Rain, Rain Go Away
The rain was so heavy sweeping across Navy-Marine Corps Stadium from the south that I thought for a while the Wake Forest-Navy game might turn into a honest-to-goodness naval engagement. I was amazed that Marshall Williams could catch a long pass from Riley Skinner in those conditions.
The Deacons trail 6-3 at halftime. Their one good drive came when Coach Steed Lobotzke, the offensive coordinator and line coach, shuffled the offensive line and went with Joe Birdsong at left tackle, Barrett McMillin at left guard, Trey Bailey at center, Michael Hoag at right guard and Jeff Griffin at right tackle. No Russ Nenon, no Chris DeGeare. Wake picked up three first downs, getting strong runnig from both Brandon Pendergrass and Josh Adams, before Mike Rinfrette was stopped twice on third and fourth down with two to go. Jimmy Newman kicked a 40-yard field goal that tied the game at 3.
Lee Malchow is becoming one of the really interesting stories on this team. He arrived as a walk-on, but wouldn’t be kept off the field. He actually started at rush end today instead of Gelo Orange, and played well. Also Joey Ehrmann started at linebacker instead of Jonathan Jones, which had to be a rush for him considering he’s from nearby Baltimore.
The heavy rain has returned just as the teams are getting ready to kick off for the second half. My great hope is that it blows over by the time I have to descend from the press deck for post-game interviews.