Wake Forest did not send its seniors off with a victory.
The Wake Forest Demon Deacons will once again finish the season with a 3-9 record. The Deacs fell to the Duke Blue Devils 27-21 on Saturday afternoon. Wake Forest accumulated 450 yards to Duke's 431, but had 3 turnovers, while Duke had 0.
Wake Forest found themselves trailing 17-7 at halftime, but drove right down the field to start the second half. Quarterback John Wolford hit tight end Cam Serigne for plays of 27 and 20 yards. Wolford threw a strike to Serigne on 2nd and 7 from the 10-yard line, but Serigne dropped it. Two plays later, Mike Weaver missed a 28 yard field goal. Duke then responded by marching down the field and scoring a touchdown. 6 plays, 80 yards, and 2 minutes later, Duke was up 24-7. What should have been a 3 point game, or at worst a 7 point game, was now a three possession game.
To me, that sequence was the biggest of the game. Wake outscored Duke 14-3 in the second half, but it didn't matter. Wake Forest scored a touchdown on an excellent grab from Cortez Lewis with 1:46 remaining, but the Deacs did not recover the onside kick, and it was essentially over. Wake Forest was able to stop them, but Duke did not have to punt until there were just 7 seconds remaining. Tabari Hines caught it, but was unable to make a man miss, and the game was over.
Wake did a poor job at stopping Duke on third downs. The Blue Devils had 30 first downs, and were 7-17 on third downs. Because of this and their advantage in turnover margin, they controlled the ball for 37 minutes, while the Deacs had it for just 23.
Tyler Bell was a bright spot this afternoon for the Demon Deacons. He ran for 94 yards and a touchdown on just 16 carries. Cam Serigne had 135 receiving yards on just 5 receptions, while Cortez Lewis had 5 receptions for 68 yards, and Chuck Wade had 4 receptions for 50 yards.
Duke had a balanced attack offensively. They had three rushers who accumulated 40 or more yards on the ground. Max McCaffrey led the air attack with 5 receptions for 93 yards and 2 touchdowns.
This marks the end of Wake Forest's 2015 campaign. Blogger So Dear will have more coverage as we look back on the 2015 season and start looking at the 2016 season.
