Wake Forest University
ULM
Wake Forest Falls to ULM 17-10
8/28/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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The Warhawks (1-0) stifled the Demon Deacon (0-1) offense much of the night, limiting Wake Forest to 93 yards of offense, including negative net rushing yards.
Wake Forest got on the board first, less than three minutes into the game. After the Demon Deacon defense forced a ULM three-and-out, the Warhawks' punt from their own 35-yard-line was blocked by Steve Donatell coming up the middle. The ball rolled into the ULM endzone, where Kevin Johnson picked it up for the touchdown. Mike Weaver chipped in the PAT to make the score 7-0.
The Deacs made it a two-possession game in the second quarter, when Weaver capped off a nine-play, 44-yard drive by splitting the uprights on a 38-yard field goal, the first of his career, before the Warhawks scored 17 straight points.
ULM scored its first points with five minutes remaining in the third quarter, with kicker Justin Manton completing a 17-play, 83-yard drive with a 30-yard field goal.
Less than a minute later, a John Wolford pass was bobbled by a Wake Forest receiver before Mitch Lane intercepted it and turned it into a pick-six, tying the game at 10-all.
The Warhawks completed another long drive in the fourth quarter to take the lead, as quarterback Pete Thomas found the endzone on a quarterback draw to finish a 65-yard, six-minute drive with 3:37 remaining.
After Wake Forest failed to gain positive yardage on the ensuing drive and was forced to punt, ULM was able to run out the remaining 2:17.
Brandon Chubb led Wake Forest with a career-high 18 tackles, while Anthony Wooding, Jr. (12), Marquel Lee (12) and Ryan Janvion (11) also totaled double-figure stops.
NEW FACES
• John Wolford became the first true freshman quarterback to start a season-opener in program history.
• He finished with 97 passing yards, five away from the Solomon Everett's 1974 record of 102 for a true freshman in a debut.
• Wolford also became the first true freshman to complete better than 50 percent of his passes (12-of-22) in his first start.
• Wake Forest played a total of eight true freshmen.
FIRST TIME SINCE...
• Brandon Chubb's 18 tackles were the most for Wake Forest in a game in more than a decade. The last Deac to surpass that total was Brad White, who totaled 24 versus Navy in 2002.
• Wake Forest blocked a punt and recovered for a touchdown for the first time since Alphonso Smith blocked and returned a punt at North Carolina on Oct. 28, 2006.
LONG DISTANCE
• Wake Forest punter Alexander Kinal was repeatedly tested on Thursday night, finishing with 10 punts for an average of 47.1 yards per punt.
• Often punting from his own endzone, Kinal put three punts inside the ULM 20-yard-line and finished with a long of 59 yards.
BIG DEFENSIVE PLAYS
• In addition to the blocked punt return, Wake Forest had several other big plays:
- Desmond Floyd forced and recovered a fumble.
- Zachary Allen had a sack for a seven-yard loss.
- The Deacs were credited with seven quarterback hurries, led by Floyd and Josh Banks (two apiece).
- Wake Forest also totaled five pass breakups, with Thomas Brown recording a pair of those.
- The Deacs limited ULM to 352 total yards, almost 15 yards below the average yardage conceded a year ago (366.2 ypg).
