NewhouseSports SMC: Syracuse Keeps Bowl Aspirations Alive: Shuts Out Wake Forest 13-0

By: Andrew Pogar

SYRACUSE - Remember back in August when most preseason power rankings had the Syracuse Orange placed in the cellar of the ACC? Well, those pundits may soon be eating their own words.

Terrel Hunt scored on a 6-yard run to break up a scoreless tie in the third quarter, freshman defensive end Isaiah Johnson set up up another score intercepting a pass moments later, and the Orange (4-4, 2-2) defeated the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (4-5, 2-5), 13-0 on Saturday, in front of and announced crowd of 38,550 at the Carrier Dome.

Coming off of a bye week, Head Coach Scott Shafer said he was impressed with his team's resilency after being steamrolled 56-0 on the road against Georgia Tech in its last game.

"I was really proud of that fact that our kids stuck their chests out and went to work after that difficult loss," Shafer said. There's been no separation with these kids. They've become tighter when we've had tough situations and I love them for it."

Head Coach Scott Shafer was pleased with his team's performance

Syracuse's inability to score persisted against Wake Forest as both teams combined for 14 punts in the lackluster first half. The Orange found themselves in a tough situation offensively producing only 121 yards of total offense.

However, the Orange registered 176 total yards in the third quarter, beginning with a 75-yard drive that was capped off by a 6-yard Terrel Hunt keeper for a touchdown.

"We were just more hungry," Hunt said. "We knew what we had to do. It was a tough one in that first half but we got everything corrected and finished out good in the second half."

Less than three minutes later, a tipped interception by Johnson gave Syracuse prime field position at the 25-yard line.

On the next play, offensive coordinator George McDonald decided to incorporate some trickery into the gameplan. Wide receiver Jarrod West delivered a 25-yard pass to Brisly Estime to give the Orange a 13-0 lead.

"Well it's actually pretty funny because all week long we tried three different kids on that play and its was interception, interception, duck...I mean it was horrible," Shafer said. "I told George (McDonald) it was out.

"By the way he looked they were going to keep working on it and they got it right by game time. That's what counts. "It was a heck of a call by George."

West couldn't believe how easy the play unfolded.

Brisly Estime hauled in his first career SU touchdown

"He was wide open," said West, the sophomore wide receiver from Bethlehem, Pa. "I could have kicked it too him."

The Orange have been trying to get Estime more involved in the offense lately, particularly with screen plays. Saturday afternoon he led the team with nine receptions for 62 yards.

"They put me on screen plays because they know I can make the first person miss," he said. "I fit in the offense."

While it took more than thirty minutes for the Orange offense to get into a groove, the defense stymied the Demon Deacons from start to finish.

"When you have a lack of execution on the offensive side of the ball you probably have a pretty darn good execution on the other side," Shafer said.

"We're a team that's continuing to try to grow on that offensive side of the ball and when you grow, your brothers on the other side got to do a good job of picking up the slack," Shafer said. "I thought our defense did that today."

Shafer also praised his coaching staff, especially defensive coordinator Chuck Bullough.

"I'm extremely proud of Chuck Bullough and the defensive staff for the job they did coming off a difficult loss a couple weeks ago when we were all embarrassed, starting with me."

Durell Eskridge, Jay Bromley, Cameron Lynch, Marquis Spruill, and Robert Welsh led a defensive effort that limited the Demon Deacons offense to 213 total yards.

Quarterback Tanner Price, who entered the game third in the ACC in passing yards behind Tajh Boyd and Jameis Winston completed just 22 passes on 54 attempts.

It was a long and frustrating afternoon for Tanner Price

Price appeared heavily affected by the loss of dependable wide receiver Michael Campanaro. The dynamic senior wideout left the first half of the game with a collarbone injury. He is expected to miss the next 4-6 weeks.

The last time the Orange shut out multiple opponents in one season was in 1997 when the team defeated Wisconsin and East Carolina.

Shafer says he's going to enjoy the win for the night, but has already looked ahead to next week.

"We just have to keep finding ways to win," he said. "I don't care how pretty or ugly they are as long as we find a way to get it done."

"We're back to .500, but we have a tall task as we go over there to play a talented Maryland ballclub."

Below are more photos taken from the game: