Collegiate Times

Redshirt senior defensive tackle Demetrius Taylor and senior defensive end Nekos Brown slam Duke quarterback Thaddeus Lewis.

Fighting to preserve their top-10 ranking and any hope of playing for the national championship, the No.6 Hokies escaped Durham, N.C. with a 34-26 win over the Duke Blue Devils.

Click here to see photos from the game.

"Sometimes you just have to win some games that aren't really pretty on the road," head coach Frank Beamer said. "Thank goodness for our kids hanging in there."

The Blue Devils came within four points of Tech during the game on two occasions, the second of which occurring with 13:51 left to play in the fourth quarter after Duke kicker Will Snyderwine notched his third of four field goals of the contest, making the score 20-16.

A pair of touchdown runs by redshirt sophomore running back Josh Ogelsby in the last ten minutes of regulation gave the Hokies more breathing room, producing a 34-19 lead with less than two and a half minutes left in the game.

But the Blue Devils continued to remain in range of pulling off the upset. Following the second Ogelsby touchdown, Duke came right back down the field on a drive which lasted 2:03 and ended with the second touchdown pass of the day from senior quarterback Thaddeus Lewis, who threw for a season-high 359 yards against the Hokies' defense.

After a successful extra point, the Blue Devils made a last-ditch effort at staying in the ballgame with 25 seconds left on the clock by going for an onside kick in an attempt to retain possession for one last offensive drive.

The kick, however, was not long enough and led to offside penalty called on the Blue Devils which resulted in the Hokies gaining possession and securing the victory.

Tech junior quarterback Tyrod Taylor reached a career-high in yards thrown with 327 while passing for two touchdowns.

"I think Tyrod is getting better all the time," Beamer said. "He's getting better at knowing where to go with the ball and our receivers are making some good plays. All of the sudden, that keeps your momentum going for another play."

Redshirt freshman running back Ryan Williams was held under 100 yards rushing for just the second time this season, averaging 3.5 yards on 24 attempts. Only 31 percent of the offense's total yard production came from its running game.

"We have threats all over the field on offense," Williams said. "We just haven't shown a lot of them off this season because it's been mainly me, Tyrod, or (sophomore wide receiver) Dyrell Roberts making the big plays up to this game."

Although he was less than pleased with the performance of his team, which was penalized twelve times for 105 yards, Beamer declared that the slim margin of victory was largely due to the play of the opponent.

"I think we learn from this performance," Beamer said. "I really believe Duke played an excellent football game. I think they're going to get to a bowl game and beat a lot of (teams). They're fundamentally sound and well-coached. Thank goodness we came out of this game with a win."