Wake Forest shuts out Broughton football, stays unbeaten

Riding a strong running game and an impressive defensive performance, Wake Forest opened defense of its Cap-8 football title with a 35-0 victory over visiting Broughton on Friday night.

Marquis Dunn scored two touchdowns and quarterback Chris James passed for a pair of touchdowns for the Cougars (5-0), ranked No. 2 in the News & Observer’s Top 25 rankings. Devon Lawrence, Wake Forest’s standout junior running back who had missed two games this season with an ankle injury, added a touchdown run as well as Demarcus Jones.

Broughton (2-3) was limited to 81 yards of offense. The Capitals didn’t reach Wake Forest’s side of the field until midway through the third quarter.

Wake Forest scored on its opening two drives of the game. The Cougars needed just six plays for its first touchdown, that score coming when Dunn caught a short pass in the flat from James before juking past a few defenders for a 16-yard touchdown reception that put Wake Forest ahead 7-0 with 7 minutes, 1 second remaining in the first quarter.

Only four plays were needed to produce Wake Forest’s second touchdown after a blocked punt by Darius Hodge set up the Cougars at the Broughton 24. Dunn finished the drive with a 6-yard touchdown run to increase Wake Forest’s lead to 14-0.

Lawrence made it 21-0 in the second quarter with a 10-yard touchdown run. The junior, who rushed for over 1,300 yards last season but was limited to 15 carries on the season entering Friday’s contest, finished with 55 yards rushing on 10 carries.

Jones scored on a 3-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, and Wake Forest’s final touchdown came via a 46-yard pass from James to Josh Vaughn late in the fourth quarter.

TURNING POINT

Broughton had a decent drive to open the game, converting a fourth-down conversion en route to reaching its 40. But on fourth-and-3, Devone Jackson was stuffed for no gain, and several minutes later James found Dunn for the touchdown that sent Wake Forest on its way to the decisive win.

THEY SAID IT

“I think it was solid,” Wake Forest coach Reggie Lucas said of his team’s performance. “Our goal for the offense was to try and score 35 points and we did that, and our goal on defense was to try and shut teams out and we did that. So it was solid, but if you watched the game, there are some things we have to work on and clean up. We had too many penalties, some of those put us in a bad position, but the kids bounced back from those penalties and made some plays for us.”

THREE TO KNOW

Marquis Dunn, Wake Forest: Averaging over 100 yards rushing per game coming in, Dunn was outstanding in limited touches, rushing for 71 yards on 10 carries and adding a touchdown reception.

Demarcus Jones, Wake Forest: Led the Cougars with 90 yards rushing on 13 carries, many of those tough yards between the tackles.

Darius Hodge, Wake Forest: Had a fine game defensively with a blocked punt, interception and a sack. His block punt and interception both led to touchdowns for Wake Forest.

BY THE NUMBERS

3: Number of quarterbacks Broughton used. None of them had signficant success, though Gordon Guest probably fared best completing 4 of 9 passes for 34 yards.

12: Total rushing yards by Broughton on 24 carries.

237: Rushing yards by Wake Forest. The Cougars gained 343 yards of total offense.

This story was originally published September 23, 2016 at 11:01 PM with the headline "Wake Forest shuts out Broughton football, stays unbeaten."