Wake Forest vs Rice Highlights

Our Deacs are back in the win column after a solid 56-24 win over the Rice Owls on Saturday. Let’s take a look back at some of the key plays that helped the Deacs roll to a victory.

I don’t know if you guys were aware, but we have this guy on our team named Greg Dortch, and he happens to be really good at the sport of the football.

Here, Sam Hartman finds him streaking down the middle of the field for his first touchdown of the game. This 54 yard TD grab is currently Wake’s longest play of the year.

After a Cade Carney 1 yard TD run gave the Deacs a 14-0 lead, Hartman found Dortch on the rollout for his 2nd touchdown of the game.

Hartman finished the game 15 of 17 for 241 yards and 4 touchdowns. That’s a QBR of 98.8 (100 is the max for QBR).

Let’s take a quick break from the offense and show some love to defense. On the very next drive, Rice QB Shawn Stankavage’s pass is tipped by Essang Bassey and picked off by Luke Masterson. This was the first of 3 turnovers forced by the Deacon defense.

That interception set up a drive that saw Carney plowing up the middle 7 times in a row and eventually punching it in for the touchdown on carry number 7 to give the Deacs a 28-0 lead early in the 2nd quarter.

Remember that guy Dortch who I said was really good at football? Well he’s back again.

This time he scores his 3rd touchdown of the game on the 38 yard pass from Hartman.

Not to be outdone, the defense decides to show that they are fully capable of scoring as well. Essang Bassey scoops up the Rice fumble, puts a juke on the Rice QB, and takes it all the way back to end-zone for 6. That gave Wake Forest a 42-3 lead.

I would also like to commend the line judge on this play, who manages to avoid getting tackled by the Rice QB with a well timed hurdle.

It’s hard to believe all of those plays were just from the first half!

The Owls had a lot more success on offense in the second half. On their second drive of the half, Stankavage found running back Austin Walter on the shovel pass, and Rice got into the endzone for the first time in the game.

The Deacs responded, and I promise this is the last time you guys have to see Greg Dortch. I know you’re probably all tired of seeing him score touchdowns at this point.

Dortch finished the game with 11 catches for 163 yards and 4 touchdowns. That is quite the day.

The defense once again decided to show that it can score touchdowns too. This time Stankavage’s pass is intercepted by Chuck Wade Jr, who takes it 60 yards the other way for 6.

This gave the Deacs a sizeable 56-10 lead.

Probably the one bright spot for the Owls in this game was running back Austin Walter, who took this pitch 38 yards for the score.

Walter finished the game with 18 carries for 165 yards (9.1 ypc!) and 1 touchdown on the ground. I’m sure that is something the coaching staff will be focusing on this week.

The final score of the game would go to the Owls as Stankavage found Aaron Cephus on the fade route on 4th and goal.

That was the end of the scoring and the Deacs came away with the 56-24 win.

What was your favorite play from this game?