Cal Football Game Summary: No. 21 Wake Forest Crushes the Bears

Cal trailed 21st-ranked Wake Forest 34-0 at halftime and lost to the Demon Deacons 41-7 before a crowd of 33,797 Saturday night in Berkeley.

Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was available for Saturday’s game, but Jackson Brousseau started the game at quarterback for the Bears. This was the second straight start for Brousseau, who made his first start for Cal in last week’s 25-20 victory over Virginia Tech.

Sagapolutele entered the game in the third quarter with the Bears trailing 41-0, and he threw a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to avoid the shutout.

The game summary:

NO. 21 WAKE FOREST 41, CAL 7

RECORDS: CAL (3-4, 2-2 ACC), WAKE FOREST (6-1, 4-1 ACC)

Player of the Game

Wake Forest quarterback Gio Lopez. Lopez threw for 267 yards and four touchdown with no interceptions and also ran for 51 yards. He had 246 of his passing yards and three of his touchdown passes in the first half when Wake Forest took a 34-0 lead.

Turning Point

On Wake Forest’s first possession, the Demon Deacons drove 99 yards for a touchdown that put Wake Forest ahead 7-0. On Cal’s ensuing possession the Bears tried to go for a first down on a fourth-and-1 play from the Bears’ 34-yard line, but Jackson Brousseau threw an incompletion. Wake Forest turned the resulting possession into another touchdown and a 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter.

KEY PLAY 1: Wake Forest quarterback Gio Lopez threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dominick Barry to complete a 99-yard drive and give Wake Forest a 7-0 lead with 8:20 left in the first quarter. All 99 yards came on four Lopez completions.

KEY PLAY 2: Cal attempted to go for a first down on a fourth-and-1 play from the Bears’ 34-yard line, and Jackson Brousseau’s pass to Chase Hendricks was incomplete, turning the ball over to Wake Forest at the Cal 34-yard line with 6:26 left in the first quarter. It led to Wake Forest’s second touchdown as indicated in KEY PLAY 3

KEY PLAY 3: Gio Lopez threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Jack Foley, increasing Wake Forest’s lead to 14-0 with 6:15 remaining in the first quarter.

KEY PLAY 4: Gio Lopez completed a 34-yard pass to Kam Shanks that put the ball at the Cal 6-yard line. That led to Jamar Searcy’s 1-yard touchdown run that gave Wake Forest a 21-0 lead with 11:55 left in the second quarter.

KEY PLAY 5: Wake Forest running back Ty Clark scored a touchdown on a 31-yard run, increasing the Demon Deacons lead to 27-0 with 8:54 left in the first half after the conversion failed.

KEY PLAYS 6, 7, 8, 9: After Cal got a first down at the Wake Forest 1-yard line with 1:40 left in the first half, the Bears failed to score on the next four plays, keeping the score at 27-0.

KEY PLAY 10: Gio Lopez completed a 34-yard touchdown pass to Dominick Barry to give Wake Forest a 34-0 lead with nine seconds left in the first half.

KEY PLAY 11: Gio Lopez completed a 2-yard touchdown pass to Dominick Barry to increase Wake Forest's lead to 41-0 with 2:57 left in the third quarter.

KEY PLAY 12: Cal's Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele completed a 28-yard touchdown pass to Mason Mini to cut the deficit to 41-7 with 8:29 left in the fourth quarter.

STAT OF THE GAME: Wake Forest’s 34-point lead at halftime represented the largest Cal halftime deficit in 13 years, since being down to Oregon 41-3 at halftime in 2013.

STAT OF THE GAME II: Wake Forest rolled up 394 yards of offense in the first half when it averaged 12.3 yards per offensive play.

STAT OF THE GAME III: Wake Forest had 246 passing yards in the first half; Cal had 66.

INDIVIDUAL STAT OF THE GAME: Wake Forest tight end Dominick Barry had four receptions, but three of them went for touchdowns. He had 102 receiving yards.

QUARTERBACK STATISTICS: Cal’s Jackson Brousseau was 17-for-29 for 81 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions; Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was 15-for-18 for 110 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.; Wake Forest’s Gio Lopez was 16-for-23 for 267 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. He also ran for 51 yards.

CAL PLAYER AVAILABILITY: Wide receiver Ian Strong was not listed on the injury report, but he did not play. Center Bastian Swinney left the game in the first quarter with an injury and did not return. Running back Ashten Emory left the game in the third quarter with an injury and did not return. Running back Adam Mohammed, running back Carter Vargas, offensive lineman Jimothy Lewis Jr. and defensive lineman Nate Burrell did not play. Quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele and safety Kingston Lopa were available.

WAKE FOREST PLAYER AVAILABILITY: Wide receiver Carlos Hernandez, who leads the nation in receptions with 49, did not play.

What It Means

Even though quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele did not start the game and even though the Bears were facing a nationally ranked opponent, Cal did not expect to be dominated at home the way they were. There were boos from the crowd in the second quarter and again at halftime. Very few people were left in the stands in the fourth quarter. Cal would have moved into a second-place tie with SMU in the ACC with a win Saturday, but Cal did not come close to accomplishing that.

Cal now has a losing overall record with five games left, and Cal is likely to be an underdog in four of those five games. The loss ended the momentum Cal had built since the second half of the UNLV game, which is when Pat McCann began calling the offensive plays for the Bears. No. 21 Wake Forest is the second-highest ranked ACC team, behind No. 3 Miami, so there is no shame in losing this game, but the margin of the defeat was disappointing. Cal is 3-4, and Justin Wilcox had a 4-3 record after seven games in his first seasons as the Bears’ head coach in 2017. Cal doesn’t play another home game until the Big Game against Stanford on November 21.

Cal’s Bowl Barometer

Cal’s bowl chances dropped to about 25%. The Bears need to win three of their remaining five games to reach a bowl game for the fourth straight year, and the game against Stanford may be the only game left in which Cal will be favored.

Cal’s ACC Title Barometer

Cal’s chance of winning the ACC title is about 1%. With two conference losses, Cal needs to win all five of its remaining games to have any chance of landing a berth in the ACC title game, and even going 5-0 down the stretch might not be good enough to make it. Cal will be a significant underdog against SMU on the road next week, and the Bears do not resemble a team capable of winning all five of the games it has left.

Cal’s Next Game

Cal (3-4, 2-2 ACC) vs. No. 24 SMU (5-1, 3-1 ACC)

Site: Gerald J. Ford Stadium, Dallas, Texas

Date: Saturday, October 24

Starting time: 9 a.m. Pacific time (11 a.m. Dallas time)

TV: The CW

Most recent SMU result: SMU beat Virginia 23-13 on Saturday as Mustangs quarterback Kevin Jennings passed for 246 yards and two touchdowns and former Cal running Kendrick Raphael rushed for 124 yards. SMU is 4-0 at home and will play its fourth straight game at home next week against Cal.

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