WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Through the first two games of the season, Miami’s offense has scored plenty and put up a series of gaudy, record-breaking numbers.

That trend continued early Friday when the fifth-ranked Hurricanes visited Wake Forest.

On this night, though, Miami needed every single bit of that first-half offensive prowess to weather an upset-minded Wake Forest team that wasn’t daunted by a 24-point deficit.

In the end, a record-breaking performance by quarterback Darian Mensah and a well-timed interception by Ethan O’Connor in the game’s final minutes helped the Hurricanes clinch a 33-20 win over the Demon Deacons in a crucial ACC matchup.

“We’ve got a lot of growing up to do and a lot of learning to do as well,” said Miami head coach Mario Cristobal, who notched the 100th win of his career Friday. “But that being said, proud of the effort because no one ever stopped fighting, no one ever stopped working and you get yourself a 13-point win on the road.”

One of the biggest reasons Miami was able to get that win was Mensah’s play, particularly in the first half.

The quarterback was 30 of 34 for 220 yards with three touchdowns. He set new Miami and ACC records for both consecutive completions in a single game with 24 and consecutive completions in multiple games with 35.

Additionally, wide receiver Malachi Toney finished with 12 catches for 114 yards and a touchdown and Mark Fletcher Jr. had 16 carries for 85 yards with a score. Fletcher also surpassed the 2,500-yard mark for his career on Friday.

But after the win, Mensah – like his coach – was focused on how the Hurricanes can continue improving.

“I think it’s just a testament to my o-line. I think they played an excellent game up front,” Mensah said of his record-breaking numbers. “But to be honest, I can’t even be that happy about it with how the second half went. …

"You’ve just got to rely on your teammates. I think we did that offensively. Our defense played a huge game in the second half, got huge fourth-down stops, so huge kudos to them. But yean, we’ve just got to be better offensively, execute better and I’ve got to be better on early downs.”

While Wake Forest held the Hurricanes (3-0, 2-0 ACC) to just one-second half score, Miami opened the game the way it opened its first two: with a touchdown.

The Hurricanes took the opening kick and marched down the field on a methodical, 14-play, 92-yard drive that took 7:33 off the clock and ended when Mensah connected with Joshua Moore on a 9-yard scoring pass.

Wake Forest, though, answered.

The Demon Deacons (2-1, 0-1) became the first opposing offense to score on the Miami defense this season, capping an 11-play, 75-yard drive when quarterback Gio Lopez connected with Kamrean Johnson on a 10-yard touchdown pass.

Then came Miami’s offensive barrage.

The Hurricanes scored 24 unanswered points and pushed their lead to 31-7 with 8:56 left in the third quarter while Mensah continued his ascent in both the Miami and ACC record books.

First came the 21-yard touchdown pass to Elija Lofton. Then Fletcher scored on a 1-yard run. That was followed by a 27-yard field goal from Jake Weinberg just before halftime.

And on Miami’s first drive of the second half, Mensah tossed a 2-yard scoring pass to Toney that sent a good number of Wake Forest fans to the exits.

Those fans would miss the Demon Deacons’ attempt at a comeback.

Wake Forest scored a pair of unanswered touchdowns to cut the deficit to 31-20 after Lopez engineered a pair of scoring drives that ended with the signal caller completing scoring passes to Jack Foley and Carlos Hernandez.

Lopez finished the night completing 29 of 46 passes for 312 yards with three touchdowns.

Miami’s offense, meanwhile, struggled to find the same rhythm it had in the first half.

The Hurricanes were forced to punt on four consecutive second-half possessions and had a field goal blocked on another one of their drives.

That, Mensah and his teammates said, was something the Hurricanes have to learn from.

“We just weren’t as efficient on first and second down, and so that put us in third-and-long and that’s where obviously, the defense wants you,” Mensah said. “So, I’ve got to be better at just being more efficient on first and second down. … I definitely would feel 10 times worse if we lost the game, so, yeah, happy to win. The whole goal is to go 1-0 and we did that today. So, proud of our guys, proud of our fight and our grit to close out the game.

Said offensive lineman Ryan Rodriguez, “I mean, it was a tough battle. They showed up in the second half, completely different team. Us too. We were kind of flat, but they honestly came out, played great. Their defense was stepping up, making great tackles, tough tackles and their offense was making plays. We’ve just got to learn from this. As [offensive line coach Alex] Mirabal said in the locker room, it’s better to learn from a win than learn from a loss. So, we’re still going to learn regardless, you know what I mean?”

The Demon Deacons put together another drive late and were just outside the red zone on Miami’s 22 with 2:30 left when O’Connor picked off Lopez for Miami’s first takeaway of the season, ending any thought of an upset and helping keep Miami unbeaten.

Now, the Hurricanes will turn their focus to next week’s game against Central Michigan, knowing next Saturday will bring them another opportunity to go 1-0 on the day.

“The calls and the execution behind them, they were not where they were in the first half. It’s that simple,” Cristobal said. “Everybody was working their butts off to try to do better and we didn’t perform to our standard.

“So you know what? There’s good things that you take from every game and certainly some things that we have to learn and improve upon and we’re looking forward to getting home and doing that.”