Sept. 20, 1997
Georgia Tech Slips by Wake Forest
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Joe Hamilton threw three second-half touchdown passes and
Georgia Tech survived a fourth-quarter rally to defeat Wake
Forest 28-26 in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both
teams.
Wake Forest (1-2, 0-1 ACC), which nearly erased an 11-point
deficit in the final six minutes, had a chance to tie the game
after Brian Kuklick's 30-yard TD pass to Morgan Kane pulled the
Demon Deacons within 28-26 with 3:40 remaining. But the
two-point conversion failed when Kuklick's pass deflected off
the fingertips of Desmond Clark in the left corner of the end
zone.
Georgia Tech (1-1, 1-0) recovered an onside kick and ran out the
clock with three first downs. Hamilton kneeled three times
after Wake Forest ran out of timeouts.
Hamilton's third straight TD pass, an 18-yarder to Ed Wilder,
gave the Yellow Jackets a 28-17 lead with nine minutes
remaining. But Wake Forest pulled closer on Matthew Burdick's
42-yard field goal with 5:44 remaining.
Wake Forest then recovered an onside kick, and Kuklick
engineered a 12-play, 56-yard drive in 1:56 to pull the Demon
Deacons within two points.
Dustin Lyman's 41-yard interception return, Kuklick's eight-yard
TD pass to Jammie Deese and Burdick's 20-yard field goal helped
Wake Forest grab a 17-7 halftime lead.
But Georgia Tech rallied for 21 second-half points behind the
passing of Hamilton, who completed 19-of-27 passes for 208
yards. Hamilton came alive in the second half, completing
11-of-14 for 148 yards.
Kuklick was 22-of-42 for 258 yards, but the Demon Deacons were
limited to 55 yards on the ground.
