WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — It took a bunch of questionable calls by the officials and the ejection of one of Clemson’s team leaders to finally make the Tigers mad Thursday night. But when they got mad, they were mad.
Following a 30-yard field goal by Wake Forest’s Mike Weaver that tied the game with 11:08 to play, Artavis Scott took a jet-sweep pass from quarterback Cole Stoudt and then broke a couple of tackles on his way to a 68-yard touchdown.
It turned out to be the winning touchdown in the 19th-ranked Tigers 34-20 victory at BB&T Field in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Clemson, who has now won six straight games, got a 30-yard touchdown jaunt from running back Wayne Gallman. The freshman finished the game with 106 yards on 19 carries – his second straight 100-yard game of the season.
Stoudt threw for 280 yards and three touchdowns, including another four-yard pass to Scott and an 18-yard touchdown pass to Gallman.
Scott finished the night with 122 yards on eight catches to go with his two scores.
Clemson’s defense, despite a bunch of penalties (8-75 yards), still held the Demon Deacons to seven yards rushing on 34 carries and 119 overall. The Deacons averaged just 1.9 yards per play. Clemson finished the game with five sacks.
Two turnovers and two penalties on the first half’s final drive allowed Wake Forest to tie the game at 17 going into the break.
Stoudt threw a first-quarter interception at the Tigers’ 43-yard line which the Demon Deacons capitalized on when quarterback John Wolford found Cam Serigne for a four-yard touchdown with 1:09 to play in the first quarter. That gave Wake a 7-0 lead.
The big play on the drive was a 24-yard throw back pass to Wolford from Jared Crump.
After the Tigers took the lead on a 28-yard Lakip field goal and a Gallman 18-yard touchdown pass from Stoudt, the Demon Deacons were given a gift when Adam Humphries muffed a punt and Wake recovered it at the Clemson 13-yard line.
It took two plays for the Deacons (2-7, 0-5 ACC) to regain the lead when Wolford found Serigne again, this time across the middle for a 14-yard touchdown pass.
Clemson (7-2, 6-1 ACC) again regained the lead on Stoudt’s four-yard pass to Scott with 27 seconds to play in half, but Wake tied the game on a 50-yard Weaver field goal when a pass interference call on safety Jayron Kearse and a personal foul hands-to-face penalty on defensive end Tavaris Barnes extended the half for one more play.
The Tigers opened the second half with a 12-play, 54-yard drive that ended with a 39-yard Lakip field goal for a 20-17 lead with 10:11 to play in the third quarter.
After Clemson blew an opportunity to take a two-score lead following poor execution on a fourth-down-and-one play inside the Wake 10 and a 73-yard punt by Alexander Kinal helped flip field position. That allowed Wake to get the ball deep in Clemson territory early in the fourth quarter and a targeting penalty on safety Robert Smith and another pass interference penalty set Weaver up for a 30-yard field goal that tied the game at 20 with 11:08 to play.