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North Carolina A&M came into their penultimate game of the season riding a high, having defeated the rival Generals by a convincing score. Though the Farmers had already lost to VMI, they remained serious contendors to become champions of the South Atlantic region since VMI had lost to Virginia, pending the results of the Cavaliers' game against Georgetown. The game against the Baptists was widely seen as a warm-up match for their Thanksgiving Day game against Virginia Tech.

Wake Forest, on the other hand, had lost 2 out of 6 games, with their only wins coming in their season opener over Warrenton High School and a very weak Roanoke team. Though they had been shut out in their most recent contest, against Davidson, there was some optimism in the fact that they had lost competitively to North Carolina back on October 7th. Led by head coach Frank Howard, a former stand-out at NC A&M from 1905-1908 (and assistant coach in 1909), it was said Thompson had turned out the strongest Wake Forest football team since the school revived the sport in 1908. Even still, "If no Wake Forest man gets hurt to any extent this practice is hoped to aid them exceedingly in winning the Thanksgiving game from the Training Ship Franklin" (The Charlotte Evening Chronicle, November 18th, 1911, p. 10; News and Observer, November 18th, 1911, p. 3).

Frank Thompson was not the only point of familiarity between the two teams. NC A&M's regular right guard, James Leonidas "Lonnie" Dunn, was brothers with Wake Forest's right guard, Surry Dunn, while captains Tal Stafford and C. L. Betts had played together in high school. Unfortunately, the Aggies' Dunn sat out of the game, along with Cool and Hartsell, the latter being employed as the umpire for the day (Charlotte Observer, November 18th, 1911, p. 3).

The game kicked off at precisely 3:37 PM, with about 600 fans in attendance, including exactly 226 fans from Raleigh. Weather in nearby Raleigh that day was unseasonably warm, and a trace amount of rain fell (News and Observer, November 19th, 1911, Section Three, p. 1). The Red and White kicked off the first of the game's 12-minute quarters, with Robertson booting the ball "away down the field" -- the kick was returned about 5 yards. The Gold and Black made no gain on first down, and punted on second.

Details of the game's progress remain somewhat sparce: Spencer ran the ball first for 9 yards, with subsequent runs of 5-to-8 yards, mostly around or over left tackle. Stafford attempted a quarterback run but was stood up by Utley, forcing a Red and White punt. Unfortunately for the Farmers, the punt was long, resulting in a touchback and allowing Wake Forest to put the ball in play at their own 25-yard line. After a run for no gain and a tackle for a significant loss by Floyd, the Baptists punted again. NC State fumbled the kick, but still managed to recover the ball.

After a run for no gain, Spencer toted the pigskin 25-yards. After another run for little gain, the Aggies punted again. Utley caught the kick and returned the ball 25 yards; he was tackled by Hurtt after giving the NC State faithful "a good scare." Wake Forest ran two more plays for next-to-no gain, and then punted again. This time, Robertson reeled in the kick; he was tackled at the A&M 25-yard line.

The Farmers did likewise, and punted poorly, sending a high, lofty ball to midfield, where "the redoubtable Phil Utley," who nearly ran the ball back for a touchdown (a distance of 40-60 yards), but was stopped after 10 yards short by everything-man Robertson. Despite his efforts, the next play was a pass for touchdown to Faucette, breaking the punting battle after about 9 minutes of play. Because the touchdown was in the corner of the endzone, WFU attempted a kick-out maneuver for their extra point, but the play failed, giving the Baptists a 5-to-nothing lead. "Wake Forest went crazy with delight" and let out a "deafening outburst of joy."

Robertson kicked off again for the Farmers, sending the first kick out of bounds at the 10-yard line; by rule, the team kicked off again. The second was caught by Faucette for the Gold and Black, who "had possession just long enough to see the desirability of punting." The Farmers made two attempts to advance the ball and then did so as well. Wake Forest folloed suit. Savage and Spencer did the bulk of the booting for both teams.

That punt was reeled in by Robertson, who advanced the ball at least 20 yards. The last impactful play of the quarter for NC A&M was a 6-1/2-yard run by Robertson. Wake Forest eventually got the ball and was forced to make a "mismanaged" punt. The Farmers failed to capitalize on the bad punt, however: a "convenient bounce" put the ball back into the hands of the Gold and Black at the center of the field with 26-to-28 yards to go. The Baptists were in the midst of lining up for a play, which all observers seem to have thought would be a goal from field, when the quarter ended, forcing a temporary cessation of play.

When play began anew, disaster struck Wake Forest: Gattis fumbled the ball on an attempted "tackle around tackle run." The fumble was recovered by Spencer, who scooped it up and ran the ball the length of the field for an A&M touchdown. Sources disagree on the distance of the run, with most newspapers writing that the run was for 82 yards, while Red and White reported "only" a 65-yard dash. The Farmers also attempted a kick-out, but failed to get off the kick, leaving the score tied 5 apiece. A time for the score has not been located.

The Baptists kicked off for the first time of the day. Floyd received the kick at the Aggies' 15-yard line and advanced it 17 yards, to the 32. After an 8-yard gain by Robertson, the Farmers advanced the ball down the field through so-called "straight football." Eventually, Stafford completed a forward pass to Seifert, who "had some men to dodge, but after circling to the left and side-stepping the over-anxious Wake Foresters," scored a touchdown, running 25-40 yards in the process. Hurtt made the goal kick to make the score 11-5 in favor of A&M a few minutes after the previous score.

The remainder of the half was described only briefly. Noteworthy plays included a 13-yard kickoff return by Stafford, a 12-yard run by Anthony, a 30-yard punt return by an unspecified Wake Forest player (probably Utley, but this was not recorded), a 10+ yard run by Spencer, and another 7-yard gain by Spencer. The quarter ended with the ball in Wake Forest's possession, 35-yards from A&M's goal.

The Farmers kicked off again to open the half; I suppose Wake Forest won the toss and deferred, and the Aggies elected to kick off at the start the game. The Aggies' kick went to roughly the Wake Forest 30-35 yard line; nothing doing, the Baptists punted. The Aggies got one first down themselves before doing likewise. The Gold and Black's next series of downs is not described, but likely were inconsequential, as was the Farmers' next possession, which totaled five plays (including a complete and incomplete forward pass) before they once again punted. Around this time, Robertson was replaced by Patton, and Hassell for Davis, who himself had replaced Phillips at left end earlier in the quarter.

Once back in control of the ball, Utley ran the ball for Wake Forest, but fumbled. Hurtt picked it up and ran it 30 yards for what appeared to be a touchdown; unfortunately, Davis failed to report his substitution to the referee, so rather than the touchdown, the Farmers were penalized 15 yards. Other plays of note for the third quarter were a 20-yard run by Spencer around left end, "some lively running by Faucetts [sic], of Wake Forest and Patton, of A. and M. in advancing punts." The third quarter remained otherwise undescribed.

Wake Forest opened the fourth quarter with the ball around the A&M 40-yard line. Not long thereafter, the Gold and Black punted; the Farmers fumbled the kick, giving the Baptists the ball back around the Red and White's 15 yard line. Fortunately for the visitors, their line held stout, forcing Wake Forest to attempt a goal kick via drop kick, which fell short. Feature plays of the next few minutes included runs of 12 and 11 yards, respectively, by Stafford and Spencer, as well as a 10-yard run by Patton.

At some time in the final quarter, the Aggies fumbled another punt, giving Wake Forest another chance to tie things up late in the game, with the ball resting on the A&M 25-yard line. "What followed," wrote News and Observer, "was a pure gift of fortune to A. and M." Wake Forest attempted another goal kick -- this time via drop kick -- but the try was blocked by Floyd, sending the ball caroming 40 yards back in the other direction, where it was recovered by the Farmers.

Overtaken with ecstasy, the Aggies attempted a forward pass, but it fell incomplete, resulting in a turnover and giving the Gold and White the ball back at their own 15-yard line. Wake Forest was about to punt themselves when an errant snap from Carter sent the ball over their own goal line; Savage recovered the ball, but not before the opposition reached him, resulting in a safety. This gave the Aggies a 13-5 advantage towards the closing minutes of the game. Which Aggie player made the tackle for the safety is not specified.

The game was nearly over. News and Observer describes the contest's closing seconds as follows: "For some reason known only to the referee [Cecil C. Broughton, of Wake Forest], the ball was put into play after this on the Wake Forest 25-yard line; but this queer decision made no difference. After one scrimmage time was called."

There was only one other feature of note in the fourth quarter. It's not exactly clear when it happened, but at some point, a series of injuries led to a cascade of changes to the Gold and Black line-up. At some point, Utley had to come out of the game due to injury; he was replaced by Betts, whose spot at left end was filled by Joyner. Near the end of the game, Betts, too, was shaken up quite badly. "When Utley saw Betts out and with the Baptists in a bad place he [Utley] jumped up and ran across the field, insisting that he be allowed to return."

As the above incident relates, Utley was lauded for his temerity in a losing effort, as was Dunn, Faucette, and Savage, whose punting was said to have singlehandedly kept Wake Forest in the game. For the Farmers, praise was sparse, given the lackluster showing, but praise was generally given to Spencer, Seifert, and Anthony. Otherwise, no one had any positive words on the game, with even Coach Greene that "It was an off day for the whole team" (News and Observer, November 19th, 1911, p. 9; Red and White, Vol. XIII No. 3 (November 1911), p. 220; Charlotte Observer, November 19th, 1911, p. 12; The Charlotte News, November 19th, 1911, p. 10; The Washington Post, November 19th, 1911, Sporting Section, p. 3).

This was Wake Forest's second-to-last game of the season, with their final game coming on Thanksgiving Day against the U.S.S. Franklin, whom the Farmers had defeated 23-to-nothing to open the season back on October 7th. The Baptists took the occaision to play the Tars on a neutral site, in Durham, and went on to win 26-0. The 3 wins Wake Forest closed the season with was their most since 1892, and was good enough to make Frank Thompson the first head coach the school retained since resurrecting football in 1908. He went on to coach two more seasons for the Gold and Black.