WINSTON-SALEM – Wake Forest introduced the “Rushing Deacon” to the world Friday morning, a new football-specific take on its familiar mascot meant to celebrate the program’s history while giving Demon Deacon fans something new to rally around.
By Friday night, Wake Forest could have used some of that rush.
No. 5 Miami controlled much of the first half behind a nearly flawless performance from quarterback Darian Mensah, built a 24-7 halftime lead and held off a second-half Wake Forest push for a 33-20 victory before a sold-out crowd of 32,147 at Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium.
The final margin, though, does not entirely capture the difference between the Wake Forest team that went to the locker room and the one that came back out.
“We didn’t give them enough to cheer about until midway through the third quarter,” Wake Forest coach Jake Dickert said. “I’m proud of our guys. They refused to die. They did what I think good teams do; they kept playing, they kept fighting, they kept believing.”
For a while, Miami gave Wake Forest precious little opportunity to do any of those things.
Mensah completed all 20 of his passes in the first half and extended his streak to 24 consecutive completions before finally throwing incomplete. He finished 30-of-34 for 220 yards and three touchdowns, completing 88.2 percent of his passes. Miami did not turn the ball over.
It was an exercise in efficiency more than explosiveness.
Miami struck first when Mensah found JoJo Moore for a nine-yard touchdown with 7:20 remaining in the opening quarter. Wake Forest answered, putting together an 11-play, 75-yard drive that ended with Gio Lopez finding Keshawn Johnson for a 10-yard score.
For a moment, with 1:22 left in the first quarter, it was 7-7 and the packed stadium had exactly the kind of game it came to see.
Then Miami took control.
Mensah connected with Elija Lofton for a 21-yard touchdown early in the second quarter, and Mark Fletcher Jr. added a 17-yard scoring run less than five minutes later. Carter Weinberg’s 27-yard field goal on the final play of the half sent the Hurricanes to the locker room leading 24-7.
The numbers behind that halftime score were just as striking. Miami possessed the ball for 10:46 of the second quarter compared with only 4:14 for Wake Forest, and the Demon Deacons endured a stretch of four consecutive three-and-outs.
Miami stretched the lead to 31-7 when Mensah found Malachi Toney for a two-yard touchdown with 8:56 remaining in the third quarter.
At that point, the game appeared headed toward a rout.
Wake Forest refused to let it become one.
Deacons finally find a spark
Lopez and the Wake Forest offense began finding room against a Miami defense that had controlled the game.
A 10-play, 75-yard drive ended with Lopez finding redshirt freshman Jack Foley for a 23-yard touchdown with 4:06 left in the third quarter. The two-point conversion failed, but the Deacons had life.
Then came the play that gave a sold-out Allegacy Stadium reason to believe.
Early in the fourth quarter, Lopez hit Foley for 49 yards, Wake Forest’s longest play of the night. Two plays later, he found Carlos Hernandez for a 17-yard touchdown.
Suddenly, a game Miami had led 31-7 was 31-20 with 14:56 still to play.
“What changed in the third quarter?” Dickert said afterward. “Because the defensive calls didn’t change, the offensive calls didn’t change. Our execution and our tackling in space and some other fundamental things we did better.”
The comeback never got closer.
Miami’s defense closed the door, and the Hurricanes added an unusual final two points when Wake Forest conceded a safety with 13:11 remaining, producing the 33-20 final.
Wake Forest actually finished with more passing yards than Miami, 312-220, and was not far behind in total offense, 378-334 in Miami’s favor. But the difference on the ground was considerable: the Hurricanes rushed for 158 yards while holding Wake Forest to just 22. Miami also possessed the football for 33:24.
The Deacons also hurt themselves with 13 penalties for 137 yards, compared with seven penalties for 75 yards for Miami. Several came at particularly damaging moments on special teams.
“Obviously penalties were a big deal, especially on special teams,” Dickert said. “We had some fields flipped, some momentum surged, and obviously those were taken away in those kinds of deals.”
Lopez produces despite little running game
With Wake Forest unable to establish much on the ground, much of the offensive burden fell on Lopez.
He responded by completing 29 of 46 passes for 312 yards and three touchdowns with one interception. Through his first three games as a Demon Deacon, Lopez has now thrown for 887 yards with seven touchdowns and one interception while completing 62.9 percent of his passes.
His biggest target Friday was Foley.
The redshirt freshman entered the night without a performance remotely like this one and left with career highs of six receptions and 118 yards, including the 23-yard touchdown and 49-yard fourth-quarter reception.
Hernandez remained Lopez’s most frequent target, catching 10 passes for 69 yards and the fourth-quarter touchdown. Lopez completed passes to 11 different receivers.
Miami countered with Toney, who caught all 12 passes thrown his way for 114 yards and a touchdown. Fletcher supplied the balance on the ground with 85 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries.
A new Deacon, and a different kind of night in Winston-Salem
The result spoiled what was otherwise a notable night for Wake Forest football.
Hours before kickoff, the university unveiled its new Rushing Deacon, a football-themed Demon Deacon caricature designed for apparel, headwear and other football merchandise. It follows the golf-themed “Swinging Deacon” introduced earlier this year and is part of a broader effort to create sport-specific Wake Forest artwork.
The logo itself will not win football games, of course. But its debut fit the larger scene Friday night.
This was Wake Forest’s first home game against Miami since 2009, and the Deacons played it in front of a sellout crowd.
Dickert noticed.
“Our game day atmosphere was the best since I’ve been here,” he said. “I appreciate everyone sticking it out.”
That crowd watched Wake Forest fall behind by 24 points against the nation’s fifth-ranked team. It also watched the Deacons score twice in less than five minutes of game time and give themselves opportunities to make things uncomfortable in the fourth quarter.
There are no points in the standings for that.
Dickert wasn’t interested in pretending otherwise.
“We don’t celebrate losses around here,” he said. “We have to get our learns, and we have to be a better football team next week.”
For Wake Forest, that might be the lasting takeaway from Friday night.
The Rushing Deacon is new. The energy surrounding the program felt different. And for a stretch in the second half against one of the nation’s highest-ranked teams, Wake Forest showed what it wants the football attached to that new logo to look like.
But Miami also provided a reminder of how small the margin becomes against the country’s best teams.
The Deacons eventually found theirs.
They just found it too late.
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