The Duke Blue Devils move to 4-0 on the season with a victory over the North Carolina Central Eagles.

Duke started the game with a 20-0 lead and it seemed like they would run away with the game, but the Eagles battled back to make it 20-13.

The Eagles would score on a fumble recovery and a 55-yard return by Jordan McCrae.  Prior to that Central got on the board with a 20 yard run from Isiah Totten who tallied 88 yards in the first half.

The Eagles had two goal-line stands against the Blue Devils in the 1st half, but Duke righted the ship when Quentin Harris hit Johnathan Lloyd on a 16-yard touchdown pass to take a 27-13 lead into the half.

Earlier in the first half, Harris hit Davis Koppenhaver for a 17-yard touchdown pass to give Duke a 7-0 lead.  Harris would then scamper 15 yards for another score before hitting Brittain Brown with a 44-yard toss which put the Blue Devils up 20-0.

Duke came out fired up after the halftime break and held Central to three consecutive three and outs.  Brittain Brown blasted off left tack for a 43-yard touchdown run to give the Blue Devils a 34-13 lead.

The Blue Devils defense would hold the Eagles to a mere 8 yards of offense in the entire second half.

On their next drive, Duke would score on a Chris Katrenick touchdown pass to Davis Koppenhaver.  That was the first career scoring pass for Katrenick and his second pass on the drive where he replaced a shaken up Quentin Harris.

The Blue Devils would have another scoring drive of nine plays for 42 yards where Deon Jackson took it into the end zone on a 2-yard run.   That score pushed the Duke lead to 48-13 as the third quarter winded down.

Nico Pierre would later add his first career touchdown rush which pushed the Blue Devils lead to 55-13.  Duke gained 372 yards on the ground and 628 for the game.

Duke will take on Virginia Tech at 7:00 next week in Wallace Wade Stadium in a game televised on ESPNU.

Notes -

• Brittain Brown rushed for 118 yards but did not return to the game after an injury.
• Marvin Hubbard ran for a career-high 96 yards.
• Deon Jackson added 63 yards and a score on the ground.
• Duke used five running backs in the game.
• Quentin Harris is 2-0 as a starter and added 3 more touchdown passes to his career total.
• Duke Coach David Cutcliffe said Harris got overly aggressive at times instead of making the easier play.
• Cutcliffe also said that Duke decided not to go for FG's saying when ACC play comes up, you will need some TD scores.
• No contact work in practice for Daniel Jones per Cutcliffe.
• Duke is 4-0 and the last time they accomplished that was 2014.
• Duke held NCCU to 8 second-half yards.
• Cutcliffe said he would see how Jeremy McDuffie responds tomorrow.  He played vs NCCU for the first time.
• Cutcliffe said they are not going to get big headed and they were capable of winning if they play well.  He thinks this is a good football team.
• RB Brittain Brown could have returned to the game but rested.