Coach Jake Dickert has never lost on the road in the ACC. Of course, it’s only been one game, but he’ll take it.
Wake Forest came away with a 30-23 win at Virginia Tech on Saturday afternoon with one of their most complete efforts of the season.
It was the opening game on the road and the Demon Deacons rebounded nicely from the 30-29 overtime home loss last week to 17th-ranked Georgia Tech.
“What a hard-fought game,” Dickert said after his team improved to 3-2 overall and 1-2 in the ACC. “I give a lot of credit to Virginia Tech. They just kept swinging and punching. That locker room is ecstatic. I’m so proud of these guys. Last week, they took it from us. This week, we went out, and we earned it.”
They earned Dickert’s first ACC win and with three victories they are halfway home to securing a bowl berth with seven games left on the schedule.
The Hokies had a two-game win streak snapped under interim head coach Philip Montgomery. Virginia Tech fell to 2-4 overall and 1-1 in league play as they lost their home opener in front of more than 65,000 at Lane Stadium.
For much of the week, quarterback Robby Ashford and running back Demond Claiborne were listed as probable for the game with nagging injuries from last week. But both played and played well to lead the Demon Deacons offense.
Claiborne only had seven carries for 22 yards but scored on an 11-yard touchdown run, and Ashford was 24 of 39 passing for 256 yards with one touchdown pass and one interception. He was also sacked once but hit eight different receivers as he spread the wealth.
“It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t easy,” Dickert said. “I’m just so proud of our football team to come into this environment and show who we are. We had a lot of gutsy performances.”
Maybe the biggest performance was from the defense, which allowed the Hokies just 263 yards. Quarterback Kyron Drones was 14 of 28 passing for just 111 yards with one touchdown and an interception. He was also sacked two times.
Late in the game, the Demon Deacons got a much needed three points off a field goal that gave them some breathing room.
“It was just a situation where we had to dig deep,” Ashford said of the final drive that netted a field goal from Connor Calvert that gave the Demon Deacons a seven-point advantage. “Hats off to the O-line, the receivers and backs because it was a great team win. We had some ups and downs, and we overcame a lot and that shows our growth of the team.”
Tight end Eni Falayi continues to become more a part of the offense with six catches for 50 yards and a touchdown.
“I feel like it just lit the fuel for this week,” Falayi said, referring to last week’s loss. “Somebody has to feel this pain and fortunately, it was them this week.”
Defensively, Wake Forest was led by redshirt sophomore Davaughn Patterson, who notched eight tackles. Senior defensive back Nick Andersen also added seven tackles and sealed the game with a pass break-up on the Hokies’ final drive.
Andersen, who is from Virginia, admitted there’s a little extra incentive when playing in his home state.
“We made some adjustments at halftime, and I think we did a good job of riding the highs and lows and did a good job of staying even keel,” Andersen said.
The Demon Deacons will head out west to take on Oregon State on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in a game that will be broadcast on The CW.
Andersen likes the way the Demon Deacons closed the deal after letting two big leads slip away in losses to NC State and Georgia Tech.
“As a team you’ve seen us grow in at least one area each week and to finally get over that hump where we’ve always started fast but how do handle adversity in the third quarter and in the fourth quarter?” Andersen said. “How do we put it together for a team win? We found out how to do that this week.”
Wake Forest 3 21 3 3 30
Va. Tech 7 7 9 0 23
W – Calvert 33 field goal
V – Hawkins 3 run (Love kick)
W – Claiborne 11 run (Calvert kick)
V – Heath 9 pass from Drones (Love kick)
W – Clark 3 run (Calvert kick)
W – Falayi 11 pass from Ashford (Calvert kick)
V – Love 32 field goal
V – Love 38 field goal
W – Calvert 28 field goal
V – Love 34 field goal
W – Calvert 27 field goal
A – 65,632
jdell@wsjournal.com
336-727-4081
@johndellWSJ
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