Winston-Salem, NC – After sitting out his team’s first offensive series, QB Hank Bachmeier earned his place as starter for the Demon Deacons. Michael Kern preceded him with a three-and-out. Thereafter, Bachmeier passed for 263 yards and three touchdowns to put the Deacons past the Aggies in openers for both teams, 45-13. WR Taylor Morin performed as his top receiver with six receptions for 100 yards.
However, Morin turned Wake Forest’s momentum early in the third period with his exciting 73-yard punt return to lead, 24-10. He cut all the way across the field from the right sideline and set sail along the left to cross the goal line. On the next Deacon possession, Bachmeier connected with Morin for 51-yard pass to the Aggie 22. With that, Bachmeier’s five-yard TD pass to diving Horatio Fields built the Wake lead, 31-10.
Bachmeier leads Deacs to the end
Later in the third, the Demon Deacs capped a 90-yard drive with Bachmeier’s four-yard scoring pass to Horatio Fields. NC A&T broke the Wake scoring string with Andrew Brown’s 51-yard FG for the Aggies to get 13 on the scoreboard. Bachmeier played to the end. RB Tate Carney closed out the final score to 45-13 with a two-yard TD run. Demond Claibourne led the Deac running attack with 17 carries for 135 yards. He scored the game’s first TD on a seven-yard run to finish Bachmeier’s first drive under center.
Kenji Christian and Wesley Graves tallied 121 and 70 rushing yards respectively for A&T. Christian’s 21-yard score in the first and Brown’s 38-yard FG early in the second gave the Aggies an early 10-7 lead. Once Bachmeier found his rhythm on offense, the Deacs started to control. They led at the half, 17-10, before Morin’s explosion. Junior S Nick Anderson led the Demon Deac defense in tackles with 14, nine solo. Guest Game Analysts Jim “Bug” (Wake Forest) and Courtenay Harton noted that Anderson made their team as a walk-on. He played soccer in high school. Never played football prior to playing for the Deacs.
Extra points
Wake hosts ACC foe Virginia next week in another night game at Truist Field. NC A&T hosts the Winston-Salem Rams in nearby Greensboro before their first Colonial Atlantic game against Delaware. Collegefootballfan.com would continue its first weekend ACC road trip to see Duke host Elon on Friday night.
Before Taylor Morin’s big punt return, “Bug” insisted he is “fearless.” Every time he fields a punt, he’s ready to catch it and go! Exciting punt returns ahead this season for Wake Forest fans.
Regarding QB Hank Bachmeier, we saw him perform last season for Louisiana Tech in a loss, 31-23. Wake Forest gives him more weapons to work with than LT. Friday night, we saw him run the Wake Run-pass option more like Sam Hartmann did two years ago than the QBs we saw face Florida State last year.
The NC A&T “Marching Machine” and Wake Forest’s Old Gold and Black performed together at halftime. The Machine impressed on its won and seemed to be the crowd favorite – loud and entertaining with their danced moves.
“Oh, here’s to Wake Forest!”
As their fight song starts… Their Deacons won their 12th game of 14 I’ve attended. Granted, A&T did not give them the challenges that many other squads witnessed did. However, I found that my dedication to the Wake Forest program paid off nicely. Bug’s buddy and fellow Wake alum “Goober” provided his ticket for me since he had hip surgery ten days ago. Hope he’s recovering well. At our pregame tailgate in the shadow of Truist Field, Earl Beasley (with 47 WFU nicknames) introduced Bug, his wife Courtenay and me to Mike Brown. Mike just happened to have tickets available for each of us in the Tower. Seats on the 50-yard line in the Flow Lexus Club atop the stadium. Great seats as guests of Wake Forest fandom! Can’t thank all involved enough.
It talking with Mike near the end of the game, he noted that RB Tate Carney who scored is his neighbor. Tate’s brother Cade also played FB for the Deacons during the past few years. Mike mentions that their father pays HC Dave Clawson with the highest compliment a coach could ever have. He said he was told if there is any coach a parent wants their son playing college football for, Dave Clawson is your man!
For collegefootballfan.com, on to Duke Friday, Middle Tennessee on Saturday, and Florida State on Monday night. Isn’t college football grand!
-ed, by Steve Koreivo Member of College Football Writers Association of America
