In its first ACC game of the season, the NC State football team earned a commanding 33-16 victory against Wake Forest Saturday in Carter-Finley stadium.
The Wolfpack (3-1, 1-0 ACC) held the Demon Deacons (4-1, 1-1 ACC) to just 69 yards rushing, forcing the Deacons to be one-dimensional. Both the offense and defense were forces to be reckoned with, as the Pack gained 527 yards of total offense with no turnovers and the defense tallied four sacks and seven pass deflections.
“[The] defense really played good today,” redshirt junior safety Josh Jones said. “We’ve still got a lot of stuff to clean up, but overall I think we played great.”
With the help of a huge 39-yard catch-and-run by redshirt sophomore wide receiver Stephen Louis, NC State opened the game on an 8-play, 75-yard drive to take a 7-0 lead.
After keeping the Wake Forest offense out of its territory on two straight drives, the Wolfpack went on a tactical 11-play, 88-yard drive capped off by a 13-yard touchdown pass junior Jaylen Samuels to earn a 17-0 lead with 1:23 still remaining in the first quarter. Louis again had a huge catch, this one going 41 yards, to put the Pack in good position to score. This gave the Deacons their largest deficit of the season.
“Wake [Forest] is a team that wants to play a four-quarter game,” head coach Dave Doeren said. “They’re not built to play from behind, they’re built to control the ball and keep the defense off the field and grind you out. We felt if we could get a good lead we could make them beat us left-handed, per say, and so we had a good plan to get a good lead and it worked.
Wake put together a promising drive on its next possession, but ended with merely a field goal to cut the gap, 17-3. NC State then responded with another eight-play, 75-yard drive capped off by a 36-yard catch by freshman Kelvin Harmon for his first career score to extend the Pack’s lead to 23-3.
On the ensuing drive, the Deacons once again put together a good-looking drive that ended in only a field goal, as the Pack’s red-zone defense remained stout. It did the same on its next possession, converting a 41-yard field goal to make it a 23-9 game with 3:03 remaining in the first half.
NC State started the half with strong drive with the help of Louis and Samuels. The drive ended with a 48-yard field goal by sophomore Kyle Bambard, his career long and the longest NC State field goal since 2014.
The third time was a charm for Wake Forest, as it got down to the red zone for the third time of the day thanks to a 40-yard pass to sophomore Tabari Hines. Hines then scored the Deacon’s first and only touchdown of the day to cut the Pack’s lead to 26-16.
The Wolfpack responded with a few big plays on the next drive, however, most of which were negated by the four penalties it committed on the drive. After stopping Wake on fourth down, the Pack marched down the field, highlighted by an incredible touchdown grab by Harmon, his second of the day and his career, to put State up 33-16 with 5:53 remaining in the game.
“It was a fade ball, [the defender] was off,” Harmon said. “So I was like, it’s definitely going to be a back-shoulder throw, so I had to be ready. And [Finley] just put it on the money and I caught it.”
The Wolfpack simply ran out the clock for the rest of the game as it sealed its first conference victory of the season. Finley played well for the Pack, throwing for 300 yards and three touchdowns on 23 of 36 pass attempts. Dayes finished with a stellar outing, as he carried the ball 24 times for 125 yards and a touchdown. Louis led the team in receiving with four catches for 102 yards, while Samuels added seven catches for 50 yards and a touchdown to go along with two carries for 24 yards.
Penalties against NC State almost brought Wake back into the game, as it committed 13 for 144 yards, negating multiple big plays on offense and giving up free yardage on defense.
“Other than giving up some yards from a penalty standpoint, we did a good job,” Doeren said.
The Wolfpack looks expand its winning streak to three games as it takes on Notre Dame in the 50th anniversary of Carter-Finley.
