Excellent effort by the Wake Forest Demon Deacons last night up in the Carrier Dome

Wake Forest fell in overtime last night, 36-29 to the Syracuse Orangmen, but the Demon Deacons and their young quarterback Tanner Price, gave a very good account of themselves in the loss, at the Carrier Dome….

It was a much better showing than what I was expecting and Price was spot on, going 18-31, for 289 yards and 3 TD’s….The Deacs got a good hook-up going with Price to Chris Givens and Givens ended up with 170 yards receiving and 2 TD receptions….N.C. State better be ready when it comes time to go over to BB&T Field, where they face Wake Forest, next Saturday afternoon…..If Price does not have to leave the game last night, Wake wins the ball game over Syracuse…..Wake is working their way back into contention…..Not sure if they are there quite yet, because I’m not sure just how good Syracuse really is, but Wake has some talent and they could spoil a few Saturday get-togethers this 2011 season, if they can keep that talent in place and improving…..

from www.theacc.com:

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Van Chew made a diving 4-yard touchdown catch in the left flat at the goal line on the first series of overtime, and Syracuse rallied past Wake Forest 36-29 on Thursday night in the season-opener for both teams.

The Demon Deacons got the ball one last time, but the Syracuse defense held for one of the few times on the night and forced a fourth-down incompletion from the 19 from Ted Stachitas to Chris Givens in the right corner of the end zone.

Kevyn Scott appeared to secure the victory for Syracuse when he made a diving interception over the middle at the Wake Forest 32 with just over 5 minutes remaining and the game tied at 29-all. But Ross Krautman, who had made a school-record 16 straight field goals, had his 32-yard attempt blocked by Kyle Wilber with just under 3 minutes to go in regulation.

It was a breakthrough of sorts for the Orange. Syracuse’s last win over a Football Bowl Subdivision team in the Carrier Dome was a 31-13 upset of Rutgers in November 2009. Syracuse was 0-4 last season against FBS teams in the Dome and hasn’t had a winning season overall at home since it went 4-1 in 2004.

Wake Forest, which lost starting quarterback Tanner Price to an injury early in the fourth quarter, couldn’t mount a threat behind backup Ted Stachitas. Price was 18 of 31 for 289 yards and three touchdowns.

The Orange had rallied furiously after trailing 29-14 early in the fourth quarter.

After Jimmy Newman’s 40-yard field goal gave Wake Forest a 15-point lead with 11:02 left, Syracuse’s Antwon Bailey scored on a 53-yard run around the left side and quarterback Ryan Nassib hit fullback Adam Harris for a 2-yard score with 8:26 left.

Price hit Chris Givens on scores of 60 and 22 yards, and had a pretty 16-yarder on a third-and-goal play to Michael Camapanaro.

The defense was supposed to be the weak link for the Orange with a veteran offense returning. It was until the end, and so was the offense until it finally got untracked late against Wake’s 3-4 spread.

Nassib was 12 of 20 for 85 yards passing through three quarters and finished 20 of 28 for 178 for the Orange.

The Syracuse defense, which lost its heart with the graduation of linebackers Derrell Smith and Doug Hogue, missed too many tackles and never mounted any kind of pressure on Price, and he repeatedly made them pay. Price had 12 completions of 13 yards or more.

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