WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Presbyterian College football team's season opener started off brightly—the visiting Blue Hose led Wake Forest 7-3 at the end of the first quarter—but a power outage and turnovers dimmed PC's chances at an upset as the Demon Deacons handed the much-improved Blue Hose a 31-7 defeat at BB&T Field on Thursday night.
PC begins the season at 0-1 and will return home to host Brevard on Saturday, September 7 at 2 p.m. Wake Forest improves to 1-0 and next plays at Boston College on Friday, September 6.
The margin of defeat marked the closest in a game against a Football Bowl Subdivision game for the Blue Hose and the fewest points allowed by PC in an FBS game, eclipsing Wake Forest's 53 points scored in 2010.
PC's first eight plays could not have gone better. The new-look defense held strong immediately to force a three-and-out on the first possession, giving the Blue Hose offense the ball on their own 30 yard line. On the team's first play from scrimmage, Demarcus Rouse (North Augusta, S.C.) broke a run to the left, cut outside and danced down the sideline for a career-long 66 yards before a Demon Deacon tripped him up at the four.
Two short runs later, Tamyn Garrick (Williston, S.C.) looked to his right and found a wide-open Kris Hurley (Lawrenceville, Ga.) in a shallow part of the end zone for a one yard touchdown pass that put PC ahead, 7-0. The score marked the newcomer Hurley's first touchdown for the Blue Hose.
Freshman Kenyon Brown (Clinton, S.C.) made a big defensive play on the next series by swatting away a deep pass in the end zone on second down.
Later, a Khari Rosier (Lithonia, Ga.) tackle brought up fourth and short, but Wake Forest used an offside penalty to get the first down. Another penalty pushed the Demon Deacons closer to paydirt before Daron Dickey (Greenville, S.C.) sniffed out a pitch for a 10-yard loss. Wake Forest then kicked a field goal for its first points of the game and PC led 7-3 with 2:16 in the first quarter.
Dickey turned in a career-high seven tackles on the night, including one of PC's three for a loss. Donelle Williams (Starke, Fla.) led the visitors with 11 total tackles. The PC defense also held Wake Forest to 5-for-18 on third down.
On PC's next possession, the lights went out—literally. On the first play after a portion of the stadium's lights clicked off, the Demon Deacons picked off a Garrick pass. A total blackout of the lights and scoreboard then prompted a nine-minute delay, after which Tanner Price connected with Spencer Bishop on a 20-yard touchdown pass to take a 10-7 lead early in the second quarter.
Brown broke up another pass in the end zone to bring up a Wake Forest field goal attempt, which sailed wide left and kept the home team's lead at three points.
Two series later, Jonathan Williams hauled in a 53-yard pass down the middle to bring the ball to the PC 11-yard line. The Blue Hose defense held strong on three straight plays before Price punched it in to put Wake Forest ahead by 10 points, 17-7 with 3:18 left before the half.
An interception gave the ball back to Wake Forest and the home team looked like it would score, moving the ball all the way to the PC five yard line. Ugonna Akoh (Athens, Ga.) made two big plays, however, sacking Price before recovering a fumbled spike attempt on the next play to halt the drive and bring up halftime shortly after. Wake Forest entered the locker room ahead, 17-7.
The two teams traded possessions to open the second half before Wake Forest's Brandon Chubb returned an interception 29 yards to extend the lead to 24-7.
In the fourth quarter, Wake Forest took advantage of two straight fumbles to score one touchdown but fumbled in the end zone to negate a possible second score.
Rouse finished the day with 87 rushing yards on nine carries while LaQua Mayes (Rose Hill, Kan.) gained 17 yards on five rushes in his PC debut. Arthur Williams (Baxley, Ga.) grabbed three receptions.
Wake Forest turned six PC turnovers into 18 points while the Blue Hose forced a pair of turnovers.
Kaleb Griffin (Florence, S.C.) entered the game in the fourth quarter and completed two of his four passes. Garrick went nine-for-15 through the air.
Wake Forest's Price tallied 219 yards on a 14-for-25 effort for a touchdown. The Demon Deacons used eight different rushers and John Armstrong led the group with 38 yards. Defensively, Mike Olson and Chubb each turned in seven total tackles and an interception.
