Wake Forest: 35
Georgia Tech: 63

Standing at 6-1 in the conference, Georgia Tech would face the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at Bobby Dodd Stadium in an attempt to tie Florida State for the ACC Championship. The Deacons looked to do little to stand in Tech’s way, as they had lost their last four games to fall to 3-7 on the season.

The Jackets started in a fury, scoring 21 first quarter points to virtually put the game away. Joe Hamilton first threw a 51 yard strike to Dez White just two minutes in for a 7-0 lead. Charlie Rogers added the next two scores on a 63 yard punt return and a 23 yard touchdown run to make it 21-0 midway through the period.

Wake Forest finally cracked the scoreboard with just under a minute to play in the opening quarter on a one yard touchdown run by Wande Shaw. The score made it 21-7 as the action moved into the second quarter.

The Ramblin’ Wreck offense kept up its production in the second quarter with Joe Burns scoring on a 12 yard touchdown run and Phillip Rogers hauling in a 38 yard touchdown pass from Hamilton. The Jackets would head to the locker room carrying a 35-7 lead at intermission.

Midway through the third quarter, Charlie Rogers scored on a four yard run to make it 42-7.

The Deacons answered less than two minutes later on a 3 yard Brian Kuklick touchdown pass to Chris McCoy.

Wake quickly regained possession and threatened again, but Yellow Jacket reserve Kofi Smith recovered a fumble at the Tech 10 yard line and raced 90 yards for a touchdown. The score put Tech up 49-14 and gave them their seventh fumble recovery for a touchdown on the season, a new NCAA record.

The final quarter saw five total touchdowns with Virgil Johnson and Sean Gregory scoring on short runs for the Jackets and Ben Sankey throwing three touchdowns for the Deacons.

The victory gave Tech a share of the ACC Championship and earned them a trip to the Gator Bowl on New Year’s Day. Wake Forest fell to 3-8 overall at the hands of the high powered Ramblin’ Wreck offense, which scored more than 60 points for the first time since defeating Furman 69-0 in 1921.

Statistics:

First Downs:
WAKE – 37
GT – 27

Rushing Yards:
WAKE – 61
GT – 319

Passing (Comp-Att-Yds):
WAKE – 42-64-494
GT – 15-20-205

Fumbles (Total-Lost):
WAKE – 3-2
GT – 3-2

Interceptions thrown:
WAKE – 2
GT – 1
Penalties (Total-Yards):
WAKE – 3-15
GT – 6-58

References:
USA Today Recap: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/scores98/98325/98325421.htm