Gio Lopez leads No. 11 Wake Forest to 49-7 rout of No. 25 SMU for 7th straight win

DALLAS (AP) — Gio Lopez ran for two touchdowns and threw for a score, and No. 11 Wake Forest extended its winning streak to seven games while strengthening a case for a playoff spot with a 49-7 blowout of No. 25 SMU on Saturday.

The Demon Deacons (9-1, 6-1 ACC) led 42-0 at halftime while handing the Mustangs (7-3, 5-3) their first Atlantic Coast Conference loss at home in the Ford Stadium finale of their third ACC season. SMU entered 12-0 at home in league games.

Wake Forest, which was 13th in this week's rankings for the 12-team College Football Playoff, opened the scoring with Ty Clark's 27-yard touchdown on third-and-18, the first of four first-half TDs on third down. Another 1-yard score was set up by Jamar Searcy's 38-yard run on fourth-and-1.

Kevin Jennings threw for 209 yards with a touchdown and an interception while falling to 16-2 at home in his final Ford Stadium start. He had just 40 yards passing late in the first half when the deficit was 42-0.

Flickering CFP hopes were all but snuffed out for the Mustangs, who began the year hoping for a second playoff trip in three ACC seasons with Jennings while making a Heisman Trophy push for their hometown quarterback.

Carlos Hernandez had 94 yards receiving with a 44-yard touchdown for Wake Forest, the only team in FBC with five road victories over power conference teams this season. The dominant performance came two days after the school announced a contract extension for coach Jake Dickert.

The Demon Deacons outgained SMU 535-275 in a matchup of two of the top offenses in the country. Clark had 77 of the 286 yards rushing, and Lopez threw for 201 yards before Steele Pizzella took over mop-up duty late in the third quarter.

The shocking rout came a year after Wake Forest beat the Mustangs 13-12 at home to end SMU's 20-game winning streak in conference regular-season games. Nine of those were in the American Conference.

Wake Forest: The Demon Deacons scored 119 points in six quarters, going back to last week's 77-0 rout of Merrimack of FCS. They became the first team since Alabama in 2013 to score at least 20 points while shutting out the opponent in the first half of four consecutive games. That total score is 145-0.

SMU: Coach Rhett Lashlee hadn't seen anything like this in five seasons on the Ford Stadium sideline. The Mustangs came in at 27-4 at home under him, and the worst loss was eight points (42-34 to crosstown rival TCU in 2022, his first year). It was also his worst overall loss. The previous worst was 35 points at Tulane (59-24, also in 2022).

Wake Forest: At Georgia Tech next Saturday.

SMU: At No. 5 Notre Dame next Saturday.

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