Gio Lopez threw three of his four touchdown passes to Dominick Barry, and No. 21 Wake Forest rolled to a 41-7 victory over California on Saturday night in Berkeley, Calif.
The Demon Deacons (6-1, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), playing with a national ranking for the first time this season, moved into second place in the conference.
Wake Forest has won four straight games since losing to undefeated Miami, with three of those victories coming in ACC road games. The Demon Deacons are 4-0 on the road overall.
Lopez threw for 267 yards on 16-of-23 passing and added 51 yards rushing. Barry, a freshman who had not scored previously, finished with 102 receiving yards on four catches.
Jackson Brousseau completed 17 of 29 passes for just 81 yards for Cal (3-4, 2-2). Former starter Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele entered late and threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Mason Mini with 8:29 remaining for the Bears’ first points. Sagapolutele finished with 110 passing yards.
Lopez threw two touchdown passes in the first nine minutes. His third went to Barry for 30 yards with nine seconds left in the first half, capping a 96-yard drive. His final scoring pass was a 2-yard toss to Barry in the third quarter, on the receiver’s only catch of the second half.
Lopez’s first touchdown pass went to Barry for 39 yards. Two minutes later, he connected with Jack Foley on a 29-yard scoring play.
Wake Forest added touchdown runs by Jamar Searcy from 1 yard out and Ty Clark III from 31 yards away in the second quarter.
The Demon Deacons led 34-0 at halftime and outgained Cal 394-142 in first-half total offense. The Bears punted four times in the first half, and a failed fourth-down conversion in the first quarter gave Wake Forest the ball at the Cal 34-yard line. After an offsides penalty against the Bears, Foley caught a touchdown pass on the next play.
The Bears reached the Wake Forest 1-yard line in the final two minutes of the first half. However, a 3-yard loss followed by three incomplete passes gave the ball back to the Demon Deacons, who then mounted their long scoring drive to end the half.