WINSTON-SALEM - As the weight of 255-pound Nate Krill came down on Wake Forest quarterback Brian Kuklick Saturday evening, a weight much larger was lifted off the Blue Devils' shoulder-the streak was over.
Krill's fourth-down sack with 48 seconds left clinched Duke's 19-16 win over the Demon Deacons, and when the game clock at Groves Stadium officially ended the game, Duke players stormed midfield and celebrated. It was their first win against an ACC opponent in three years and 22 tries, and their first conference road win since 1994.
"[After Krill's sack] I just fell down," said Chris Combs, who had a sack two plays earlier. "I could barely walk I was so happy. It was unreal."
The win became a reality largely in part to Sims Lenhardt, whose fourth field goal of the day was the game-winner, a 32-yarder with 1:48 left in the game.
"I thought it was going to be a close game the whole time, so I was prepared mentally [for a game-winning field goal]," said Lenhardt, who before the game told Coach Fred Goldsmith that he'd be ready to make a last-second field goal if the game came down to that.
The field goal became a chip shot thanks to the heroics of Richmond Flowers, who finished the game with nine catches for 78 yards and a touchdown to go along with his 58 yards on two kickoff returns.
After a Wake field goal tied the game at 16, Tyler Ashe kicked off to Flowers, who proceeded to make a 41-yard return to the Duke 45. A critical 24-yard pass from Bobby Campbell, who replaced an ill Spencer Romine in the second quarter, to Terrence Dupree brought the ball to the Wake 31, but two unsuccessful runs set up a third-and-14 from the 35.
Duke called timeout knowing an unsuccessful play would have left Lenhardt with a 53-yard attempt. The Blue Devils set up three receivers on the left side and put Flowers on the right. Flowers made a leaping catch 17 yards downfield and Duke had the first down.
"We had hit that earlier in the game," Campbell said. "I had real confidence that the defense they'd be playing, they were going to be cheating-we had three receivers to the other side-so they'd be leaving one-on-one coverage with Richmond and I'll take that everyday."
The first down set up a relatively easy field goal for Lenhardt and certainly helped settle Goldsmith's stomach; throughout this streak, the coach has seen many things he'd like to forget.
"That was a key, key play," Goldsmith said. "I'm sitting there throwing up grass seeing just how hard the wind is blowing and asking, 'Do we have any chance of making a 53-yard field goal into this breeze?'
"I'm glad I didn't have to watch [a 53-yarder]. I liked watching the shorter one."
More impressive than Flowers' third-down catch was his touchdown snag earlier in the quarter. With Wake leading 13-9, Duke had the ball third-and-goal from the Wake eight-yard line. Campbell dropped back and threw to Flowers, who made a tremendous diving catch to give the Blue Devils the lead.
The touchdown capped Duke's longest drive of the game, one that took 7:27 and covered 66 yards on 16 plays. Running back B.J. Hill had 28 of his 72 rushing yards on the drive and picked up three first downs. Hill was invaluable to the Blue Devils' cause, racking up 109 all-purpose yards and eight of Duke's 20 first downs.
Campbell came in for Romine in the second quarter and threw for 181 yards on 19-of-34 passing. Romine had missed all of practice on Thursday and part of Wednesday because of an illness. Campbell therefore ran practice those two days, and although he was told Romine was still starting, he was ready to play.
"I go into every game thinking I'm going to get in there at some point," Campbell said. "If they put me in, I know I'll be ready. I played a lot last year so I have the experience and it's not anything new to me."
In his weekly press conference on Monday afternoon, Goldsmith said that the starting quarterback job is being reevaluated.
Campbell's biggest mistake of the day came in the fourth quarter with Duke leading 16-13. On third down, Campbell overthrew Dupree and it was picked off by safety Jeffrey Muyres, who returned it 26 yards to the Duke 37. Twenty nine seconds later, Wake kicked a field goal to tie the game with just 4:19 to play.
The Deacons' previous drive began with a Morgan Kane 48-yard run on a draw play. Another first down set up a 48-yard field goal attempt, which Matthew Burdick missed wide left. At that point the game seemed won for the Blue Devils until Campbell's interception.
Special teams was spectacular all night and certainly aided a Duke offense which had been struggling in its last three outings. Scottie Montgomery and Flowers did a great job returning kicks, averaging 35 yards per return. Kevin Lewis blocked a punt and Brian McCormack blocked a field goal.
Three Lenhardt field goals (48, 41, 26) gave Duke a 9-7 halftime lead, but on the Deacons' second drive of the second half, Kuklick needed just one play to hit Desmond Clark for a 35-yard touchdown strike. Wake coach Jim Caldwell inexplicably decided to go for the two-point conversion, which Ronnie Hamilton intercepted, keeping the Wake lead 13-9.
The Blue Devils came back, though, and put an end to the streak that had made them the joke of the ACC.
"We got labeled losers, we had the streak thing to carry around, our guys shouldn't have had to deal with it," Goldsmith said. "Yet quietly they've dealt with it. The first time we've ever talked about the streak was after the game tonight. But we always knew it was there."
Notes: Before Saturday, Duke's last conference win was Oct. 28, 1995, when it beat Wake Forest 42-26 at Wallace Wade Stadium.... Lenhardt's four field goals moved him into a tie for second place on Duke's all-time career field goal list with 36. He is one field goal away from tying Doug Peterson's record. He also moved into seventh place on Duke's all-time points list.
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