By Joedy McCreary
Associated PressWINSTON-SALEM ó No Wake Forest quarterback has won more games than Riley Skinner. This time, he did it nearly all himself.
Skinner scored on a 1-yard keeper with two seconds remaining, and the Demon Deacons rallied from a two-touchdown deficit to beat Stanford 24-17 on Saturday.
The fifth-year senior finished 18 of 26 for 187 passing yards and one TD for the Demon Deacons (1-1). His 44-yard throw to third-stringer Lovell Jackson with less than a minute left set up the score that clinched his 27th career victory.”The second half, he was just in a zone,” Wake coach Jim Grobe said. “The guy was just really on a mission. I’ve never seen him any better as far as focus. That’s what we expect out of him. We wondered where he had gone, but he’s back.”
Redshirt freshman Andrew Luck threw for 276 yards and connected with Ryan Whalen on a pair of touchdowns for the Cardinal (1-1). Second-half struggles cost Stanford its first 2-0 start since 2004.
Skinner’s late score capped a remarkable rally for the slow-starting Deacs, who trailed 17-3 at halftime before posting touchdowns on consecutive possessions. Big plays on fourth downs led to both scores.
Mike Rinfrette ran 3 yards for a TD one play after Josh Adams gained 15 yards on a fourth-and-2 carry. Skinner tied it early in the final quarter with a 19-yard scoring pass to Jordan Williams on fourth-and-4.
The decisive drive was all Skinner.
He ran 12 yards on an option keeper and hit Devon Brown over the middle for 20 yards before hitting Jackson ó a redshirt freshman who didn’t appear on the depth chart ó behind cornerback Corey Gatewood. Jackson was tripped up at the 2, and Skinner pushed into the end zone three plays later to cap his seventh career game-winning drive.
“We put this drive together, and I think it’s going to give us some confidence going in ó but we were pretty confident all game,” Skinner said. “We were moving the ball pretty effectively most of the game. We were just not capitalizing on third-and-shorts or in the red zone.”
There were seven laterals on the ensuing kickoff before the Cardinal fumbled the ball near midfield and Scott Betros pounced on it to end the game.
“It’s going to kill me,” Grobe quipped. “It’d be a fun death.”
Wake Forest gained 311 of its 458 yards and scored all three of its touchdowns after the break while shutting out the Cardinal. The Deacs have scored 35 of their 45 points this season in the second half.
“It’s not like we were cussing up a storm and yelling at everybody” Skinner said of the halftime mood. “We were saying, ‘Look, we’re getting down in the red zone. Score the dang ball. We need to put points on the board. We’re there. We just need to capitalize.’ “