Late Marquis Dunn score pushes Wake Forest past rival Wakefield

Week after week of an undefeated football season, Wake Forest has showed its talent, its brute and its dominance.

On Friday night, the Cougars showed their heart.

Their 16-3 victory over Cap-8 4A Conference rival Wakefield (5-2, 2-1) was probably one completed pass, one made field goal or one fewer interception away from a closer result.

Wake Forest (7-0, 3-0) scored early, but its mistakes and a bit of Wakefield will held them off until the fourth.

With 6 minutes and 58 seconds showing, Wake Forest sophomore running back Marquis Dunn exploded for a 63-yard touchdown on his only touch of the final quarter, sealing the game.

“I just saw an open hole. I saw Devon Lawrence with a good block,” said Dunn, who scored both Cougars touchdowns.

Wake Forest tacked on a safety with about 3 minutes left in the game.

“A person hit me on my hip, but I just broke away,” Dunn said. “It showed them that we have heart and we’re not scared to do anything. We’re a positive team. We’re brothers. We stay together.”

Dunn led the game with 91 rushing yards on seven carries.

His earlier touchdown came inside the 5-minute mark of the first quarter on a 14-yard burst.

In the second, Wake Forest – which led 7-0 at halftime – only picked up two first downs to Wakefield’s five.

The teams exchanged interceptions after the break and the Cougars had just two possessions in the third quarter.

Wakefield stood tall against the Cougars – the likely new No. 1 team in 4A after Charlotte’s Mallard Creek lost in overtime.

Junior quarterback Matt McKay scrambled out of pressure throughout the evening, and the defense stalled a forceful Wake Forest rushing attack for as long as it could.

McKay finished 14 of 34 passes for 142 yards — 83 going to Marius Cooper — and even once broke away from Wake Forest senior defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence, who leads the Cougars in tackles for loss.

Lawrence was able to break through eventually, picking up two sacks. Xach Gill added an additional sack, as the Cougars exercised patience on the other side of the ball.

“I think we were definitely patient with our offense we’ve been running all year,” Wake Forest coach Reggie Lucas said. “Sometimes when you get in pressure situations, you want to deviate from what you want to do and we didn’t. I commend the offensive staff for staying with it.”

A third straight rivalry contest awaits the Cougars against Heritage next week.

Wake Forest remains on top of the conference and leaves Wakefield and Millbrook to hash it out for second place.

“Next week’s a big game for us,” Wolverines coach Rod Sink said. “This was a tight ball game but (Wake Forest is) a good football team and … we proved that we could compete with them. We came out here and competed every down.”

This story was originally published October 9, 2015 at 10:25 PM with the headline "Late Marquis Dunn score pushes Wake Forest past rival Wakefield."