Football
By AARON BEARD
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Robby Ashford scored Wake Forest’s lone touchdown on a first-quarter keeper, and the Demon Deacons came up with a clinching late stop to hold off Kennesaw State 10-9 on Friday night and give Jake Dickert a successful sideline debut.
Ashford’s 5-yard keeper that ended with him flipping through a hit at the goal line was a rare highlight on a bumpy night for the Demon Deacons (1-0), who lost top player Demond Claiborne to a rib injury after just three carries.
“Adversity came right away,” Dickert said. “We responded to it.”
Still, Wake Forest hung on after forcing Dexter Williams II to throw incomplete on fourth down with 1:50 left, prompting Dickert to pump his fist in exuberance that might’ve had some mixed-in relief, too.
Wake Forest didn’t go ahead for good until Connor Calvert’s 22-yard field goal with 3:05 left in the third.
“I could feel the anxiousness out there,” defensive back Nick Andersen said of opening night. “We just needed to take a deep breath, put our feet in the ground and do what we do.”
Coleman Bennett bounced off a hit and rumbled loose for a 19-yard touchdown in the first quarter for the Owls (0-1), who are in their second year of Bowl Subdivision play after a 2-10 reclassification season in the move up from FCS.
The takeaway
Kennesaw State: The Conference USA program had the second-lowest rating in the league’s Bowl Confidence Index, indicating a team’s likelihood of reaching postseason play (16.67%). But the Owls flirted with a first-ever win against a power-conference foe, leading 9-7 until late in the third on a night when they missed a field goal and…
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