Louisville Defense Lifts Cards Past No. 10 Wake Forest

Saturday, October 29

LOUISVILLE, KY

3:30 p.m.

University of Louisville

5-3 , 3-3

Wake Forest

6-2 , 2-2

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Wake Forest

Louisville

Louisville Defense Lifts Cards Past No. 10 Wake Forest

October 29, 2022 | Football

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By: Kennedy Knisley

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The University of Louisville football team defeated No. 10 Wake Forest 48-21, for its third consecutive win on Saturday. With a dominant defensive performance, the Cardinals secured their first top-10 win as an unranked team since defeating No. 2 Florida State in 2002.

This marks the most points Louisville has scored against a top-10 opponent since a 63-20 win over No. 2 Florida State in 2016.

The first half started off slow, with a pair of field goals and a single-yard rushing touchdown by Malik Cunningham. Wake Forest scored 14 of its points in the second quarter with one rushing and one receiving touchdown and led 14-13 at halftime.

The third quarter was dominated by the Cardinals, with all 35 points coming off of turnovers. This ties the most points ever scored against an AP top-10 opponent in one quarter.

With six forced turnovers in the third quarter, Louisville is the second FBS team over the last 15 seasons with six in any quarter.

Louisville forced a total of eight turnovers, the most since forcing nine in a 31-7 win vs. Army on Sept. 17, 1983. They are the first FBS team in at least 15 years to force eight turnovers in a single half.

Malik Cunningham was 15-of-23 passing with 164 yards and recorded two rushing touchdowns. Tiyon Evans led the Cardinals in rushing with 106 yards and a single touchdown. Two of the touchdowns scored came from the defensive end of the ball with Quincy Riley and Kei'Trel Clark each recording a pick-six.

The Cardinals had four interceptions against the Demon Deacons with two coming from Riley and one each from Josh Minkins and Monty Montgomery. All eight of Louisville's sacks came from different players.

Louisville Head Coach Scott Satterfield Said:

"First of all, I just want to say how proud I am of our guys and everyone in this building, players and staff, for continuing to fight and continuing to battle. I told our guys in the locker room a month ago, nobody believed in them, backs against the wall. We didn't listen to them. We continued to fight. We continued to get better. We continued to grow as a football team. To be able to come out here against the No. 10 team in the country and dominate like we did says a lot about them. It says a lot about their character and integrity and what they have inside of them. We are not there yet. We have to continue to get better and continue to fight. I cannot say enough about them. We have a lot of respect for Wake Forest. Coach Clawson and Sam Hartman, they do a phenomenal job there. They are an incredible team if you just look back at what they've done over the years and in the past three years in particular. How they take care of the football. How they don't have penalties. They don't beat themselves. And for us to come out and do what we did in the third quarter was remarkable. I have never seen anything like it. I have been in this game for a long time. I have never seen a team to have that many turnovers. It was different guys. That is what was so special about it. We sacked them eight times with eight different players. That is incredible. That is a total team defense. Six different players got turnovers today. It was incredible. Then, offensively, I thought we moved the ball. I thought we did a great job offensively. We said we have to score a touchdown and don't want to settle for field goals. They played really good on offense too. We moved the ball and did what we needed to do early and then the defense just kind of took over. It was another total team effort and it takes a total team effort to beat a team like that they way we did. I am just so proud of our guys. We want to continue to get better as a football team. We know, everyone has talked about it, about the back half of our schedule. We know it is tough. We know what is in store for us. We will celebrate this tonight -- we have to. Obviously, it is hard to win football games. So, celebrate this and then tomorrow we will get on JMU (James Madison University). They had a week off last week. So, we are excited to get ready for them."

How It Happened

First Quarter
11:08 – UL | James Turner connected from 29 yards for his 11^th consecutive made field goal. The scoring drive covered 64 yards in 11 plays and took 3:52.
05:43 – UL | James Turner knocked through his second field goal of the day, this time from 39 yards to finish off a 9-play, 53-yard drive that lasted 3:44.

Second Quarter
14:27 – UL | Malik Cunningham finished off an 8-play, 76-yard drive with a touchdown run from the one-yard line to give the Cardinals a 13-0 lead.
11:15 – WF | Justice Ellison gave the Deacons their first points of the day on a three-yard touchdown run as part of a 3:12 drive that went 75 yards in nine plays.
05:45 – WF | Sam Hartman found Jahmal Banks from 16 yards to give Wake Forest its first lead of the day. The drive went 73 yards in nine plays and took 3:36 off the clock.

Third Quarter
14:13 – UL | Kei'Trel Clark picked off a Wake Forest pass and returned it 46 yards for a touchdown to give the Cardinals the lead back, 20-14.
06:04 – UL | Tiyon Evans broke free for a 52-yard rushing touchdown to extend Louisville's lead to 27-14. The run punctuated a 5-play, 74-yard drive that covered 2:16.
04:09 – UL | Malik Cunningham cashed in a Louisville interception with a nine-yard scoring run on the first play to extend the lead to 34-14.
03:12 – UL | Braden Smith found Jaelin Carter for a 28-yard touchdown on the WR pass on the second play after Louisville's fifth turnover forced of the third quarter.
0:00 – UL | Quincy Riley turned in Louisville's second pick-6 of the quarter, returning the interception 90 yards for the touchdown. The interception was Louisville's sixth turnover forced in the quarter.

Fourth Quarter
0:14 – WF | Trey Boll connected on a 5-yard touchdown pass from Mitch Griffis.

Up Next

Louisville will play its third straight home game next Saturday, facing James Madison at Cardinal Stadium.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPNU.