Deacons wake up just in time against Duke

DURHAM — To the everlasting relief of coach Jim Grobe, his Demon Deacons chose to claim the game, not the fame.

Wake Forest pulled itself together just in time to beat Duke 42-35 Saturday afternoon, grabbing its first ACC win and barely missing out on securing a prominent place on every football highlight — and blooper — tape for the next few centuries.

“We just couldn’t lose to Duke,” sighed Wake defensive end Nathan Bolling. “Let’s face it, no one wants to be the team to end Duke’s streak. We lose to Duke and we’re on SportsCenter. Shoot, we lose to Duke and we’re on everything.”

The Blue Devil skein to which Bolling referred is the noted basketball school’s ugly run of 18 consecutive setbacks on the gridiron. The only other 0-for-18s anyone can remember in Durham occurred at Cameron Indoor Stadium when heavy-handed former Devil center Chris Burgess was practicing free throws.

You’d expect to find Duke’s last football win in a tome on ancient history. But, actually, the Devils got it in 1999 on Wake’s last visit to Wallace Wade Stadium. On that blue-letter November day, Duke tallied 34 first-quarter points, then fended off the Deacons 48-35.

For 38 minutes yesterday, Wake (3-3, 1-3) took care of business, determined to prove that while it may be the ACC’s eighth-best team, it has more in common with the top seven than with Duke.

For all of those 38 minutes, the Deacs ran circles around their foes in every phase of the game. They were stronger. They were faster. They were more energetic. They had better cheerleaders. They may even have had more fans in the stands, which is scary considering the venue.

It took Wake all of five plays to score its first TD. Its lead had mushroomed to a yawn-inducing 28-0 after a first half in which Duke rushed 17 times for 15 yards and looked like America’s most “in” team — inept, inferior, intimidated and invisible on offense.

Duke (0-6, 0-4) managed to score quietly early in the second half — prompting an ever-so-faint “Let’s go Duke” from the relative handful of blue-clad fans still in attendance. But no big deal. Wake answered effortlessly and it was 35-7 with 7:04 showing on the third-quarter clock.

“We’d built up a false sense of security that we had complete control,” said Grobe. “Then we went flat and Duke got juiced. Then we did some stupid things, couldn’t run any time off the clock and everything snowballed.”

It was a Godzilla-sized snowball. Seven minutes, 34 seconds after being down by 28, the Blue Devils were all even at 35 and veteran Deacs were having flashbacks to that nightmare of a 34-point quarter posted by the Devils two years ago.

What the heck happened? Mostly, struggling Duke quarterback D. Bryant finally found his “A” game, and run-of-the-mill receiver Ben Erdeljac transformed himself into Ben Coates.

A short Deac punt set up a Bryant-to-Erdeljac TD pass for 35-14. Anthony Roberts picked off a sideline gift and took it home for 35-21. After another lazy punt and Duke soph Chris Douglas finished off a semi-drive for 35-28.

Then linebacker Jaymon Small forced a fumble deep in Deacon territory. When Bryant danced into the end zone after a successful sneak with 11:30 left in the game, it was 35-all and Duke diehards were dancing in the aisles.

Somehow — and it couldn’t have been easy — Wake regained its composure. Calmly, methodically, the Deacs marched 67 yards to retake the lead at 42-35 with 7:05 remaining.

“We knew what we had to do,” said Wake back Fred Staton, who scored the go-ahead TD from the 5. “Our offensive line blew their guys off the ball and the backs ran hard. We adjusted to their adjustments.”

Duke still had time to re-rally, of course, and actually had two chances to tie.

First, the Deacs stopped them at midfield and Duke coach Carl Franks chose to trust his mostly untrustworthy defense, punting on fourth-and-10 with 4:40 left to play.

When Duke saw the ball again, its timeouts were exhausted and only 1:53 remained. That long-shot scenario led to a Bryant pass into merging traffic that was tipped by Wake’s Caron Bracy and picked off by Kellen Brantley. That INT made sure the Devils’ streak would live on.

“You hate to see the Duke kids lose a game like that,” said a weary-looking Grobe. “But I would have hated it a lot worse for our kids if they’d lost it.”

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NOTES:Duke had not scored more than 13 points in a game all season. ... Tarence Williams scored twice for the Deacs. ... Lots of area ties on the coaching staffs — Former A.L. Brown High star Bob Trott is Duke’s defensive coordinator. Former Catawba standout Dyran Peake is a grad assistant at Duke. Catawba Hall of Famer Keith Henry is Wake’s outside linebackers coach. ... Grobe’s now 36-36-1 in his head coaching career.

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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com .