WINSTON-SALEM – Down to the wire, and then some, against the team that’s been the class of the ACC.
And No. 21 Wake Forest's 51-45 loss in double overtime to No. 5 Clemson stings all the more because of it.
DJ Uiagalelei threw two 21-yard touchdowns in overtime, and Wake's second possession of overtime came up empty.
Wake Forest entered this game having lost 62 straight games against top-10 teams. The last win was a year after the end of World War II – a 19-6 win over No. 4 Tennessee in 1946.
A.T. Perry caught an 8-yard touchdown in the first overtime, as the Deacons took the ball first. Sam Hartman became the first Wake Forest player to ever throw six touchdowns in a game.
Wake Forest took its first lead against Clemson since 2014 when Donavon Greene hauled in Hartman’s pass for a 28-yard touchdown in the opening minutes of the third quarter. Hartman connected for two more touchdown passes in the third quarter, of 19 yards to Blake Whiteheart and 25 yards to Greene again.
That set the stage for a fourth quarter and overtime that’ll be remembered around here for a long time.
The fourth quarter only saw one touchdown – Will Shipley’s 1-yard extension – and then each team kicked a field goal, Wake Forest to lead and Clemson to pull even.
Wake’s drive that started with four minutes left had some promise but stalled, resulting in a punt from midfield.
The game script of the first half was similar to last season’s edition of this game.
Clemson led 14-0 after 10 minutes. The Tigers’ first play from scrimmage was a 53-yard run up the middle by Shipley, and that 88-yard drive ended with DJ Uiagalelei finding Jake Briningstool in the back of the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown.
Wake Forest went three-and-out – one of its three first-half three-and-outs – and Clemson followed up with a quick-strike touchdown. Uiagalelei threw a 30-yard pass to Briningstool down the seam to convert a third-and-21, and then on the next play Brannon Spector caught a 41-yard touchdown pass that bounced off of Gavin Holmes.
It wasn’t all Clemson for the rest of the half, though.
Two pass interference calls against Clemson and a 36-yard touchdown pass from Hartman to Jahmal Banks put the Deacons on the board.
That connection struck again for a 30-yard pass on third-and-13 to put the Deacons at the 5-yard line midway through the second quarter. The next play was back to the well, Hartman throwing a back-shoulder ball to Banks for a 5-yard touchdown, bringing the deficit to 17-14.
Clemson melted away most of the last five minutes of the first half with a 15-play, 51-yard drive that ended with a field goal, and with the Tigers taking a 20-14 lead into halftime.
