Explosive Offensive Performance Leads Wake Forest to Road Win at Army, 70-56

WEST POINT, N.Y. — The Wake Forest football team captured its third road victory of the season on Saturday afternoon, 70-56, behind a career passing performance from redshirt sophomore quarterback Sam Hartman.

It marked the third-highest scoring game in Demon Deacons (7-0, 4-0 ACC) history and is the highest in a road performance.

Hartman had a career day through the air against the Black Knights (4-3) finishing with a career-high 458 yards on 23-of-29 passing. It is the sixth-most passing yards in Wake Forest history and ranks second in the Dave Clawson era, trailing just John Wolford’s 461-yard performance against Louisville in 2017.

Additionally, his five passing touchdowns ties the program record and is a career high for Hartman. Riley Skinner (2009), John Wolford (2017) and Jamie Newman (2019) are the only other Demon Deacon quarterbacks to find the endzone five times through the air.

On defense, redshirt senior defensive back Traveon Redd intercepted a third quarter pass, returning it 83 yards for a touchdown to put the Demon Deacons up by two scores. It marked the longest interception return since 2007 and is the seventh longest interception return in program history.

From that point, the Deacs led the rest of the way, scoring on the remainder of their offensive possession until the final one when Wake Forest took a knee to end the game.

Additionally this marks just the second time in program history that Wake Forest did not attempt a punt. The only other came in the Deacs’ 66-14 victory over Campbell on Oct. 2, 2020.

In total, the Demon Deacons 63 points on offense came in just 17:17 minutes, the Deacs lowest time of possession this season.

HOW IT HAPPENED

In front of a sold out crowd at Michie Stadium on Saturday afternoon, Wake Forest marched right down the field on the game’s first possession to take an early 7-0 lead.

Christian Beal-Smith caught the opening kickoff and gave the Deacs great starting field position on their own 37 after a 27-yard return.

Wake Forest gained the 63 yards it needed for the touchdown score on eight plays. The drive was capped off by a Christian Turner three-yard scoring run.

Army responded on the first play of its first possession with a 39-yard completion from QB Christian Anderson to Brandon Walters.

After that play flipped the field, the Black Knights used their next six plays to score and knot the game at seven apiece.

Undaunted after a special teams miscue forced the Deacons to start the next possession on their own three yard line, QB Sam Hartman completed a 50-yard pass to A.T. Perry and a 41-yard touchdown toss to Jaquarii Roberson to retake the lead, 14-7.

After each team was unable to score on its next possession, the first quarter expired with Wake Forest leading by a touchdown (14-7) and Army driving in Demon Deacon terrority.

Army finished off the aforementioned drive with a three-yard scoring run to even the score with 11:55 remaining in the half, 14-14.

Wake Forest quickly answered as Hartman connected with Perry on a 54-yard touchdown pass on the fourth play of the drive to return the lead back to the Deacs, 21-14.

The long catch by Perry marked his 10th explosive play of the 2021 season.

Ke’Shawn Williams set Wake Forest up with good field position with a kickoff return of 27 yards.

The Black Knights got the ball back with just over 10 minutes left until halftime. With the help of a penalty from Wake Forest to extend the drive in Demon Deacon territory, Army marched the ball down 75 yards on 13 plays to tie the game on a 24-yard rushing touchdown with 3:17 left in the second quarter.

The Demon Deacons answered quickly to take a 28-21 lead into the halftime interval. After marching the ball down the field, Christian Beal-Smith ran the ball in from 13 yards out to give the Deacs the lead again with less than a minute left in the half.

After receiving the opening kickoff in the second half, the Black Knights quickly drove the ball down the field on six plays to tie the game at 28 apiece.

Wake Forest quickly answered with another explosive play, as Hartman connected with Roberson on the third play of the drive for a 75-yard score.

This pass brought Hartman to a new season-high in passing yards.

Additionally, this marked the longest play by Wake Forest’s offense this season.

On the ensuing possession as Army worked its way into Wake Forest terrority. On a fourth down to keep the drive alive, Traveon Redd intercepted the pass and returned it 83 yards for the score.

The score extended Wake Forest’s lead to 42-28 with 6:04 remaining in the third quarter.

The interception was the Demon Deacons’ longest return since Sept. 22, 2007 (Alphonso Smith) and was the fourth of Redd’s career.

Over the next three offensive snaps, Wake Forest and Army traded 65 and 75 yard touchdown plays, respectively.

Hartman found a streaking Ke’Shawn Williams for another 75-yard pitch and catch, increasing Wake Forest’s lead to 49-35.

Army began its next possession with 5:16 remaining in the third frame and embarked on a nine-play, 75-yard drive to make it a one-score game (49-42) after a 21-yard touchdown pass on 4th and 9.

A targeting penalty kept the Black Knight drive alive. The very next play, a Wake Forest interception on a half-back pass was negated following a holding call.

Undaunted, Wake Forest marched down the field and increased their advantage to 56-42 after Hartman connected with Roberson on a two-yard touchdown in the back of the end zone.

The Deacs drove the ball down the field thanks to big runs by Christian Beal-Smith (17 yards and 21 yards) and Christian Turner (18 yards).

Army responded with a touchdown pass of their own, cutting into the Demon Deacon lead (56-49) with 8:20 remaining in regulation.

Four plays later, Hartman tallied a 8-yard touchdown rush to increase Wake Forest’s lead back to double digits (63-49) with just under seven minutes remaining.

Hartman connected with Ke’Shawn Williams (18 yards) and A.T. Perry (14 yards) on back-to-back completions of over 10 yards.

Chase Jones forced and recovered a fumble at Wake Forest’s own 38-yard line to give the Deacs the ball back with 2:58 left in the game.

Justice Ellison broke through the Army defense for Wake Forest’s final touchdown of the game, notching a 46-yard rushing touchdown to put the Deacs up 70-49.

Ellison rushed the ball four times for 62 yards on the drive.

Army responded with a 39-yard touchdown pass, making it 70-56 with 39 seconds left in regulation.

Wake Forest recovered Army’s onside kick attempt to clinch a 70-56 victory over the Black Knights.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Sam Hartman had a career day through the air finishing with a career-high 458 yards on 23-of-29 passing. It is the sixth-most passing yards in Wake Forest history and ranks second in the Dave Clawson era, trailing just John Wolford’s 461-yard performance against Louisville in 2017.

Hartman threw for 458 yards on Saturday, his third-straight 300-yard passing game of the season and the ninth of his career. Additionally, this marks the first time of his career where Hartman eclipsed 300 passing yards in consecutive games (Florida State, Syracuse; 2019). Finally, this was his second 400-plus yard passing performance with the other coming at North Carolina on Nov. 14, 2020 (429 yards).

With the day through the air, Hartman went up over the 7,000-passing yardage mark in the game, becoming just the seventh Demon Deacon quarterback to achieve the career milestone.

Wake Forest Single-Game Passing Yards

1. Rusty LaRue vs. NC State (11/18/95)………………… 545
2. Gary Schofield vs. Maryland (10/17/81)……………. 504
3. Rusty LaRue vs. Georgia Tech (11/4/95)………….. 501
4. Rusty LaRue at Duke (10/28/95)……………………….. 478

5 John Wolford vs. Louisville (10/28/17)………………. 461

6. Hartman vs. Army (10/23/21)……………..458
7. Jay Venuto at South Carolina (11/15/80)………….. 447

T8. Sam Hartman at North Carolina (11/14/20)………. 429

T8. Mike Elkins at NC State (9/20/86)……………………… 429

10. Brian Kuklick at NC State (11/7/98)…………………… 421

STAGGERING STATISTICS

Wake Forest’s 70 points scored on Saturday were the third-highest mark in school history and the most the Demon Deacons have ever scored on the road. Additionally, the total marked only the second time Army has ever allowed 70 points in a game in its program history.

Highest Scoring Games in Wake Forest History:

80-0 vs. Florence YMCA (9/25/1915)

79-0 vs. William Jewell (9/21/40)

70-56 at Army (10/23/21)

67-0 vs. Guilford (11/1/24)

66-14 vs. Campbell 10/2/20

66-21 vs. Virginia 10/25/75

66-0 at Camp Davis 9/20/41

66-0 vs. Western Maryland 10/21/39

65-0 at Elon 11/26/25

65-0 vs. Guilford 11/15/19

64-0 vs. Tennessee 11/6/1893
FROM COACH CLAWSON – “First off, I want to thank all of our fans, students, alumni for making the trip, we had our entire Wake Forest allotment sold. Certainly a lot of credit to Army, that was a hard-fought football game. It felt like whoever had the ball last was going to win. It’s a great atmosphere for college football, the pageantry, the cadets and obviously Coach Monken does a great job and they’re an extremely well-coached team. It was a hard-fought game.”

“On offense, wow. That was about as clean as up performance as I’ve ever seen. And every time we had to make a play, we made a play. 70 points, no turnovers, 638 yards. We needed every single one of them.”

“Defensively, we didn’t play well, you know we got cut. We got down some bodies, we got some guys hurt, and we just didn’t play well. We didn’t execute the plan. All we had to do was get a couple of stops earlier and it didn’t have to become a fourth quarter game, but again credit to Army. They know what they’re doing, they know the offense.”

“We win as a team, we lose as a team. We found a way to win. Our defense gave up 14 less points than theirs and I will say this, the defensive play that Traveon Redd made on the fake field goal really changed the whole game. At that point, it became a two-score lead and every time they made it a one-score game. We responded and made it a two-score game. It’s a good win. Proud of our guys. This is a hard place to win. There’s a reason they’ve won 13 in a row here, and I’m glad that we were able to break that streak.”

UP NEXT

The Demon Deacons return home to Truist Field for the first time since Oct. 2. Wake Forest is scheduled for its first of three consecutive Big 4 matchups against Duke on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. on ACC Network.

It will also be Homecoming in Deactown as Wake Forest welcomes back its alumni to Winston-Salem.