NORFOLK, Va (WTKR) — As Old Dominion made its way to the locker rooms at halftime of Saturday's matchup with Wake Forest, it had momentum and most of the breaks in the game on its side.
The Monarchs owned a 17-0 advantage, forcing multiple Demon Deacon turnovers and finding electric scoring plays.
"I didn’t want to put anything in their heads about the other team having a chance to win," said ODU head coach Ricky Rahne about his halftime message. "I told them we need to go out there and play to win the game, and not play tense."
After a Wake Forest touchdown, LaMareon James tallied a 55-yard pick six, his second defensive touchdown of the game, to make it a 24-7 lead for ODU.
That's when things began to unravel for the silver and blue. Wake Forest put up 20 unanswered points over the game's final 20 minutes to steal the upset bid with a 27-24 win.
"I think that we’ve got to make sure that we don’t expect things to be given to us. We’ve got to earn them," Rahne said. "In that particular instance, I felt like we were expecting that team to just give us the game. It’s too well-coached of a team, too experienced of a team to do that.”
After putting the Demon Deacons on their heels in the opening half, the visitors swarmed on defense with a stout pass rushing attack. Wake Forest notched 10 sacks of ODU quarterback Grant Wilson and allowed just 67 rushing yards throughout the day.
Wilson passed for 233 yards with a touchdown and an interception. The scoring throw came on a second quarter 68-yard dart to Norfolk native Javon Harvey, his first touchdown of the season.
James then took over, returning a fumble off a sack of Wake Forest quarterback Mitch Griffis 85 yards for a touchdown. One quarter later, the Indian River alum added his interception score to send the S.B. Ballard Stadium crowd buzzing.
"That gave us diesel (fuel)," said ODU linebacker EJ Green. "We can build on that energy from all that momentum."
The Monarchs couldn't get their offense on the field for sustained drives afterwards, however, leaving the defense on the field for a majority of the last half.
Griffis would throw for 312 yards with three touchdowns and a pair of interceptions. Jahmal Banks hauled in what would be the game-winning score with 6:48 left in the game.
"I’m highly disappointed,” Harvey said. “But it’s just something you learn from. You don’t dwell on it. You move on.”
"We’ve got a lot of games left, so we’ll just learn from this, use this as fuel," Green said.
Old Dominion turns around with another important game next week, with a homecoming contest with Texas A&M-Commerce coming to S.B. Ballard Stadium.
