Deacons continue to roll

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Posted 7:56AM on Sunday, October 13, 2002

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - In his two seasons at Wake Forest, coach Jim Grobe hadn't won an Atlantic Coast Conference game at home or beat any team by more than 10 points. He did both Saturday, defeating Duke 36-10, but Grobe probably didn't believe those milestones would come when his team was outgained by 114 yards and had the ball for 10 fewer minutes than the Blue Devils. Wake Forest, the nation's leader in turnover ratio, took advantage of three Duke miscues and great second-half field position. ``We were very blessed to get some turnovers at key times,'' Grobe said. ``Field position was huge in the second half. The turnovers and field position were the difference in the game.'' The Demon Deacons scored on a 90-yard return of a blocked field goal by Eric King, a 29-yard interception return by Kellen Brantley and turned a Duke fumble into a 15-yard scoring drive. Chris Barclay and Nick Burney each had 54 yards rushing and a touchdown for Wake Forest (4-3, 2-2 ACC), and gave coach Jim Grobe the first home ACC win of his career. Duke (2-5, 0-3) lost its 20th straight ACC game and the 28th of its past 30 games overall. Alex Wade ran for 165 yards on 23 carries for the Blue Devils. Duke held Wake Forest, the ACC's top rushing offense, to 32 yards in the first half while pounding out 195 yards on the ground and holding the ball for 23:13 minutes to 6:47 for Wake Forest, yet they trailed 14-10 at the half. ``It didn't feel good. I was really worried,'' said Grobe, who watched Duke run 51 plays to Wake's 17. ``Our problem is always a depth problem, and I just kept watching our defensive guys come off the field. I didn't know what we were going to get in the second half out of our defense. ``I was scared to death that our defense was going to wear down.'' The Demon Deacons reversed the trend in the second half, outgaining Duke 122-35 on the ground and getting touchdowns from Burney, Barclay and Ovie Mughelli to pull away. The Wake Forest defense held Duke to one first down on its first five possessions of the second half. It also gave the Wake Forest offense great field position. The Demon Deacons started no worse than its own 44-yard line in its eight second-half drives. Calvin Pace, a senior defensive end, led Wake with 13 tackles, including six for losses. ``Calvin stepped it up,'' Grobe said. ``They were forcing us into three-man rushes a lot, so for Calvin to have the kind of day he did, without a lot of help from the linebackers, was very impressive.'' On its opening possession, Duke drove 68 yards to the Wake 2, but the Demon Deacons forced a field-goal attempt. R.D. Montgomery blocked Brent Garber's kick, and the ball popped in the air to King, who raced 90 yards down the left sideline for a touchdown. Three plays later, Dion Williams tipped a pass by Duke's Adam Smith. Brantley intercepted it and ran 29 yards for a 14-0 Wake Forest lead. Garber cut the lead to 14-3 on a 24-yard field goal with 20 seconds left in the first quarter. He missed a 31-yarder on Duke's next possession. The Blue Devils finally caught a break when Kenneth Stanford recovered a Jason Anderson fumble on the Wake Forest 48. Wade gained all 48 yards on two receptions and three runs, capping the drive with a 1-yard run to cut the lead to 14-10 with 28 seconds left in the half. Burney burst 43 yards up the middle for a touchdown with 9:03 left in the third quarter. Then Stanford fumbled a punt and Wake recovered at the Duke 15. Five plays later, Mughelli pounded in from 5 yards out with 3:35 left to put the game out of reach.