Wake finished its fall exhibition season with a 19-5 loss to UNC-Wilmington on Friday night in the Port City. With a number of regular starters benched for disciplinary reasons and senior wing Brandon Turner unavailable while interviewing in Washington for the Rhodes Scholarship, Wake put a strong new-look squad out to face a highly-ranked D2 Seahawk side. After a quick converted try put UNC-W up 7-0, Wake's forwards began to exert control of the game, maintaining possession well and setting a good platform for the backline. The Demon Deacon backs, however, were unable to make many breaks through the Seahawk defensive line and an opportunistic play saw UNC-W score in the corner to go up 12-0 at the 30 minute mark.
With the Seahawk players inexplicably shouting that they were on their way to scoring 100 points, the Wake forwards' physical domination led to a try for senior prop Matt Storck which brought the score to 12-5 at the half.
The second half saw Wake control territory and possession, but the Seahawks defense was stout and the Demon Deacons were unable to put any points on the board. With time running out UNC-W moved into the Wake half and a well-executed backline play sent a Seahawk center in under the posts and iced the victory. In a massive show of respect for the Demon Deacon program, the Seahawks stormed the field when the final whistle blew on the exhibition game, celebrating as if they had won the national championship.
In the JV game, Wake suffered another loss. Lack of cohesion and poor tackling plaugued Wake throught the JV game and despite converted tries from sophomores Drew Ammons and Jack Zimmerman, the Demon Deacons fell 29-14.
Wake now goes into its offseason and will prepare for the upcoming rigors of the Atlantic Coast Rugby League season.
Wake Varsity vs. UNC-W
1. Matt Storck, Sr.
2. Matt McCurdy, So.
3. Nick Conte, Sr. (Iain Dormer, Fr. @15-24 blood sub)
4. Christian Gutowski, Fr.
5. Gavin Bishop, Fr. (James Watson, So. @ 40)
6. Paul Shumaker, So.
7. Rob Elmore, So. (Jeff Millar, Sr. @ 65)
8. Brendan Shea, Sr. (c)
9. Will Hank, Sr.
10. Ben Cohen, Sr.
11. Drew Ammons, So. (Ryan Tacon, So. @ 40)
12. Tim Bishop, So. (Liam McIntyre, So. @ 55)
13. Tim Zage, So.
14. Peter Conway, Fr. (Jack Zimmerman, So. @ 40)
15. Tommy Kinzer, Fr.
Tries: Storck
YC: T. Bishop
3 comments:
Don't flatter yourself Wake Forest, we weren't celebrating like we had just won a national championship, we were celebrating like a DII team that just made a DI team look like a joke.
Well clamdigger, you've clearly done more than enough to prove how classy your program is. If you guys are able to keep up the respect you have for your own teammates and opponents and are somehow able to keep up your anonymous toughness I have no doubt you will actually be able to celebrate winning a national championship in the spring.
-Matt Gottbrecht '09
UNC-W is obviously a good team, so why not act like one? When Wake was D3 from 2005-2007 and beat UNC-W four straight times, we we happy with the wins, but you didn't see us storming the field. What's the saying? "Act like you've been there."
As for which team was the "joke," from the video I saw at least Wake had matching shorts and socks and looked like a real college sports team. And the fact that UNC-W teammates got into a fight during the JV game with racial slurs being used says volumes about the program.
So yeah, you won an exhibition game against a D1 team. From what I saw you played incredible defense, especially in the second half, and deserved the win. But the scoreline isn't necessarily the best reflection of which team is the "joke." Get your attitude in line with your level of play and you should do well in the spring in D2 competition.
-Tyler Eure, '08
Post a Comment