Louisville vs. Wake Forest: Score, Highlights and Twitter Reaction

The Louisville Cardinals improved to 4-4 as they held off the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, 20-19, on Friday night at BB&T Field in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The Cardinals improved their all-time record versus Wake Forest to 3-0 but more importantly kept their bowl hopes alive despite starting the season 0-3. Wake Forest fell to 3-6 with the loss.

The key play in the game came around the three-minute mark in the third quarter, when Chucky Williams intercepted Wake Forest's John Wolford in Demon Deacons territory. Williams took it to the Wake Forest 22-yard line, and despite not moving the ball, Louisville took its first lead of the game with a 39-yard field goal by John Wallace.

The Cardinals never looked back en route to the victory.

The early star of the game was Louisville wide receiver Jamari Staples, who caught two first-half touchdowns and finished with 10 catches for 133 yards. He showed off his athletic ability by stretching over the goal line on his first touchdown, which helped the team tie the game at 10-10 with 8:17 remaining until halftime. ESPN College Football provided footage of the sequence:

Prior to that, Wake Forest wide receiver Cortez Lewis put himself on the highlight reel with an acrobatic catch and juke, resulting in a 78-yard touchdown that helped the Demon Deacons take a 10-0 lead. ESPN College Football was busy Friday with highlights from this game:

Cortez's teammate Tabari Hines did his best to show up his fellow wide receiver with a catch and juke of his own, which went for 58 yards and helped give the Demon Deacons a 19-10 lead. ESPN shared the highlight:

It looked good for Wake Forest until Staples scored his second touchdown with 22 seconds remaining in the half. A tweet before the game by ESPN seemed to foreshadow the outcome:

While the Cardinals passing game was a big reason why they won the game, inaccurate passing from Wake Forest's quarterbacks helped immensely as well.

Wolford and Kendall Hinton combined for four interceptions, which ended up being a decisive factor in the game. The second pick led to the go-ahead field goal, and the third came in the red zone with 12:54 to play and Wake looking to take the lead.

Per Yahoo Sports' Dr. Saturday, the Demon Deacons should have avoided the turnover:

It wasn't the only sign of ineptitude for Wake, who blew its first-half lead with four ineffective drives to start the second half, per Joedy McCreary of the Associated Press:

The Demon Deacons added another interception to their turnover mark with four minutes left in the game shortly after blocking a Louisville field-goal attempt. This time, Shaq Wiggins picked the pass off near the goal line and returned the ball 36 yards.

It wasn't the nail in the coffin, however, as Wake forced a Louisville punt and got the ball back with 1:43 to play on its own 11-yard line.

Four plays and a fumble in its own territory later, Louisville took over on downs and ran out the clock.

Quarterback Lamar Jackson was efficient for Louisville, completing 19 of 26 passes for 207 yards and two touchdowns. He came into the game, and ended it, with an impressive resume, per ESPN's Twitter account:

However, Jackson eventually left after suffering an injury. The Cardinals were down to the their third quarterback, Kyle Bolin, after second-stringer Reggie Bonnafon suffered an injury.

It didn't matter.

Head coach Bobby Petrino's squad held on to improve to 4-4 overall and 3-2 in the ACC. Two victories in their final four games will make the Cardinals bowl-eligible, and they'll have a good chance with games against Virginia and Syracuse next on the schedule.

It's the fourth victory in five games for the Cardinals, who were left for dead after an 0-3 start to the season. They are still mathematically alive to win the ACC Atlantic Division, but at 4-0, Clemson will likely run away with the crown, leaving Louisville to be happy with any bowl.

This season will still be a success if the team can reach the postseason. This may not have looked like the most impressive victory, but anytime a team can win on the road in its conference, it's a step in the right direction.

Post-game Reaction

It wasn't the prettiest victory for the Cardinals. However, as former Louisville linebacker and current Buffalo Bills defender Preston Brown said in this tweet, it doesn't matter how you get the W, as long as you get it:

It was a career night for Staples. He had his first 100-yard performance since the first game of his career in 2013 as a freshman at UAB. He was happy with his night, per the team's Twitter account:

Petrino didn't sound thrilled with how his team played overall, but like Brown, was pleased with the outcome, per Steve Jones of the Courier-Journal: "I’m happy to get out of here with a win. It was a battle, came down right to the end…The defense really came to play in the second half, really dominated, came up with big interceptions for us time and time again.”