News
Email
Print
EMPTY FEELING: Deacons give it away
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: September 27, 2009
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- Wake Forest envisioned tailback Brandon Pendergrass darting four measly yards into the end zone for the winning touchdown yesterday.
Seconds later, Wake Forest saw Pendergrass stretched across the fake grass empty-handed, with an empty stomach.
He slapped the Boston College field just after the Eagles recovered quarterback Riley Skinner's fumble and clinched a 27-24 overtime win.
The BC celebration eventually subsided, but Pendergrass' agony didn't.
He emerged, bravely, from the locker room and stared straight ahead, his eyes still red. He took responsibility for his part in the broken play that produced a fractured finish.
"It was just supposed to be a simple sweep, and I just went the wrong way," Pendergrass said. "I was supposed to be the ball carrier, and I just let my team down."
With Pendergrass out of position, Skinner tried to patch up the first-down play from the 4-yard line, but a BC defender poked the ball away. The Eagles recovered. Ballgame.
The sudden reversal negated the three Pendergrass runs that moved the ball from the 25-yard line to the 5 and dimmed crystal memories of his 76-yard sprint in the second period, the ninth-longest touchdown run in school history.
"It's almost like it didn't happen," Pendergrass said, recalling how the linemen opened middle spaces wide enough for a narrow jet.
Skinner takes blame
There was plenty of blame to go around. Skinner blamed himself.
"It was bad ball security by me, just kind of a sloppy play, really," he said.
Coach Jim Grobe blamed himself for concentration lapses that contributed to 10 penalties and missed tackles. He blamed Pendergrass and Skinner for the last straw.
"He basically went the wrong way," Grobe said, "but then Riley's got to take care of it. You know we have a busted play, but don't put the ball on the ground once you get there, so it just kind of compounded the problem. I think, honestly, our kids have a lot of heart. They wanted to win that football game, but we were very undisciplined today -- untypically of us. And that's really coaching. That's my fault, when your kids don't play with much discipline, when we make as many mistakes as we did."
The Deacons had 84 penalty yards, or 14 more than in the first three games combined. Skinner rallied them from 14 points down in the final five minutes, completing the crucial touchdown pass to Marshall Williams with 11 seconds left in regulation. On the first overtime series, Wake Forest held Boston College to a field goal.
Defensive tackle John Russell sensed the momentum and mood swing radically.
"I felt like it was ours," he said. "When Pendergrass hit the two runs up the middle and got the ball down to the 5, it was almost a lock. So, to have it end the way it did is disappointing, but we're just going to have to pick ourselves up and move on."
Pendergrass picked himself up and tried to move on, but it wasn't easy. He remembered the aftermath and the futility of finality.
"We were right there and we had it," he said. "We drove it down to the 5. It was just one play. To see your team fight back from a deficit and you make it to overtime, it was a lot of emotion going on. It was just a feeling I had let my teammates down, my coaches especially. If it happens, it happens. You have to learn how to deal with it, learn how to bounce back."
He was learning the hard way.
Email
Print
