WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest’s defense, which allowed 53 points to the offense in last week’s first scrimmage of preseason camp, rebounded to hold the offense to just 19 points on Monday night at McCreary Football Field House. The controlled scrimmage was moved from BB&T Field to the indoor facility due to thunderstorms in the area.
Freshman Kenneth Walker scored on a 21-yard run for the only touchdown of the scrimmage. Walker finished the night with 33 yards on six carries and his touchdown jaunt was the longest rush of the night.
Wake Forest’s placekickers continued to split the uprights. Nick Sciba hit from 30 and 32 yards out while Zach Murphy was good from 34 and 32 yards.
“Tonight I thought the defense won,” said head coach Dave Clawson. “We tackled better, didn’t give up big plays. I thought we rushed the passer more effectively and overall, just had a better night.”
For the second straight scrimmage, freshman linebacker Chase Jones led the defense with eight tackles while adding a tackle for loss. Another freshman linebacker, Jaylen Hudson added seven stops while redshirt freshman defensive back Zion Keith added six tackles.
Offensively, redshirt junior Jamie Newman started at quarterback and completed 11 of 18 passes for 95 yards. Sophomore Sam Hartman threw for 111 yards including the scrimmage’s longest completion of 49 yards to receiver Jaquarii Roberson. Roberson led the receivers with 83 yards on four receptions. Kendall Hinton topped the team with five catches, netting 43 yards.
Neither Sciba nor Murphy have missed a field goal in the two preseason scrimmages. Sciba is now six-of-six while Murphy has hit on all four of his field goal tries.
“Offensively, as impressed as I was a week ago with how clean it was, tonight it got a little sloppy,” said Clawson. “We had a holding call, we had a chop block call on a two-minute drive, we had a couple more holding calls. And because of that sloppiness and the penalties we just got off schedule. And because the defense didn’t give up big plays, we weren’t able to recover from those situations.”
The Demon Deacons will now turn their focus to their Opening Night opponent of Utah State. Wake Forest will host the Aggies on Friday, August 30 at 8 o’clock at BB&T Field in a game that will mark Wake’s first football appearance on ACC Network.
