Florida State Barely Defeats Wake Forest

Florida State quarterback Wyatt Sexton had an erratic game that forced the No. 5 Seminoles to fight for a 20-17 victory over Wake Forest at Winston-Salem, N.C.

Sexton had three costly turnovers -- two of which were returned for touchdowns that had the Seminoles, 6-1 overall and 4-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, trailing, 14-10, at the start of the fourth quarter.

Then, after putting Florida State on top, 17-14, with a 46-yard touchdown pass to Dominic Robinson, Sexton threw his second interception of the game to open the door for Wake Forest’s tying field goal.

Florida State needed a 22-yard field goal by Xavier Beitia with 1 minute 3 seconds to play to pull out the win.

“The defense was coming with blitz after blitz after blitz, and I was confused,” Sexton said. “They were shifting all over the place and making things very tough for me.”

That’s because Wake Forest (3-4, 0-4) is not exactly a pushover, despite being winless in conference play.

The Demon Deacons have not been an easy opponent for anyone, taking Clemson and North Carolina State into overtime and battling down to the wire against Virginia Tech and the Seminoles. Their four ACC losses are by a combined 23 points.

No. 4 Miami 45, North Carolina State 31 -- Brock Berlin tied a school record with five touchdown passes, helping the Hurricanes hold off the Wolfpack at Raleigh, N.C.

The Hurricanes (6-0, 3-0) gave up 440 yards but remained the only team in the conference without a loss. They took advantage of numerous miscues by the Wolfpack (4-3, 3-2), who were trying to beat a top-10 team for the first time since 2001.

Miami used two dominating drives just after halftime to take a 38-17 lead and cruised from there, thanks to Berlin, who finished 15 for 30 for 265 yards. Bernie Kosar, Steve Walsh and Ken Dorsey are the other players with five touchdown passes at Miami, which piled up 416 yards. The Wolfpack had been giving up only 204 a game.

No. 14 Virginia 37, Duke 16 -- Alvin Pearman ran for a career-high 223 yards and a touchdown at Durham, N.C.

Wali Lundy had 82 yards and two scores for the Cavaliers (6-1, 3-1), who rebounded from a loss at Florida State by piling up 511 yards -- 348 on the ground.

Duke is 1-6, 0-4.

Clemson 10, Maryland 7 -- Reggie Merriweather’s two-yard touchdown run with 23 seconds left at Clemson, S.C., handed Maryland (3-4, 1-3) its first three-game losing streak under Coach Ralph Friedgen.

Until the final moments, the Tigers (3-4, 2-3) had little success against Maryland’s defense, which put up five sacks and held Clemson to a field goal over the first 59 minutes.