WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest football downed Virginia 40-23 Saturday afternoon for the fourth consecutive win against the Cavaliers. The four-game win streak is the longest for the Demon Deacons in series history.
The 40-points Wake Forest put up are the most against Virginia at home in series history. It is the second-most all-time in series history. The Demon Deacons scored 66 points at Virginia in 1975.
The Deacs were led by sophomore Kenneth Walker III who rushed for 128 yards and three touchdowns. The only other Wake touchdown came from redshirt sophomore A.T. Perry, who had two receptions for 53 yards. The first being the 40-yard touchdown reception opened the scoring, putting Wake Forest in front on the opening drive. Perry’s second catch, a 13-yarder, set up a field goal later in the game.
Wake Forest has had a running back rush for three touchdowns in three consecutive games. Walker III also found the endzone three times at NC State. Christian Beal-Smith had three scores in the Deacs last win over Campbell.
Redshirt sophomore Sam Hartman finished the game going 16-of-27 with a season-high 306 passing yards and one touchdown. This is just the fourth time in Hartman’s career he has thrown for over 300 yards. He did it twice in four games in 2019 and once in 2018 at Tulane in the season opener.
Traveon Redd, Zion Keith and Nick Anderson led the Deacs defensively with nine tackles each. Ryan Smenda and Justin Williams each added seven tackles. Five different Deacs added a tackle for loss to their statlines, including Boogie Basham, who extended his TFL streak to 22 games with a sack in the third quarter.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Sam Hartman found A.T. Perry for a 40-yard touchdown pass to put the Deacs up 7-0 less than two minutes into the game.
Hartman found Jaquarii Roberson for a 49-yard completion on the opening play of the Deacs second drive. Kenneth Walker III finished it off from three yards out to put the Deacs up 14-0 less than four minutes into the game.
Virginia’s Brian Delaney put up the first points for the Cavaliers with a 32-yard field goal at the 6:59 mark.
The Cavaliers scored on the opening play of the second quarter to cut the deficit to 14-10.
Hartman connected with Taylor Morin for a 32-yard gain on their first drive of the second quarter.
Hartman found Donovan Greene on a 19-yard completion during the same drive to put the Deacs on the UVA 14-yard line. The completion set up Nick Sciba to stretch the Deacon lead 17-10 with a 32-yard field goal at the 12:35 mark.
Delaney hit a second field goal on a scoring drive of 10 plays and 62 yards in four minutes to cut the deficit 17-13 at the 8:26 mark.
Hartman found Roberson for 37 yards and Christian Beal-Smith rushed for 12 yards to set up Sciba for his third field goal to go up 20-13 with 5:04 left in the half.
Virginia went 64 yards in seven plays and three minutes to record a touchdown before the end of the half to tie the game 20-20.
On a long third down, Hartman rushed for 20 yards for a first down at the 2:49 mark in the third quarter. Hartman then completed a 13-yard pass to A.T. Perry for a second straight first down.
A field goal from Sciba put the Deacs back in the lead 23-20 with 26 seconds left in the third.
Virginia countered with a field goal on the opening drive of the fourth to tie it 23-23 at the 13:28 mark.
Kenneth Walker III ran for a season-high 75-yard touchdown on the very next play to put the Demon Deacons up for good at 30-23.
Kenneth Dicks III recovered the UVA fumble on the kickoff return to give the Deacs the ball back at the 13:11 mark.
Hartman connected with Roberson for a sixth time to put the Deacs on the Cavaliers 9-yard line and Walker III rushed it in for a touchdown to give the Deacs the 37-23 lead with 11:38 left to play.
Sciba sealed the 40-23 Wake Forest win with a field goal at the 5:36 mark.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Kenneth Walker III scampered for three touchdowns for the second time this season. Wake Forest has now had a running back rush for three touchdowns in the past three games. This is also Walker’s third consecutive game he has rushed for over 100 yards. This is the first time since Matt Colburn in Sept. 2017 that a Demon Deacon player has gone for 100-plus yards in three consecutive games.
STAGGERING STATISTICS
Wake Forest punted in the first quarter for the first time since facing NC State in Raleigh on September 19. The Deacs went 14 consecutive drives with a first down.
Defensive end Boogie Basham extended his streak of consecutive games with a tackle for loss to 22 in the fourth quarter. This is the longest streak in FBS by at least 10 games. Additionally, Basham has a sack in 11 of his last 13 games.
40 points is the most ever scored against Virginia when playing in Winston-Salem.
Only amount higher was October 25, 1975 when Wake Forest scored 66 points against the Cavaliers in Charlottesville.
The 148 combined points scored in the last three games are the most in the Dave Clawson era and the most since the final game of the 2009 season along with the first two games of the 2010 season.
Freshman Caelen Carson recorded his first career interception.
Kenneth Dicks III recorded his second career fumble recovery.
Wake Forest is now 8-0 under head coach Dave Clawson when the Deacs have a +3 or better turnover margin.
The Deacs now have a +9 turnover margin on the season, which is the best of the Dave Clawson era.
FROM COACH CLAWSON
“I am really pleased with the fight, effort and competitiveness of our football team to go up 14 and then 20 at the half. With a tie game going into the fourth quarter and to just pull away the way we did was great to see. Obviously, games are never perfect. There’s a lot of things to clean up. The penalties were a problem. I don’t know where that came from. We’ve had more in this one game than we’ve had in the rest of the year combined. Some of those personal fouls could’ve been really costly. But I’m especially proud of our defense in the second half. We’ve struggled on that side of the ball, I thought we made some improvements against Campbell, but to play the way we did against an ACC team in the second half and only give up three points, I’m really proud of those guys. I really want to thank all the fans who came out, especially the students. We completely filled out our student allotment and had over 750 students here tonight. We’re really thankful for the students coming out. Again, hopefully this gives us a little bit of momentum, but it was a good win, and we’ll enjoy it, and get to work on Virginia Tech tomorrow.”
UP NEXT
Wake Forest is back at Truist Field on Saturday, Oct. 24 against Virginia Tech. Kickoff is scheduled 3:30 p.m. on ACC/RSN. It marks the first time the Demon Deacons will play Virginia and Virginia Tech in back-to-back weeks since 1978.
