Wake Forest 41, Cal 7: Lopez and Barry strike early and the Deacons pull away

No. 21 Wake Forest went to Berkeley on Saturday and left with a 41-7 win over Cal, its sixth in seven games. The tone was set inside the first seven minutes, when Gio Lopez found Dominick Barry for a 39-yard touchdown, and Cal never produced the kind of offense that could answer it.

The Demon Deacons are now 6-1. Cal falls to 3-4, and the 34-point margin is the Bears' worst result of the season, worse than the 45-24 loss to UCLA.

How it was won

The scoring summary we received covers only the opening touchdown. At 8:20 of the first quarter, Lopez hit Barry for 39 yards, and C. Calvert added the kick for a 7-0 lead. The remaining 34 Wake Forest points and Cal's lone touchdown were not itemised in the feed, so we will not guess at who scored them or when.

The box score supplied with the result is also partial. It records Wake Forest with 5 seconds of possession against Cal's 8:34, which places it early in the first quarter rather than at the final whistle. Read it as a snapshot of the opening stretch, not the full game.

In that stretch, Lopez was efficient: 4 of 5 for 99 yards and the touchdown. Barry caught 2 passes for 70 yards, and Antonio Meeks caught 2 for 29. Wake Forest had 99 yards and 4 first downs without a rushing attempt recorded.

Cal held the ball far longer and did little with it. Jackson Brousseau went 6 of 8 for 24 yards, Ashten Emory ran 4 times for 13 yards, and the Bears were 0 for 2 on third down with 37 total yards and 3 first downs. Chase Hendricks (1 catch, 9 yards) and Jordan King (1 catch, 6 yards) were the leading receivers in that window. Neither side had turned the ball over.

The pattern from the opening quarter is clear enough: Cal's long drives went nowhere, and Wake Forest needed very little time to score.

Against the number

Wake Forest closed as a 10-point favourite and won by 34, a comfortable cover. The moneyline had the Deacons at -395 and Cal at +310, so the market expected a Wake win; it did not expect one this lopsided.

The total closed at 54.5. With 48 points scored, the game went under, which fits how Cal's offense performed. Wake Forest supplied almost all of the scoring on its own.

For anyone tracking the Deacons, this is the second straight game in which they have won by more than 20, after the 38-14 win at NC State. Before that came a 57-3 win over Stanford. The one blemish remains a 33-20 home loss to No. 5 Miami.

The full line history is on the game page.

What's next

Cal travels to No. 24 SMU on Saturday, October 24 (CW). The Bears are 2-2 in their last four, with wins over Virginia Tech and Wagner and losses to UNLV and Clemson, and they will need a better offensive plan than the one on show here.

Wake Forest's next opponent was not listed in the schedule data we received, so we will add it once it is confirmed. At 6-1, with road wins at Louisville, NC State and Purdue, the Deacons remain one of the more consistent teams in the conference.