Wake Forest Football: Three Stars from the Win vs Army
Wake Forest cruised past Army on Saturday night, defeating the Black Knights 45-10 to advance to 5-1. The Deacs showed out on both sides of the ball in the blowout victory — here are the three players who made the biggest impact in Week 6.
LB Dylan Hazen:
Wake Forest shifted to a three-linebacker defensive set on Saturday night to provide some extra protection against the Army rushing attack. As a result, redshirt freshman Dylan Hazen made his first career start, finishing the night with 12 tackles, 0.5 sacks and an interception. He tied senior captain LB Ryan Smenda Jr. for the team lead in tackles, and his interception came at a crucial moment, taking Army out of scoring position right before the half. This performance from Hazen and the defense represents what Brad Lambert’s unit is all about.
“Just bashing heads every day,” Hazen said. “Even though some parts weren’t fun, even though sometimes we would come off with a little bit of a headache. But that’s the game of football. Just accepting that each week’s going to be hard, I think that’s our defense’s entire mentality.”
READ: Five Key Stats From Wake Forest's Win Over Army
LB Chase Jones:
When Smenda spoke to the media on Tuesday prior to this week’s matchup, he discussed how important it would be for the defense to create turnovers and give the offense extra possessions. Jones did just that on Saturday, forcing a fumble and recovering it on the first drive of the game when Army had the ball deep in Wake territory. Jones finished with 7 tackles, 0.5 sacks, and 1 tackle for loss, in addition to the forced fumble. The Deacs gave up just 10 points on Saturday, a refreshing change from last year’s matchup against Army.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Jones said. “Those guys are hard to play against. They’re tough, they’re physical. I feel like as a defense, we stood up to the challenge today and showed what we can do."
READ: Game Summary: Wake Forest Defeats Army 45-10
WR A.T. Perry:
Perry picked up right where he left off against Army, hauling in five catches for 118 yards and a touchdown. Wake didn’t rely on the passing game as heavily as usual, but when they did, the Army DBs had no answer for the deep ball. Perry had catches of 30 and 46 yards, and his touchdown came on a 26-yard throw in the third quarter. Especially over the past few games, Perry has been the No. 1 option for Sam Hartman.
“It’s 7/11,” QB Sam Hartman said of Perry’s ability to get separation down the field. “I don’t know if you’ve been to 7/11 but it’s never closed. You know what that means? He’s always open.”
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