US Presswire

Wake Forest's Alphonso Smith (2) is pulled down by Virginia's Hall Simmons (top) and Raynard Horne while returning a punt during the first quarter of Saturday's game.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Virginia liked BB&T Field a lot better when it was called Groves Stadium.

Not that the name change had anything to do with it, but the Cavaliers certainly played as if they were confused in a 28-17 loss to Wake Forest.

Virginia hadn't lost in Winston-Salem since 1983, when Al Groh was the Deacons' coach. He was on the opposite sideline Saturday, when Virginia fell behind 28-3 at the half.

UVa (5-5, 3-3 ACC) held Wake scoreless in the second half and outgained the Deacons 303-273, but the Cavaliers couldn't overcome four turnovers.

Virginia, which had a chance to move into first place in the Coastal Division, dropped into fifth.

Wake Forest (6-3, 4-2) moved into a tie for first with Florida State in the Atlantic Division.

The Deacons ranked fourth in Division I-A in turnover margin before Saturday's game and came up with four takeaways, intercepting three Marc Verica passes and recovering a Cedric Peerman fumble.

The interceptions led to 14 Wake Forest points, including a 53-yard Kevin Patterson return for the Deacons' fourth touchdown of the first half.

After getting 10 touchdowns from their defense and special teams in 2007, Wake did not have a non-offensive touchdown this season until Saturday.

"We created a script for ourselves that, as it played out, was going to make it very difficult to win the game," Groh said. "Between the penalties and the turnovers, we fed the supply line of Wake Forest points."

The Cavaliers, coming off an overtime loss to Miami in which they had one penalty, had five penalties in the first quarter alone Saturday. Three were false starts against their two most experienced offensive lineman, tackles Eugene Monroe (two) and Will Barker.

If the Cavaliers were ready to play, "we obviously didn't show it," outside linebacker and co-captain Clint Sintim said.

Wake Forest converted six of nine third downs in the first half, none more damaging than a 58-yard touchdown pass from Riley Skinner to Deron Brown on third-and-15 with 2:36 remaining in the first quarter.

UVa safety Byron Glaspy appeared to have the ball in his sights but misjudged it. He then stumbled as Brown covered the final 20 yards to the end zone.

"We lost a game last week when we fell down in double coverage," Groh said. "Today, we fell down. A few things stand out. That play for a touchdown, the interception for a touchdown and [a] series at the goal line when we don't get the ball in there."

Virginia, which outgained the Deacs 225-75 in the second half, had a chance to gain some momentum when Kevin Ogletree caught a 43-yard pass from Verica on the Cavaliers' second possession of the second half.

After failing to pick up any yardage on two handoffs to Peerman, Verica pulled the ball away from a potential third handoff and took off to his right. He was sacked by cornerback Alphonso Smith for a 4-yard loss. On fourth down, a pass to Peerman was stopped for a 3-yard loss.

"We probably didn't make the best decision on the third-down play," Groh said. "It looked like we probably had a score there if the ball is handed off, but that's easy to say from the sideline. I didn't have to be out there, making the decision under pressure."

Verica overcame a 3-for-14 start to pass for a career-high 279 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns. He joined Matt Schaub as the only UVa quarterbacks to throw for 200 yards or more in six straight games.

"There's a lot of good plays there," Groh said. "He's doing a lot of good things. But clearly, what has to stop is the interceptions. We've come down to North Carolina twice and probably turned the ball over 10 times in two games.

"That's why we're going home unhappy. For all the other things, basically if we don't fall down on a long play and we don't turn the ball over, who knows where it goes?"

Duke beat Virginia 31-3 on a September afternoon when the Cavaliers outgained the Blue Devils 304-258 but had six turnovers, five of them charged to Verica, who was intercepted four times in that game.

Verica essentially has played in eight games, not counting the final series of UVa's season-opening loss to Southern California and has 15 turnovers -- 12 interceptions and three lost fumbles.

Skinner, who was 14-of-20 for 130 yards, was not intercepted Saturday or in a total of 130 attempts over the Deacons' last five games. That follows a string of 131 attempts without an interception earlier in his career.

Wake Forest's first interception, by nose guard Boo Robinson, occurred after Deacons' linebacker Aaron Curry hit Verica from the blind side. On the interception returned for a touchdown by Patterson, it appeared as if Ogletree had a shot at the ball.

Ogletree, who had six receptions for 95 yards and a touchdown, said he tried to catch the ball against his body because two defenders were getting ready to hit him and may have had a better shot if he'd had his arms outstretched.

"Sometimes balls or going to be batted or tipped or bounce off people's bodies," Verica said. "I'm still going to take responsibility for them. I'm not going to blame anyone else.

"No one person was the reason why we lost today, but there were some bad throws and some bad decisions and they've just got to be eliminated."