Duke had 638 yards of offense and eight different players scored a touchdown in the Blue Devils’ 62-7 blowout win over William & Mary on Saturday afternoon in Durham, N.C.
Duke (4-0) led 14-7 after the first quarter but then scored 24 points in the second quarter to go into halftime with a 38-7 lead. Many of the Blue Devils’ starters didn’t play past one drive in the second half.
Nate Sheppard, who came into the day as the FBS’s leading rusher, had his fourth straight 100-yard game. He finished with 116 yards and one touchdown on just nine carries. Starting quarterback Walker Eget was 16-of-22 passing for 182 yards and two touchdowns. Backup quarterback Dan Mahan tossed three touchdowns.
The Tribe (2-3) struggled most of the day, totaling just 170 yards and seven first downs. Quarterback Winston Watkins was 10-for-17 for 137 yards and a touchdown. Khylil Johnson had three catches for 92 yards.
The Blue Devils opened the scoring when Eget hit Jayden Moore on a 24-yard strike for a 7-0 lead. Duke increased the lead to 14-0 with a 38-second drive capped by Sheppard’s 19-yard scamper.
The Tribe responded with its only score of the day, Watkins’ 6-yard pass to Jack Reuter to cut the margin to 14-7 with 2:58 left in the first quarter.
After a 32-yard field goal, Duke scored three more touchdowns before the end of the first half. Mahan threw 29-yard and 28-yard touchdown passes to Kavon Simmons and Jaivon Solomon, respectively. Eget then led a two-minute drill and capped it with a 28-yard touchdown to Jared Richardson with 26 seconds left.
The Blue Devils kicked another field goal, this time 39 yards, and Mahan found Brody Keefe from 27 yards out to make it 48-7 with 3:40 left in the third quarter.
Duke added two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter, a 4-yard run by Jayvian Tanelus with 5:12 left and a 28-yard run by CJ Givers with 3:38 left.
William & Mary had just two first downs in the second half.
