Wake Forest University
Florida State
Florida State Tops Wake Forest 31-0
9/25/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 25, 2010
Final Stats | Notes | Final Stats in PDF Format
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Christian Ponder threw for 243 yards and two touchdowns to lead Florida State to a 31-0 win over Wake Forest at Doak Campbell Stadium on Saturday. It was the first time since 2005 that the Seminoles defeated the Deacons in Tallahassee, Fla.
Wake Forest falls to 2-2 (1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), while Florida State improves to 3-1 (1-0). It was the first time that the Deacons had been shut out since falling 26-0 at Maryland in 2008.
The teams played through a scoreless first quarter before the Noles opened took a 7-0 lead with a touchdown early in the second quarter and never looked back. In addition to Ponder's performance, Jermaine Thomas rushed for 88 yards and Taiwan Easterling caught six passes for 112 yards. Willie Haulsted caught two touchdown passes for Florida State.
Wake Forest quarterback Tanner Price completed 6-of-12 passes for 35 yards before leaving the game with an injury, and Ted Stachitas went 5-of-5 passing for 47 yards in relief.
Josh Adams led the Deacon rushers with 35 yards, while Givens picked up 25 yards on the ground. Devon Brown hauled in three passes for 11 yards to lead the Wake receivers. Eight different Demon Deacons caught a pass in the game.
Alex Frye and Kyle Wilber led all players with 11 tackles, with Wilber also recording three tackles for loss, two sacks and a forced fumble.
Shane Popham punted six times on the day for the Deacons, including a season-long 52-yard bomb.
The Seminoles put together an 18-play drive on their first possession, getting to the Wake Forest 4-yard line before Joey Ehrmann sacked Ponder, forcing a fumble that was recovered by Tristan Dorty to give the Demon Deacons possession.
Florida State scored the first touchdown of the game in the second quarter to take a 7-0 lead. The Seminoles went 38 yards in seven plays, capped off by a 10-yard pass from Ponder to Haulstead.
David Hopkins nailed a 35-yard field goal at the 5:28 mark of the second quarter to extend the Florida State lead to 10-0. Earlier in the drive, Ponder had brought the Noles into field goal range with a 22-yard pass to Taiwan Easterling on third down and 10.
Early in the third quarter, the game was suspended for 40 minutes due to lightning near Doak Campbell Stadium. After the delay, the Seminoles came back out and drove 63 yards for another score to extend their advantage to 17-0.
Florida State made the score 24-0 mid-way through the fourth quarter with a 68-yard drive, finished off by a four-yard touchdown pass from Ponder to Haulstead.
The Noles got their final score with just over a minute remaining in the game when E.J. Manuel connected with Kenny Shaw for a 23-yard touchdown pass to extend their lead to 31-0.
The Deacons will be back in action next Saturday when they host Georgia Tech in another ACC contest. Kickoff at BB&T Field is set for 7 p.m. The game will be televised on either ESPNU or ESPN3.com and can also be heard on the Wake Forest ISP Sports Radio Network.
