How long will it last? They play Texas Tech in Lubbock next Saturday. Can they pull that one out?
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> T.A. McLendon and Philip Rivers got North Carolina State's Atlantic Coast Conference campaign off to a promising start.
McLendon ran for a pair of touchdowns and Rivers displayed solid signal-calling as the 20th-ranked Wolfpack defeated Wake Forest, 32-13, in the ACC opener for both teams.
North Carolina State led, 7-6, before McLendon scored from five yards out with 11:59 remaining in the second quarter. Just over five minutes later, McLendon crossed the goal line on a three-yard run to stake the Wolfpack to a 20-6 cushion.
Wake Forest got within 23-13 on James MacPherson's 53-yard touchdown pass to Jax Landfried with 9:04 to go in the third quarter, but Shawn Price picked up a fumble by MacPherson and scampered 13 yards for a touchdown with 5:15 to play in the period to end the Demon Deacons' momentum.
"That was big because we were sloppy often in the second half," Wolfpack coach Chuck Amato said. "It was a huge play because it put us that much further ahead and then put more pressure on them."
"There was a point in the second half where we caught some of the momentum and took the crowd out of it," Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe said. "But we made some mistakes, and when you do that in front of the home crowd, (NC State) will make you pay."
Austin Herbert, who made only two of four extra-point attempts, concluded the scoring with a 27-yard field goal 53 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Rivers was 17-for-27 for 223 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions for the Wolfpack, who improved to 4-0. He produced a school-record six touchdowns - five in the air and one on the ground - in a 65-19 rout of Navy last week.
Jerricho Cotchery caught six balls for 90 yards, including a five-yard touchdown pass from Rivers that got the Wolfpack on the board first, with 4:56 to play in the opening quarter.
"Our kids are really getting close," said Amato, whose first Wolfpack team, in 2000, also began the year with four consecutive wins. "We're really getting tight and that helps us a lot. It helps us get tougher, but we've got a lot of games left and so we have to focus on that."
MacPherson was just 7-for-15 for 104 yards and one touchdown for Wake Forest (1-2, 0-1).
Landfried had 92 receiving yards on five catches for the Demon Deacons in the loss.
Wake Forest outgained NC State on the ground, 208-130, but the Wolfpack held an overall advantage of 321-301 in yards.
"I think our kids played hard," Grobe said. "We just didn't play as good as we needed to win on the road against a pretty good football team."
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