Wake Forest Demon Deacons at Duke Blue Devils

Mensah, Duke running backs lead Blue Devils past mistake-prone Wake Forest 49-32

Duke (7-5, 6-2 ACC) can reach next week’s ACC title game if a couple of results in the conference fall its way later Saturday night.

Mensah also ran for his first TD of the season. The transfer from Tulane finished the game 24-for-35 passing for 268 yards in the air.

Anderson Castle and Nate Sheppard each had two touchdown runs and the Blue Devils never trailed in defeating Wake Forest (8-4, 4-4) for the fourth year in a row. Sahmir Hagans caught a touchdown pass and made an 80-yard kickoff return to set up the first points of the fourth quarter.

“The game was about as we expected,” Duke coach Manny Diaz said. “I think kind of somewhat similar to our season. It was never going to be about perfection. It was going to be about persistence.”

Robby Ashford threw for two touchdowns and 342 yards and ran for a touchdown and a two-point conversion, but Wake Forest’s three-game winning streak ended. The Demon Deacons committed four turnovers – including a fumble at the Duke 18-yard line with 6:38 left – and were hit with 97 yards worth of penalties.

“A lot of disappointment,” Wake Forest coach Jake Dickert said. “They beat us in every area of the game on offense, defense, and special teams. They took care of the ball and got stops.”

Duke, which used a fake field goal to set up the winning touchdown a week earlier at North Carolina, pulled off a successful fake punt with less than 10 minutes to go with punter Kade Reynoldson running for a first down. The Blue Devils didn’t score on the drive but chewed up an extra 2½ minutes while holding a 42-32 lead.

Mensah’s third-quarter touchdown pass to Hagans for 30 yards set the Duke single-season record with 27 before he added another in the game’s final minute.

The Takeaway Wake Forest: The Demon Deacons beat SMU and Virginia – both possible qualifiers for the ACC title game – in the latter half of the season. The Demon Deacons allowed at least 30 points in all four of their losses, though this was season-high total against them.

Duke: The Blue Devils haven’t defeated a team with a winning ACC record, but they went 4-0 (3-0 in the league) against in-state opponents.

“That’s everything I could dream of for my last game here,” Hagans said of the home victory.

Wait it out Duke’s end-of-weekend plans were unclear when dispersing after the game. There was a chance they would be summoned back to football work Sunday.

“I said don’t go on some nature retreat without your phone nearby,” Diaz said.

More special plays A week earlier, a fake field goal set up Duke for a winning touchdown at North Carolina.

There were more special teams moments for the Blue Devils against Wake Forest, with Hagans’ big kickoff return shifting momentum

“I think Wake had snatched momentum at that time to go to out there (with that return) snatch it right back,” Diaz said.

In the fourth quarter, Reynoldson saw an opening and ran 26 yards. He’s now tied with kicker Todd Pelino for rushing yards this month.

“Maybe he’s just been tired of watching Todd Pelino highlights all week,” Diaz said of Reynoldson.

Up Next Wake Forest: Awaiting bowl matchup

Duke: Either in next week’s ACC championship game or awaiting bowl matchup