Darian Mensah spent most of Friday night looking almost automatic, and for a while the fifth-ranked Hurricanes looked like they might cruise again.
Instead, Miami had to lean on its defense to finish off Wake Forest 33-20 in Winston-Salem, N.C., after Mensah opened the game by completing his first 24 passes and the Hurricanes’ offense suddenly stalled in the fourth quarter.
Mensah finished 30 of 34 for 220 yards and three touchdowns, including a 9-yard strike to Joshua Moore on Miami’s first possession and a perfectly placed throw back to the left side for Elija Lofton’s 21-yard touchdown. He later hit star sophomore receiver Malachi Toney on a short scoring pass as Miami built a 31-7 lead midway through the third quarter.
Then the rhythm disappeared. Miami’s offense went three-and-out four straight times, and Toney was among several players who got banged up as the Hurricanes’ attack ground to a stop.
That opened the door for Wake Forest, and Gio Lopez tried to make the most of it. He threw for 312 yards and three touchdowns, including a sharp throw to the back right corner of the end zone for Carlos Hernandez on a 17-yard score that cut Miami’s lead to 31-20 with 14:56 left.
From there, though, the Hurricanes’ defense took over.
Miami pressured Lopez in the end zone and drew a holding penalty that resulted in a safety. Later, Wake Forest drove to the 13, but Lopez was forced into an inaccurate fourth-down throw in the end zone.
Freshman JJ Dunnigan then came around the edge to hurry Lopez into another off-target fourth-down pass with 5:24 remaining. Finally, Ethan O’Connor intercepted Lopez at the 2:24 mark in the red zone to shut the door.
“They certainly closed out the game,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said.
Wake Forest coach Jake Dickert saw his team get chances and come up short.
“We had some opportunities to really get back in that game in the foruth quarter, just could never quite get over the hump,” he said.
Mensah’s night also carried him into the record book. His 24-for-24 start broke the ACC single-game mark of 18, which had been shared by three players. He then finished with 35 straight completions when last week’s game against Florida A&M was included, topping the ACC record of 30 consecutive completions over multiple games set by North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky in September 2016.
For Miami, the late defensive stand provided a different kind of test than the blowouts it had opened the season with. The Hurricanes came in leading the country in total offense at 702.5 yards per game and ranking second in scoring at 61.0 points per game, but this one forced them to win with stops.
“It’s a good feeling, but we’re all one team," said defensive lineman Marquise Lightfoot, who had a third-quarter sack of Lopez. "So they’ve got our back when we need them, and we’ve got their back when they need us."
Wake Forest was trying to pull off something rare against a top-10 opponent. The Demon Deacons entered at 1-68 against teams ranked in The Associated Press top 10, with their lone win coming against No.
4 Tennessee in 1946. But 13 penalties for 137 yards hurt them badly, including two that wiped out big fourth-quarter punt returns.
“We need to learn from this and get better,” Dickert said. “Our execution wasn't at a high enough level.”
Wake Forest plays at No. 23 Louisville next Saturday.
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