Wake Forest beats Army for 9th straight time behind freshman QB Hinton
Life on the road continues to be rough on Wake Forest. But the trip home this week was a lot better than last week.
Facing a familiar face in a familiar place led to a familiar result for the Deacons, who beat Army 17- 14 Saturday at Michie Stadium on a 47-yard game-winning field goal by Mike Weaver as time expired. It was Wake Forest’s first road victory since beating Army on Sept. 21, 2013, snapping a streak of 11 consecutive road losses. The Deacons (2-1) have now beaten the Black Knights (0-3) in each of the past four seasons and nine straight times overall dating back to 1990.
But first they had to overcome a checklist of obstacles such as:
Losing quarterback John Wolford for much of the game after he suffered a first-quarter ankle injury. X-rays were negative, but his status for next week’s game against Indiana is still up in the air. School officials said Wolford will be reexamined Sunday in Winston-Salem.
An anemic offense that committed three turnovers that Army converted into 14 points.
Having to make three third-down conversions of at least 7 yards on the clinching drive.
A shaky snap on the winning field-goal attempt.
Keeping with the trend of nothing coming easy on the road, that winning drive started in the shadow of the Deacons’ goal post. It was also into a stiff wind.
“To find a way to win in the fourth quarter, when the odds were kind of against us,” Coach Dave Clawson of Wake Forest said, “… at that point most people would rather have been in Army’s shoes than ours. But to convert third downs, to hit a last-second field goal — it’s kind of the opposite of last week.”
Other than the final result, only a few parts were different.
The most noticeable was the quarterback. Freshman quarterback Kendall Hinton – subbing for the injured Wolford – accounted for the bulk of Wake Forest’s 346 total yards and nearly all of its scoring.
He threw for 159 yards while also rushing for 114 yards and two touchdowns. His 15-yard touchdown run with 4:52 remaining in the third quarter tied the game at 7.
Hinton gave the Deacons their first lead of the day via a 7-yard run with 13:41 to play.
Yet the Deacons seemed for much of Saturday still hung over from last week’s come-from-ahead loss at Syracuse, a game in which it gave up 17 unanswered points in the final 17 minutes.
That result seemed to be possible again even after Wake Forest held a 14-7 lead midway through the fourth quarter and seemed to have finally figured out Army’s wily triple-option offense.
But Hinton was intercepted by Army’s Brandon Jackson with 7:31 remaining.
Jackson returned it 45 yards to the Wake Forest 9 and Christian Drake scored from there one play later to make it 14-14.
The teams alternated possessions before Army – which had three timeouts remaining – appeared to gain a field-position advantage when punter Alex Tardieu pinned the Deacons at the Wake Forest 7.
But beginning with a 13-yard scramble by Hinton on third-and-9 , the Deacons were able to cobble together enough momentum to position Weaver for the game winner.
The sophomore took the field with four seconds remaining to pierce a strong wind with a low line drive that split the uprights despite a low snap holder Alex Kinal was able to seize.
Weaver was mobbed by teammates almost before the ball even landed.
“Whoa,”Coach Clawson said. “I don’t think it was the prettiest performance, but a young team on the road, we lost our starting quarterback in the first quarter, turned it over three times and gave them 14 points off turnovers and still found a way to win.”
This story was originally published September 19, 2015 at 9:57 PM with the headline "Wake Forest beats Army for 9th straight time behind freshman QB Hinton."