’Cuse Goes Bowling with Senior Day Win

Saturday, November 25

Syracuse, N.Y.

2 PM

Syracuse University

6-6 , 2-6

Wake Forest

4-8 , 1-7

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Wake Forest

Syracuse

11/25/2023 5:16:00 PM | Football

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It was a fitting finish to the 2023 regular season as Syracuse topped Wake Forest 35-31, earning bowl eligibility in the final game at the JMA Wireless Dome on Saturday.

Senior safety Jason Simmons Jr. sealed the win with a goal-line interception as the Orange are in line for a bowl berth for a second-straight season - the first time since 2012 and 2013 Syracuse will head to a bowl in back-to-back seasons.

Syracuse (6-6, 2-6 ACC) piled up 468 yards of total offense, balancing 224 passing yards with 244 rushing yards. LeQuint Allen Jr. scampered for a career-best 145 of those rushing yards, while Dan Villari piled on 51 rushing yards. The latter accounted for two touchdowns, one passing and one receiving. Garrett Shrader threw for 173 yards and passing three touchdowns, alongside one rushing, in his final game at the Dome. Shrader completed 10 of his 15 attempts. Damien Alford reeled in four catches for 126 yards and a career-best two touchdowns. Umari Hatcher grabbed five passes for 76 yards.

Syracuse's defense was paced by seven solo stops from Marlowe Wax, while adding a quarterback hurry to his afternoon. Caleb Okechukwu was in for one and a half tackles for loss while he and Derek McDonald aided in a half sack each. Kevon Darton was credited with two sacks, including a crucial stop near the goal line late in the fourth quarter.

Wake Forest (4-8, 1-7 ACC) had 182 yards of offense, including 261 through the air. Michael Kern finished with a game-high 261 passing yards with three touchdowns, but had the only Demon Deacon turnover of the game with the last-minute interception.

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It was a run-heavy first possession for Syracuse, featuring 31 yards from Allen on six carries before Villari and Shrader completed back-to-back passes to Hatcher and Alford, respectively. Alford caught Shrader's short pass before shedding a tackle and finding pay dirt for a 35-yard touchdown and a 7-0 Syracuse lead midway through the first quarter.

Wake Forest covered 75-yards on four plays over a 99-second span to tie game 7-7 with 5:29 to play in the opening frame.

On its next drive, Syracuse had back-to-back running plays before a Shrader pass to Hatcher connected for 11 yards and a first down. Another third-down pass from Shrader to Isaiah Jones hit for another first down, this time on the Wake Forest side of midfield. Villari picked up the next first down with his legs, getting to the Demon Deacons' 30-yard line. After Villari bullied his way inside the Wake 15-yard line, Shrader hit Hatcher for another seven yards into a goal-to-go situation. Shrader punched in the second 'Cuse touchdown of the game, and his eighth on the ground of the season, putting the Orange back up 14-7 early in the second quarter. The drive chewed up nearly 10 minutes of clock across its 17 plays.

Syracuse's defense held up after a long Wake Forest drive, freezing the Demon Deacons at the 'Cuse 18-yard line before converting a 36-yard field goal to trim the Syracuse lead to 14-10 with 5:30 to play in the half.

The Orange controlled the final five and a half minutes of the second quarter, getting deep into Wake Forest territory. As a field goal try faded right, the Demon Deacons were hit with a personal foul, giving the Orange a fresh set of downs. Syracuse made good on the restart as Shrader connected with Alford for a 15-yard catch, which was called short of the end zone after a review. That set the Orange up on the Wake 1-yard line. A catch near the goal line was called short again as time expired, ending the half with a 14-10 Syracuse lead.

After receiving the second half kick, Syracuse marched down field, thanks in part to an Allen run of 23 yards, putting the sophomore over the 1,000-yard mark for the first time in his career and marking a third-straight season with Syracuse 1,000-yard rusher. That carry set up a Villari-to-Alford touchdown from 47-yards out, Villari's 17th-straight completed pass. The Orange doubled their lead out to 21-10 just over two minutes into the fresh half as Alford completed the first multi-touchdown game of his career. Villari completed the season cycle of passing for a touchdown, catching a touchdown and rushing for a touchdown. He joined Allen for a second-straight season with those three types of touchdowns.

Wake pulled back within a touchdown, 21-17, at the midway point of the third quarter after a 12-play, 75 yard drive over a five and a half minute span.

A Syracuse turnover at its own 35-yard line gave Wake Forest the ball inside Orange territory. The defense came up huge, thanks to a pair of sacks from Darton and Okechukwu, followed by a quarterback hurry by Wax, forcing a Demon Deacons field goal from 38 yards out that went wide right. Preserving the 21-17 lead, Syracuse regained possession at its own 20-yard line.

Allen went right to work, going for 13 yards in two plays to surpass the 100-yard mark for a seventh time this season. Shrader connected with Alford again on a 29-yard catch-and-run, getting down inside the Wake Forest 35-yard line. On fourth-and-one, Shrader used a hesitation bootleg before scrambling 12-yards to his left for a first down to wind out the third quarter. Shrader and Villari connected for a 13-yard touchdown, the latter's second different kind of touchdown of the day as the Orange mounted a 28-10 lead just 37 seconds into the fourth quarter. The drive covered 80 yards in just 11 plays while using over four and a half minutes of clock.

Wake Forest scored two plays later, backed by a 59-yard catch and run from Michael Kern to Taylor Morin before a 16-yard touchdown pass from the former to Jahmal Banks. Wake Forest made it a one-score game, 28-25 Syracuse, after a two-point conversion.

The Orange offense wasted little time on its next drive as Shrader hit Hatcher for his third passing touchdown of the day and a 35-25 lead. The third passing touchdown of at least 35 yards of the day for Syracuse was set up by the ground attack as Allen and Shrader cracked off 12- and 15-yard runs, respectively.

After Wake Forest picked up 36 yards in two plays, Darton came up with another sack, paired with McDonald for the three-loss loss. The Demon Deacons scored on a nine-yard fade to the back of the end zone, but the Syracuse defense kept it a 35-31 difference, forcing an incomplete pass on the ensuing two-point try.

The Syracuse defense came up with its biggest stand of the season with exactly two minutes to play in the fourth quarter. After a defensive pass interference in the end zone put the Demon Deacons down at the Orange 9-yard line. Four plays later, Syracuse held off the scoring chance, finalized by an interception by Simmons, who was honored pregame during Senior Day festivities. It was the first turnover by Wake Forest in the game.

It was a steady serving of rushing plays as Allen covered nine yards from the shadow of the goal posts, followed by a Shrader two-yard sneak for a crucial first down with 81 seconds to play. That sealed the victory as Syracuse concluded its first Saturday home game since September 30 - a span of 56 days and the second-longest stretch of without a Saturday home game in the FBS.