FINAL: No. 5 Miami Hurricanes 53, Duke Blue Devils 31
Cam Ward and Xavier Restrepo had a day for the Miami Hurricanes record book.
And it was needed to lead the No. 5 Hurricanes to a 53-31 comeback win over the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium to keep the team’s perfect record intact.
Miami improves to 9-0 and 5-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference play. Duke falls to 6-3 and 2-3 in the ACC.
And then a Ward mishap
The Hurricanes defense got a stop, giving the offense a chance to put the game away.
Instead, Cam Ward threw an interception while scrambling and trying to extend a play.
Duke is at its 40.
Another big Ward play
Cam Ward finds Jacolby George for a 49-yard touchdown to push UM’s lead to 39-31 with 12:56 left to play.
Defense holds Duke to field goal
Duke marched down to the Miami red zone, with a Tyler Baron facemask penalty setting Duke up with a first and goal at the 7.
The Blue Devils then throw three consecutive incompletions and settle for a 24-yard field goal.
Miami is still up, 32-31, with 13:51 left in the game.
And the Hurricanes lead again
The Hurricanes take advantage of the short field again, with Elija Lofton 2-yard touchdown run.
Miami is up 32-28, 3:08 left in the third quarter.
Big interception by a freshman
The Hurricanes force their second turnover of the game, with true freshman OJ Frederique intercepting Maalik Murphy and returning it 30 yards to the Duke 38.
Hurricanes offense gets going again.
Miami’s offense does its job, responding to the Duke touchdown drive with a seven-play, 69-yards touchdown drive of its own, capped by a 3-yard touchdown pass from Cam Ward to Xavier Restrepo.
Miami goes for two and gets it.
It’s a 3-point game, Duke up just 28-25, with 7:16 left in the third quarter.
Duke extends lead
The Blue Devils extended their lead with a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to start the third quarter.
It was capped with a 6-yard touchdown pass from Maalik Murphy to Jordan Moore on fourth and 1.
Duke is now up 28-17 on Miami, 10:03 left in the third quarter.
Duke takes advantage of UM penalties to take lead
Aaaaaaand the Duke Blue Devils take the lead on a Maalik Murphy 6-yard touchdown pass to Peyton Jones.
But before that, Miami’s defense did itself no favors by committing three penalties on the first four plays of the drive.
Blue Devils up 21-17 on Miami with 1:47 left in the second quarter
Borregales gives Hurricanes the lead
Miami made it down to the Duke 6-yard line but had to settle for a 29-yard Andres Borregales field goal to cap its 12-play drive retake the lead over Duke, 17-14, with 4:51 left in the second quarter.
Tie game
Duke gets a big play on a 40-yard pass from Maalik Murphy to running back Peyton Jones (Kiko Mauigoa in coverage).
Three plays later, Murphy hits Sahmir Hagans for a 27-yard touchdown.
And just like that, Miami and Duke are tied 14-14, 11:15 left in the second quarter.
Duke gets a touchdown back
The Duke Blue Devils had five (5) yards of offense through their first three drives.
Naturally, they put together an 83-yard touchdown drive on four plays in 55 seconds on their fourth drive. An 8-yard run from Peyton Jones capped the drive.
The Hurricanes’ lead is cut to 14-7 with 2:28 left in the first quarter.
Cam to Cam
The Hurricanes take advantage of the short field, with Cam Ward finding Cam McCormick for a 4-yard touchdown to put Miami up 14-0. with 5:04 left in the first quarter.
Of McCormick’s four catches this season, three are touchdowns.
It capped an eight-play, 45-yard drive.
Big interception by the Hurricanes
After a punt on its second drive, the Hurricanes pinned Duke to its 5-yard line.
On the first play of the ensuing Blue Devils drive, Hurricanes safety Mishael Powell intercepted a Maalik Murphy pass down the right sideline to set up a short Miami field.
That was Powell’s team-leading fourth interception — a new single-season career high after having three last season with Washington.
Ward to Restrepo
Well... we already have another Cam Ward highlight.
The Hurricanes capped their first drive with a 34-yard touchdown pass to Xavier Restrepo in which he avoided a sack, rolled to his right and fired a pass to the end zone that was tipped by Duke safety Terry Moore and into Restrepo’s hands.
It capped an eight-play, 78-yard drive to put Miami up 7-0 early.
Ward is now the eighth UM quarterback with 25 touchdowns in a season, joining Steve Walsh (29 in 1988), Ken Dorsey (28 in 2002, 25 in 2000), Brad Kaaya (27 in 2016, 26 in 2014), Malik Rosier (26 in 2017), Vinny Testaverde (26 in 1986), Tyler Van Dyke (25 in 2021) and Bernie Kosar (25 in 1984).
UM without two key defenders
The Hurricanes are expected to be without a pair of defenders on Saturday, as defensive lineman Elijah Alston and linebacker Raul “Popo” Aguirre were both in street clothes during pregame warmups.
Season recap
▪ Miami 41, Florida 17: Cam Ward threw for 385 yards and three touchdowns, Mark Fletcher added two scores on the ground, the defense held its own despite one of its top players exiting the game early with injury, and the No. 19 Hurricanes made quick work of the Florida Gators with a season-opening win at Gainesville’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium to kick off a critical Year 3 under Mario Cristobal.
▪ Miami 56, Florida A&M 9: That one went as expected. Cam Ward threw for three touchdowns and ran for a fourth before turning the game over to the second-string offense midway through the third quarter. The defense held the Rattlers to just three field goals.
▪ Miami 62, Ball State 0: The No. 10 Miami Hurricanes had to wait through nearly two-and-a-half hours of lightning delays before kicking off their home game against Ball State on Saturday.
Once the game finally began, they wasted little time asserting their dominance, as was expected in this non-conference matchup.
The final score from a soggy Hard Rock Stadium: Hurricanes 62, Ball State 0.
It’s the most points Miami has scored in a shutout of a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent in program history.
▪ Miami 50, USF Bulls 15: The Miami Hurricanes and USF Bulls played a hectic, lengthy, back-and-forth first half on Saturday.
But once the teams returned from their locker rooms, the Hurricanes took over and played like the team that has dominated through the first three weeks of the season.
Fueled by three total rushing touchdowns by Damien Martinez, including two in the second half, and another stellar performance from quarterback Cam Ward, No. 8 Miami pulled away from USF and left Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium with a 50-15 road win.
▪ Miami 38, Virginia Tech 34: The No. 7 Hurricanes overcame a pair of 10-point second-half deficits to hold off Virginia Tech at Hard Rock Stadium to improve to 5-0 and 1-0 in ACC play.
Cam Ward led touchdown drives of 89, 70 and 57 yards in the second half, and Miami survived a final-play Hail Mary attempt from Virgnia Tech that was ultimately ruled incomplete after a lengthy review.
▪ Miami 39, Cal 38: The No. 8 Hurricanes erased a 25-point second-half deficit for a 39-38 win over the Cal Golden Bears on Saturday in front of a sellout crowd of 52,428 at California Memorial Stadium on the day ESPN’s College GameDay came to Berkeley for the first-time in the show’s history.
Miami trailed Cal 35-10 with 8:06 left in the third quarter before it ripped off four consecutive touchdown drives while holding the Golden Bears to just a field goal to secure the win.
The game-winning play: A 5-yard touchdown pass from Cam Ward to Elijah Arroyo on a drive that included a 77-yard catch-and-run from Xavier Restrepo to get Miami into the red zone and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that forced them back 15 yards with less than a minute left to play and a 22-yard catch-and-run from Damien Martinez on third and 20 to get Miami back to the Cal 3.
Miami linebacker Francisco Mauigoa intercepted a Fernando Mendoza fourth-down pass with 11 seconds left to seal the game.
▪ Miami 52, Louisville 45: The Miami Hurricanes — once again — had to hold their breath and wait to see if a late call would fall in their favor.
Cam Ward was hit as he threw in the fourth quarter Saturday with Miami holding a one-score lead over the Louisville Cardinals. The ball wobbled out of his hand, a Louisville defender charged for it and ran the length of the field for what was initially ruled a game-tying fumble return for a touchdown.
After the review was completed, the Hurricanes were able to exhale. Forward pass. Incomplete pass. Miami maintains possession and the lead.
The sixth-ranked Hurricanes scored two plays later on a Damien Martinez 30-yard rushing touchdown to pull away for a 52-45 win over Louisville on Saturday at L&N Financial Credit Union Stadium to keep their perfect record intact.
▪ Miami 36, Florida State 14: The No. 6 Miami Hurricanes had to pivot from their customary ways of winning football games on Saturday.
But they still found a way to keep their perfect season alive with a 36-14 win over Florida State Seminoles at Hard Rock Stadium for their first win in the rivalry since the 2020 season.
Quarterback Cam Ward had a rare subpar outing, completing 22 of 34 passes for 208 yards and no touchdowns while being sacked four times — although he did catch a 7-yard touchdown pass from Elijah Arroyo in the fourth quarter to put Miami up 29-7.
It was Ward’s first time this season not throwing for at least 300 yards and the first time without multiple touchdown passes, let alone going without finding the end zone at all.
Instead, Miami (8-0, 4-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) relied on the run game to build its lead in the first half and its kicking game and defense to pull away from the Seminoles (1-7, 1-6 ACC).
▪ Miami vs. Duke (Today)
▪ Miami at Georgia Tech (Nov. 9, time TBD)
▪ Miami vs. Wake Forest (Nov. 23, time TBD)
▪ Miami at Syracuse (Nov. 30, time TBD)
Pregame Hurricanes reading
Need to catch up before kickoff? Here are the highlights of the Miami Herald’s coverage over the past few days.
▪ As hype continues, Cam Ward’s focus is on ‘What’s next.’ For the Hurricanes, that’s Duke
▪ With emergence of run game, Hurricanes are showing their offense isn’t one dimensional
▪ ‘I’m at peace’: Manny Diaz talks return to Miami as Hurricanes host Duke Blue Devils
▪ What Duke’s Manny Diaz gets credit for as he returns to face Canes
▪ The ‘strong message’ Mario Cristobal hopes Miami Hurricanes are sending with 8-0 start
This story was originally published November 2, 2024 at 11:30 AM.
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