker Grant Wiley sat in the team's interview room with his head down after the game. He really couldn't explain what happened. "We laid an egg," Wiley said. "We were flat, and I really don't know why." Things unraveled for the Mountaineers minutes later when Hagans returned a punt 69 yards for a touchdown. Late in the first half, Virginia kicker Connor Hughes missed a 27-yard field-goal attempt. But two Mountaineers — Angel Estrada and Lance Frazier — jumped offsides, giving the Cavaliers a first down at the West Virginia 4. Lundy scored on the next play for a 28-10 lead. Estrada said he and Frazier jumped because they saw the Virginia center move the ball. But no penalty was called against Virginia. That play proved costly. "We gave them a gift when we jumped offsides," Rodriguez said. "We just didn't execute well, and they did." Even a slow finger by a clock operator late in the first half hurt the Mountaineers. West Virginia quarterback Rasheed Marshall tossed a 55-yard pass to wide receiver Miquelle Henderson, who seemed to step out of bounds at the Virginia 4 with two seconds left. But the side judge didn't stop the clock, and West Virginia never got a chance to attempt a field goal. Lundy made it 35-10 early in the third quarter when he took a screen pass from Schaub, broke a couple of tackles, and raced 48 yards for a score. Lundy had five catches for 76 yards. "We didn't come out ready to play," Estrada said. "We just didn't prepare as well as we should have." Cobourne, who rushed for 117 yards and predicted a West Virginia victory, scored his second touchdown of the game late in the fourth quarter to cut the Virginia lead to 41-22. But Lundy, who graduated from the same high school in Camden, N.J., as Cobourne, finished off the scoring with a 31-yard run with 3:48 left. Marshall, who completed 12 of 18 passes for 215 yards, scored on a 1-yard run in the third quarter. He also rushed for 48 yards. "They did a great job preparing for us," Marshall said. "They were a step ahead of us." West Virginia outgained Virginia 459-391.

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