Nate Sheppard scored on a 3-yard run with 40 seconds remaining and Darian Mensah’s pass to Sahmir Hagans on the two-point conversion gave Duke a 46-45 victory at Clemson on Saturday afternoon.
Mensah threw three of his four touchdown passes in the first quarter, Cooper Barkate collected 127 receiving yards on six catches and Que’Sean Brown scored twice on receptions. Hagans returned a kickoff for a touchdown for Duke (5-3, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference)
The winning sequence came following a fourth-down defensive pass interference penalty that extended what became a game-winning 94-yard drive.
Cade Klubnik threw for two touchdowns and Adam Randall ran for two scores as Clemson overcame an early 14-point deficit.
Antonio Williams racked up 142 receiving yards among Klubnik’s 385 passing yards. Klubnik, who missed a game two weeks ago against SMU because of an ankle injury and then benefitted from last week’s open date, completed 27 of 36 passes.
Randall rushed for 89 yards for Clemson (3-5, 2-4), which has lost four home games.
Starting at its own 6-yard line following a Clemson punt, Duke converted on fourth-and-1 at the Tigers’ 26 on the first play following the 2-minute timeout. A holding penalty pushed the Blue Devils back before reaching the 18-yard line, where a defensive pass interference penalty on a fourth-and-10 play extended the possession. Sheppard scored on the next play.
Earlier in the fourth quarter following Todd Pelino’s 37-yard tying field goal for Duke, Clemson scored on the next snap on Klubnik’s 75-yard play to T.J. Moore on a screen pass for what became the winning points with 10:28 remaining.
Clemson scored a go-ahead touchdown on Peter Woods’ 1-yard run midway through the third quarter only to have Hagens return the ensuing kickoff 100 yards,
Clemson had a 15-play, 7:59 drive that included a fourth-down conversion late in the third quarter but settled for a 22-yard field goal and a 38-35 lead just 14 seconds into the fourth quarter.
The score was 28-28 following an exhausting first half. Duke went up 21-7 in the first quarter on touchdown catches by Brown, Barkate and Andrel Anthony.
Clemson scored in the second quarter on Klubnik’s 4-yard pass to Williams and two 2-yard runs by Randall, the latter providing a 28-21 edge with 1:01 left in the half. But Duke covered 75 yards on seven plays in 50 seconds to pull even when Brown posted a 43-yard TD reception.
–Field Level Media
