Deacs win big

A half of college football doesn't get much better than the one Riley Skinner enjoyed last night in Wake Forest's 42-32 victory over Maryland in front of 32,780 at BB&T Field.

Embossing his credentials as the best quarterback to ever play for the Deacons, Skinner completed 14 of 17 first-half passes for 243 yards and three touchdowns while engineering touchdown drives on Wake Forest's first five possessions on the way to a 35-10 halftime lead.

Of the three first-half incompletions, two were on passes Skinner threw away and the other was a pass that bounced off the hands of Marshall Williams in the end zone.

"That's Riley being Riley," wide receiver Chris Givens said. "You expect that."

Skinner, a senior starting for the fourth straight season, finished with 24 completions on 33 attempts for 360 yards and a career-high four touchdowns. With Josh Adams' 94 yards rushing on 13 attempts lending the kind of offensive balance that has been missing in recent games, the Deacons piled up 516 yards -- the most since 2005 -- without committing a turnover.

Skinner needed two more yards to set a personal best for passing yards for the fourth straight week, but did pass Brian Kuklick for the most career passing yards in school history. Over the past four games, Skinner has completed 94 of 133 passes (71 percent) for 1,364 yards and 12 touchdowns.

The Deacons won three of the four games to improve to 4-2 and 2-1 in the ACC going into next week's game at Clemson. Maryland fell to 2-4 and 1-1, despite outgaining Wake Forest 295 yards to 135 in the second half.

"He's playing about as good as anybody in the country right now," defensive tackle John Russell said of Skinner. "It's actually not a surprise to a lot of guys on this team. You're starting to see what kind of player he is when you put it on his shoulders.

"We've got the personnel now, with great wide receivers and the offensive line is doing a great job of protecting him."

The Deacons lost the momentum in the second half when the Terps rallied to score three of the game's final four touchdowns, but thanks to a sack by Russell on fourth down and Dominique Tate's interception in the end zone, were never in serious trouble.

Maryland scored its final touchdown on Chris Turner's 4-yard pass to Torrey Smith with 90 seconds remaining. Jordan Williams recovered the onside kick and the Deacons ran out the clock.

Turner completed 24 of 44 passes for 307 yards and three touchdowns and Smith caught 10 passes for 70 yards and a touchdown.

"Statistics-wise I felt like we did some good things on defense," Russell said. "But it's really disappointing to finish off a game like that.

"It's kind of bittersweet because we played so well in the first half."

Skinner's four touchdown passes -- which tied a school record last accomplished by Phil Barnhill in 1989 -- hit three different receivers. Marshall Williams caught a 10-yard strike in the right corner of the end zone for a 21-7 lead at the end of the first quarter, Givens caught a 32-yarder for a 28-7 lead with 10½ minutes left in the half, tight end Andrew Parker caught a 20-yard pass for a 35-10 lead with 4½ minutes left in the half and Givens caught a 27-yard pass to answer Maryland's first touchdown of the second half and extend the lead to 42-17 with 4½ minutes left in the third quarter.

Skinner did most of his damage against a Maryland blitz. He was sacked three times, but time and again made the Terps pay for their aggressiveness.

"The offensive line did a great job of picking up their blitz," Skinner said. "When you can pick up a blitz with six or seven guys coming, that means there are going to be some holes there. And we were able to exploit those a little bit for the most part."

Coach Jim Grobe said the key to last night's performance was not just Skinner, but his supporting cast. Adams got the Deacons off and running with a 48-yard touchdown around right end, and Devon Brown scored Wake Forest's second touchdown with a 4-yard run around right end.

"Honestly I thought our coaches were in shock a little bit because we're not used to doing that," Grobe said of the 35-10 halftime lead. "We're used to stirring them up. "That's probably as good a first half of football as we've ever played."

Marshall Williams caught six passes for 71 yards, Givens five for 116 yards, Parker four for 42 yards, Adams three for 50 yards, Mike Rinfrette three for 26 yards and Brown two for 59 yards.

Both Grobe and Skinner said the most impressive part of the offensive performance was the absence of turnovers.

dcollins@wsjournal.com.


727-7323

Maryland 7 3 7 15 -- 32


Wake Forest 21 14 7 0 -- 42

First Quarter

WFU--Adams 48 run (Newman kick), 12:40.

Maryland--Meggett 1 run (Ferrara kick), 10:41.

WFU--Brown 4 run (Newman kick), 5:20.

WFU--Ma.Williams 10 pass from Skinner (Newman kick), :00.

Second Quarter

WFU--Givens 32 pass from Skinner (Newman kick), 10:28.

Maryland--FG Ferrara 50, 7:27.

WFU--Parker 20 pass from Skinner (Newman kick), 4:49.

Third Quarter

Maryland--Cannon 2 pass from Turner (Ferrara kick), 8:09.

WFU--Givens 27 pass from Skinner (Newman kick), 4:46.

Fourth Quarter

Maryland--Cannon 15 pass from Turner (Meggett pass from Turner), 11:00.

Maryland--Smith 4 pass from Turner (Ferrara kick), 1:37.

A--32,780.

TEAM STATISTICS

Maryland WFU

First downs 20 24

Rushes-yards 30-62 39-156

Passing 307 360

Comp-Att-Int 24-44-1 24-33-0

Return Yards (-4) 0

Punts-Avg. 4-38.8 4-40.3

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 0-0

Penalties-Yards 5-45 8-79

Time of Possession 24:11 35:49

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING--Maryland, Turner 16-27, Meggett 6-21, Douglas 3-11, Smith 1-3, Jackson 1-2, Porzel 3-(minus 2). Wake Forest, Adams 13-94, Pendergrass 12-47, Brown 3-12, Rinfrette 3-9, Bohanon 1-3, Givens 1-(minus 1), Team 1-(minus 2), Skinner 5-(minus 6).

PASSING--Maryland, Turner 24-44-1-307. Wake Forest, Skinner 24-33-0-360.

RECEIVING--Maryland, Smith 10-70, Cannon 4-48, Douglas 3-70, Tyler 3-62, Boykins 2-31, T.Galt 1-21, Williams 1-5. Wake Forest, Ma.Williams 6-71, Givens 5-116, Parker 4-42, Adams 3-40, Rinfrette 3-26, Brown 2-59, J.Williams 1-6.