Hartman, No. 13 Wake Forest top Duke 45-7 to stay unbeaten

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Sam Hartman continued his recent tear by accounting for five touchdowns to help No. 13 Wake Forest beat Duke 45-7 on Saturday, giving the Demon Deacons their best start in program history.

Hartman threw for 402 yards and three touchdowns, including a 38-yarder to Jaquarii Roberson on the first possession. He also ran for 61 yards and two scores, including a 26-yarder, for the Demon Deacons (8-0, 5-0 Atlantic Coast Conference).

It came a week after Hartman threw for five touchdowns and ran for a sixth score in a 70-56 victory over Army. That tied this year's team for the best start in program history set in 1944, nine years before the formation of the ACC.

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Now Dave Clawson’s bunch owns a new milestone in what is becoming a special season for the league-leading Demon Deacons.

Christian Beal-Smith, Ke'Shawn Williams and Taylor Morin also had touchdowns for Wake Forest, which finished with 677 total yards while flirting with its first shutout in six years.

Mataeo Durant ran for 103 yards to lead the Blue Devils (3-5, 0-4), who had little go right in this one. They got little out of their passing game with Gunnar Holmberg throwing for 110 yards and exiting briefly in the first quarter with an apparent injury to his left (non-throwing) hand, then didn't find the end zone until they late in a 45-0 game.

THE TAKEAWAY

Duke: David Cutcliffe's Blue Devils simply have to figure out how to score. Going back to Charlie Ham’s 22-yard field goal with 5:06 left in a loss to Georgia Tech on Oct. 9, Duke went 25 straight completed drives (uninterrupted by halftime or the game’s end) without scoring before reserve Riley Leonard's 2-yard keeper ended the streak with 7:17 left in the fourth quarter.

Wake Forest: The Demon Deacons have one of the FBS’ top offenses, and they continued putting up points at a brisk clip. But they also got a bounceback performance from a defense that had been struggling for stops through the month of October, including giving up 416 yards rushing against Army’s option-based running attack.

POLL IMPLICATIONS

The Demon Deacons are already the highest-ranked ACC team in the AP Top 25. They could inch up another spot or two with this win, but they're reaching the range where it's tougher to climb with fewer teams ahead of them to lose.

UP NEXT

Duke: The Blue Devils return home for another game against a ranked league foe, this one against No. 17 Pittsburgh next Saturday.

Wake Forest: The Demon Deacons visit North Carolina on Saturday in an unusual scenario: two ACC teams meeting in a nonconference series. They agreed in 2015 to a home-and-home series as their meetings became less frequent due to ACC expansion. Wake Forest won the first in 2019, while last year’s meeting won by UNC returned to its traditional league-game status after the ACC reshuffled its scheduling model due to the COVID-19 pandemic.