Miami , FL-- They had to wait 15 years to win a major bowl game, but tonight it was a Red Squeeze that took all of the juice out of Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl as Louisville won their first major bowl game since 1991, 24-13. "Our defense just hung in there and gave our offense a chance to go score and win it in the fourth quarter," Louisville Coach Bobby Petrino said. Perhaps the biggest question of the night was not about the Louisville victory, but whether their MVP quarterback, Brian Brohm, will return next season, or will he opt to enter the NFL Draft. Brohm threw for 311 yards and Anthony Allen scored two touchdowns, one on a trick play, to help Louisville finish 12-1 and clinch its highest end-of-season ranking ever. "Right now, coming back and trying to win a national title looks very appealing," junior quarterback Brohm said.

Louisville's Mascot Shows Who Is the Winner

His yardage total was the third-highest in Orange Bowl history, behind only Michigan's Tom Brady and Southern Cal's Matt Leinart.

The Cardinals averaged 39 points and ranked second in the nation in total offense this season, but fell behind 13-10 in the final period before their high-powered offense got into gear. Touchdown drives of 81 and 71 yards on consecutive possessions sealed their first win in a major bowl since the 1991 Fiesta Bowl.

For Wake Forest, they can look at the chance to play for an Orange Bowl trophy a success even though they did not win tonight. They finished the season 11-3 with the loss tonight and recorded the best season that Wake has seen in school history.

"Looking back on our season, you definitely have to be happy with what we did," linebacker Jon Abbate said. "We turned the corner for Wake Forest football."

Wake was led by freshman quarterback Riley Skinner, who threw for 271 yards in the loss. He is the reason that the Wake team has plenty of optimism for the future as he tossed for 2051 yards in the 2006 season including tonight. Pretty good way to start your career in the ACC.

Wake did show some life against the Cardinals and exhibited some of their best defense of the season. They had plenty life left and after Sam Swank connected on a 46 yard field goal knotting the game at 13 with 14:46 remaining it looked like the Demon Deacons would over take a slumping Louisville offense.

Louisville answered back with two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, including the Bolen 18 yard run that gave the Cardinals a 24-13 lead with 4:57 remaining in the game. At that point, the odds were stacked against the freshman led offense for Wake.

Tonight's visit to the Orange Bowl was only the seventh for Wake Forest in 105 seasons