Wake Forest stymies Tech’s rushing attack in big upset
Deacons sweep Commonwealth teams as Hokies can’t avoid mistakes
One of the country’s top rushing attacks lined up against one of the ACC’s worst defenses against the run, but things didn’t go quite as expected.
Christian Beal-Smith rushed for 129 yards and the previously porous Wake Forest defense kept Virginia Tech’s star running back in check during a 23-16 victory over the 19th-ranked Hokies Saturday at Truist Field in WinstonSalem, North Carolina.
Virginia Tech (3-2 overall and ACC) was a 10½-point road favorite, but quarterback Hendon Hooker tossed three interceptions — all to the Deacons’ Nick Andersen — and the Hokies committed 10 penalties and missed two field goals.
Virginia Tech’s Khalil Herbert, coming off four consecutive 100yard rushing games, was limited to 64 yards on 14 attempts against a Wake Forest defense that ranked second-to-last in the ACC before Saturday. Virginia Tech’s offense came in averaging 312 rushing yards per game — second in the country — and Herbert had aver
aged 148 yards per game and 9.7 per carry.
Wake Forest (3-2 overall, 2-2 ACC) had committed one turnover all season and didn’t cough the ball up Saturday to complete an ACC sweep of the Commonwealth in back-to-back games
after last week’s 40-23 victory over Virginia.
Virginia Tech was closer to full strength than it had been all season. Only eight players were sidelined Saturday after the Hokies went without 13 or more for various reasons, including coronavirus quarantining, in the first four games this season.
Wake Forest scored the game’s first 10 points, but Virginia Tech got a 28-yard field goal from Brian Johnson and Hooker found James Mitchell for a 39-yard TD to tie it.
Kenneth Walker III put the Deacons ahead with a bruising 6-yard touchdown run on which he broke several tackles and churned his way into the end zone with Hokies hanging on.
Hooker drove the Hokies downfield quickly on the ensuing possession but
threw his first interception on a pass to Kaleb Smith that was tipped and intercepted in the end zone.
The teams exchanged field goals in the third quarter — a 46-yarder by Wake Forest’s Nick Sciba and 31-yarder by Johnson — to head into the fourth quarter with the Deacons ahead 20-13.
Sciba punched in a 28-yard field goal with 11:08 left in the fourth for a 23-13 lead.
The Hokies responded with a drive of their own, but Hooker was sacked on third down, and Johnson’s 52-yard field-goal attempt missed with 6:56 left.
Johnson knocked in a 54-yard field goal to trim the deficit to 23-16 with 2:38 left, but the Hokies’ following onside kick attempt failed, and Wake pinned Virginia Tech at the 2-yard line on the game’s final possession.
Andersen’s third interception, near midfield, was the game’s final play.
Hooker finished with 98 yards rushing and completed 17 of 33 passes for 223 yards.