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Seminoles fall to Wake Forest

TALLAHASSEE - The easy part of the Seminoles schedule is over.

And after scoring more than 100 points in the first two games, Wake Forest (3-0 1-0) returned Florida State (2-1, 0-1) to reality Saturday night enroute to a 12-3 victory.

Seven turnovers and 139 yards in penalties proved too much for FSU to overcome in giving the Deamon Deacons their third victory in as many years against the once vaulted Seminoles.

"Defense played as good as any tonight, there wasn't a touchdown scored on their part, but the offense couldn't seem to give ourselves a chance to win the game," said head coach Bobby Bowden. "Wake Forest just executed better than we did tonight."

FSU forced Wake Forest to go three and out on their opening possession.

Appearing ready to take control of the game, sophomore quarterback Christian Ponder dropped back to pass on the opening play of the game for the Noles. And he threw his first interception of the season.

"Wake Forest is a great team - we just made dumb mistakes on our part. We never got into a really good rythm," said Ponder "I never felt comfortable in the pocket, so there were a lot of mistakes on my part."

Defense did everything possible to carry the game. After allowing Wake Forest a field goal on their second possession, the Noles kept the Deacons from scoring again in the first half.

But the penalties added up stopping several key drives.

During the second quarter, FSU recovered a Wake Forest fumble on the Deacons' 45-yard line.

A pair of 15-yard penalties quickly pushed the Noles back onto their own side of the field and the offense sputtered and punted.

"Penalties hurt us on several tries to score - they (penalties) didn't give us a chance to win." "We made more mistakes than they did, that's all," Bowden said.

Offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher brought out sophomore D'Vontre Richardson to start the second half hoping to spark the anemic offense.

And while Richardson managed to pull off several big plays, the penalties again caused the offense to stall out.

Then came the turnovers.

Halfway through the fourth quarter and down by only six, Richardson threw an interception stalling what appeared to be the go ahead score.

Though the defense held and forced the Deacons to punt on that drive, Richardson came back out and on the first play of the next drive he threw yet another interception.

That proved to be final straw as the Noles then gave up a pair of late field goals to put the game out of reach.

Next Saturday, the Seminoles travel to Jacksonville to play what is essentially a home game against Colorado.