Deacons Power Past Campbell, 66-14

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - In the first meeting between the two schools, Wake Forest football downed Campbell 66-14 under the lights on Friday at Truist Field

Six different players scored for Wake Forest (1-2) in the win, led by Christian Beal-Smith who finished with the a career-best three rushing touchdowns and a career-high 130 rushing yards. Kenneth Walker III finished the night with 105 yards on 11 carries for his second consecutive 100-yard game.

With Walker's three-touchdown performance at NC State in Wake Forest's last game and Beal-Smith's multi-touchdown effort tonight, they became the first pair of Demon Deacons to each rush for multiple scores in back-to-back games.

Quarterback Sam Hartman finished the game going 12-for-16 with 166 passing yards and one touchdown before handing off quarterback duties to redshirt freshman Michael Kern in the fourth quarter.

Ja'Corey Johns, Ja'Cquez Williams and Nick Andersen led the defense, each with seven tackles, while Johns, Carlos "Boogie" Basham Jr. and Will Smart all tallied sacks.

Campbell (0-4) finished the game with two touchdowns and 242 receiving yards. Quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams went 17-for-29 with 187 yards through the air and 26 yards on the ground.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Camels covered 66 yards in 12 plays on its opening drive, but failed to connect on a 27-yard field goal as the Deacons took over.
Sam Hartman found A.T. Perry with a 40-yard completion putting the Deacons in the red zone. Christian Beal-Smith finished the drive with a two-yard rush into the end zone as Wake Forest took a 7-0 lead with 4:51 remaining in the first quarter.
Traveon Redd snagged his first career interception on Campbell's first pass of its second offensive drive on the Camels' 26-yard line, but Wake's field goal attempt went wide.
Campbell fumbled on its own 22-yard line with just over three minutes to play in the opening quarter. Zion Keith made the recovery for Wake Forest and Beal-Smith found the end zone for the second time handing the Deacons a 14-0 lead.
Campbell cut Wake's lead in half with a seven-yard touchdown pass with 8:07 on the clock for the first half.
Walker had a huge drive with four straight carries for 44 yards and capped the drive with an 11-yard run and a 12-yard touchdown rush as Wake Forest took a 21-7 advantage.
The Deacs closed out the half with a 41-yard field goal from Nick Sciba.
Hartman opened the second half with a nine-yard touchdown pass to Taylor Morin following a 22-yard run from Walker to set the Deacs up in the red zone.
Keith extended Wake's lead 38-7 returning his first career interception for a touchdown.
Beal-Smith continued his career-best day, finding the end zone for the third time on a five-yard run with 6:28 to go in the third quarter.
Greene put the Deacs on top 52-14 returning a kickoff 96-yards for his first touchdown of the season, the first kickoff returned for touchdown by a Wake Forest player since 2007.
Freshman Justice Ellison scored the first touchdown of his career early in the fourth quarter on a seven-yard rush to extend Wake Forest's lead 59-14
Wake Forest sealed its 66-14 victory as Will Drawdy found the end zone for the first time in his career with just over five minutes remaining.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Featured in Wake's win were multiple players scoring for the first time in their careers. Ellison walked into the end zone early in the fourth quarter just minutes before Drawdy capped the game with an eight-yard touchdown run. Greene has recorded two receiving touchdowns, but he notched his first kickoff return for a touchdown in tonight's win. Zion Keith also recorded his first career interception, fumble recovery and defensive touchdown in the win.

STAGGERING STATISTICS

Keith made major plays on defense coming up with his first career fumble recovery in the first quarter and his first career interception in the third quarter.
With Ja'Sir Taylor's interception returned for a touchdown in Wake Forest's last game, this marks the first time since 2007 (Aaron Curry, Sept. 15 vs. Army; Alphonso Smith, Sept. 22 vs. Maryland) that the Demon Deacons have returned an interception for a touchdown in back-to-back games.
Defensive end Basham extended his streak of consecutive games with a tackle for loss to 21 in the final series of the first quarter. This is the longest streak in FBS by at least nine games. Additionally, Basham has a sack in 10 of his last 12 games.
Wake Forest rushed for the second consecutive game and just the fifth time in the Dave Clawson era.
This was the first game in program history that Wake Forest did not attempt a punt.

FROM COACH CLAWSON
"It was great that we were able to get more fans in the stands and get all the parents here tonight, it's great having them," head coach Dave Clawson said. " It feels good to get a win, feels good to be rewarded and get in the left hand column. I thought we competed hard, and I also thought our offense was extremely efficient. We went the entire game without punting, which is hard to do. Defensively, I thought in the second half we settled down. We really didn't find a rhythm in the first half. Credit to Campbell, I think they do an excellent job offensively of keeping people off balance. But I thought in the second half, when our ones were in there we settled down on defense and played better."

UP NEXT
Wake Forest will be off next week, but will return to Truist Field on Saturday, Oct. 17 against Virginia. The game time and broadcast information will be announced at a later time.

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Team Stats

Kenneth Dicks III

Jaylen Hudson

Players Mentioned

Nick Andersen

Christian Beal-Smith

Will Drawdy

Justice Ellison

Sam Hartman

Zion Keith

Michael Kern

Taylor Morin

A.T. Perry

Traveon Redd

Nick Sciba

Will Smart

Ja'Sir Taylor

Kenneth Walker III

Ja'Cquez Williams