Wake Forest closes preseason camp with final football scrimmage

Winston-salem, NC - Wake Forest quarterback Riley Skinner completed 21 of 28 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown as the Deacons closed out preseason camp with a 90 minute scrimmage at Groves Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The offense ran 97 plays and gained 458 yards of total offense during the scrimmage. WFU used five quarterbacks who combined to complete 31 of 48 passes for 298 yards and two touchdowns. The Deacs rushed the ball 49 times for 160 yards and a pair of scores.

The offense tallied its first score when Kenneth Moore raced 49 yards after Skinner had opened the scrimmage with three straight pass completions.

Chip Vaughn scored the first of two touchdowns for the defense when he intercepted a Brett Hodges pass at the 35 and returned it 65 yards for a touchdown.

Fullback Rich Belton slammed in for a touchdown from one-yard out to give the offense its second touchdown. Junior cornerback Kevin Patterson then picked off a pass from Zach MacDowall and returned it 55 yards for a touchdown.

Hodges connected with senior wide receiver Kevin Marion on a 48-yard scoring pass before Skinner threw a six-hard touchdown to Demir Boldin.

Junior placekicker Sam Swank nailed a 49-yard field goal with plenty of distance to spare to close out the scoring.

"I thought we competed pretty hard," said head coach Jim Grobe. "We've had a pretty tough stretch the last three weeks. The guys competed hard but there were just too many mistakes. Missed assignments, penalties, putting the ball on the ground, all those kinds of things. But, fortunately, those are all things that we can work on. I'm really happy with our football team right now but I'm not real happy with the way we're playing at times. All good football teams are consistent and that's what we need to improve on."

Five Deacon defenders each recorded five tackles in the game including linebacker Chantz McClinic, cornerback Marcus Williams, linebacker Hunter Haynes, defensive end Jeremy Thompson and defensive tackle Zach Stukes. Thompson led the defense with three tackles for loss.

Wake Forest, 11-3 last year and the defending Atlantic Coast Conference champion, will open the 2007 season at Boston College on Saturday, Sept. 1. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at Chestnut Hill and the game will be televised by ABC.