By The Tobacco Road Scribe
Winston-Salem, NC – Wake Forest spent the final Saturday afternoon of September proving it could win a tense Atlantic Coast Conference game on the road against a ranked opponent. One week later, the Demon Deacons demonstrated something entirely different: They could dominate an ACC opponent from beginning to end.
Behind five total touchdowns from quarterback Gio Lopez, a defense that suffocated Stanford’s offense and an attack that rolled up 519 yards, Wake Forest routed the Cardinal 57-3 Saturday at Allegacy Financial Stadium, producing the largest margin of victory in an ACC game in program history.
Wake Forest scored two touchdowns in every quarter, led 29-3 by halftime and never allowed Stanford into the end zone. The Demon Deacons improved to 4-1 overall and 2-1 in ACC play, following their 30-27 upset at then-No. 16 Louisville with an emphatic home victory that provided further evidence that coach Jake Dickert’s team could become a significant factor in the conference race. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=”0″}
Lopez was the centerpiece. The Wake Forest quarterback completed 20 of 27 passes for 265 yards and two touchdowns without an interception while rushing 12 times for 88 yards and a career-high three scores. He accounted for 353 yards of offense before giving way to backup Steele Pizzella.
The Demon Deacons finished with 322 passing yards and 197 rushing yards, averaged more than seven yards per offensive play and accumulated 26 first downs. Stanford, by comparison, managed only 197 total yards and 13 first downs.
“Really fired up for our football team,” Dickert said afterward. “We really challenged them this week. Really challenged them for a complete game on offense, defense and special teams.”
The response was difficult to miss.
A record-setting afternoon in Winston-Salem
The final margin – 54 points – represented more than another conference victory.
It was the largest margin by which Wake Forest has ever defeated an ACC opponent, surpassing the 52-point margin from a 59-7 victory at Duke on Nov. 24, 2018. Wake Forest’s 57 points were also its most in an ACC game since scoring 55 in a 58-55 loss at North Carolina in 2021.
That historical context illustrated the completeness of Saturday’s performance.
Wake Forest did not need a barrage of turnovers, special-teams touchdowns or unusual breaks to create the lopsided score. The Demon Deacons simply controlled the line of scrimmage, moved the ball repeatedly, limited Stanford’s explosive plays and converted drives into touchdowns.
The scoring distribution was remarkably consistent.
Wake Forest scored 15 points in the first quarter, 14 in the second, 14 in the third and 14 in the fourth.
Stanford scored three.
The Cardinal never reached the end zone.
“There’s still a lot to clean up, but a lot of excitement in that locker room,” Dickert said. “It was a dominant performance from first snap all the way through.”
That description was particularly meaningful because of what Wake Forest had done seven days earlier.
The Demon Deacons went into Louisville and defeated the No. 16 Cardinals 30-27, earning their second road victory over a top-20 opponent during Dickert’s tenure. The Louisville game required Wake Forest to survive pressure, make adjustments and protect a narrow lead.
Saturday demanded something else: avoiding an emotional letdown.
Wake Forest did precisely that.
Lopez takes command
The statistical line told only part of the story of Lopez’s afternoon.
His ability to threaten Stanford with his arm and legs repeatedly forced the Cardinal defense to account for an extra dimension. When passing lanes opened, Lopez delivered the football accurately. When Stanford’s coverage created running space, he used it.
His three rushing touchdowns were the most by a Wake Forest quarterback in a game since Jamie Newman scored three against Memphis in December 2018. Remarkably, Lopez’s three rushing touchdowns Saturday matched his rushing-touchdown total for his entire 2025 season at North Carolina.
Lopez entered Saturday having established himself among the ACC’s more productive quarterbacks. He left it with an even stronger statistical résumé.
Through five games, Lopez has produced 1,569 total yards, 15 touchdowns and only one interception. His 1,377 passing yards rank third in the conference, behind SMU’s Kevin Jennings and Virginia Tech’s Ethan Grunkmeyer.
The most important number Saturday, however, was zero.
Lopez did not turn the ball over.
Against a Stanford team that had entered the weekend with momentum following a 34-27 comeback victory over Georgia Tech, Wake Forest never provided the Cardinal with the short field or sudden opportunity that might have changed the game’s direction. Stanford had rallied from a 20-10 deficit against Georgia Tech by scoring touchdowns on three consecutive second-half possessions.
Wake Forest made certain there would be no similar comeback in Winston-Salem.
Wake Forest establishes control immediately
Stanford actually had the first opportunity to score.
The Cardinal moved into field-goal range on their opening possession but failed to capitalize, and Wake Forest answered with the kind of drive that would define the afternoon.
The Demon Deacons traveled 72 yards in eight plays, with Deuce Lawrence finishing the possession by powering through Stanford defenders for a 12-yard touchdown with 9:02 remaining in the first quarter.
Lawrence needed only six carries to accumulate 47 yards and averaged 7.8 yards per attempt. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=”7″}
Wake Forest’s next touchdown belonged to Lopez.
The quarterback directed a six-play, 65-yard march and finished it with a 5-yard touchdown run. Will Loerzel added a two-point conversion, and Wake Forest had a 15-0 advantage with 2:28 still remaining in the first quarter.
Two Wake Forest possessions.
Two touchdowns.
Stanford finally found points early in the second quarter. Emmet Kenney converted a 43-yard field goal after a 12-play, 53-yard possession that consumed nearly six minutes.
For a moment, the Cardinal had cut the deficit to 15-3.
It would be their final scoring play of the afternoon.
The closing minutes of the half change everything
One of the most important stretches came late in the second quarter.
Stanford still had a theoretical path back into the game when Wake Forest led 15-3. A touchdown could have reduced the margin to one possession. A defensive stop might have allowed the Cardinal to reach halftime within striking distance.
Instead, Wake Forest landed two more blows.
With 3:15 remaining in the half, Lopez escaped for a 12-yard touchdown run to complete a five-play, 50-yard possession. Connor Calvert’s extra point made it 22-3.
Wake Forest then got the ball back and went 82 yards in only eight plays.
Lopez found Jack Foley for a 4-yard touchdown with eight seconds remaining, sending the Demon Deacons into the locker room ahead 29-3.
Foley finished with three catches for 54 yards. Carlos Hernandez remained Lopez’s primary target, catching seven passes for 87 yards.
The touchdown before halftime mattered beyond the seven points.
Stanford had just endured a half in which Wake Forest controlled much of the action. Instead of reaching the break with a manageable deficit and an opportunity to reorganize, the Cardinal suddenly faced a 26-point hole.
Wake Forest would receive the second-half kickoff.
Any remaining uncertainty disappeared quickly.
No easing off after halftime
The Demon Deacons produced perhaps their most methodical possession of the game immediately after halftime.
Wake Forest traveled 75 yards in 13 plays and consumed 4:59 before Lopez scored from 4 yards out.
It was his third rushing touchdown.
The score pushed Wake Forest’s advantage to 36-3 and made Lopez the first Demon Deacons quarterback in nearly eight years to rush for three touchdowns in a game.
By then, Stanford’s challenge was no longer simply stopping Wake Forest.
The Cardinal had to find an offensive answer against a defense that had surrendered almost nothing.
It never came.
Wake Forest defense shuts down Stanford
Wake Forest’s offensive numbers will command most of the attention from a 57-point performance, but the defensive statistics may have been equally impressive.
Stanford finished with 197 yards of total offense.
The Cardinal produced 148 passing yards and only 49 rushing yards, averaging approximately 1.4 yards per rushing attempt. Stanford gained 13 first downs and converted six of its third-down opportunities.
Micah Ford led Stanford with 45 rushing yards on 16 attempts, an average of just 2.8 yards per carry. No Cardinal run gained more than 10 yards.
Quarterback Davis Warren, who had thrown for a career-high 396 yards and three touchdowns against Georgia Tech one week earlier, was held to 136 passing yards.
That represented one of the most striking week-to-week reversals of Saturday’s game.
Warren had entered Winston-Salem after earning ACC Quarterback of the Week honors. Stanford had entered after demonstrating that it could erase a double-digit deficit against Georgia Tech.
Wake Forest’s defense removed both possibilities.
Defensive back Davaughn Patterson led the Demon Deacons with 10 tackles, while linebacker Vincent Firenze added eight tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack.
Wake Forest also generated the game’s defining turnover.
In the third quarter, defensive lineman Dallas Afalava intercepted Warren on fourth down, ending Warren’s streak of 167 consecutive pass attempts without an interception. Warren had matched the Stanford school record held by Davis Mills before the streak ended.
Wake Forest immediately turned the takeaway into points.
Lopez eventually found Loerzel for a 1-yard touchdown with 1:14 left in the third quarter.
Wake Forest 43, Stanford 3.
Game over, if it had not been already.
Balance makes Wake Forest difficult to defend
One of the most encouraging elements for Wake Forest was that Lopez did not have to carry the offense alone.
Twelve Demon Deacons caught at least one pass. Nine caught passes from Lopez before he left the game.
Hernandez led the team with seven receptions for 87 yards, continuing a productive season in which he has become one of the central pieces of Wake Forest’s passing game. Foley provided 54 yards and a touchdown.
The running game was similarly diverse.
Lopez led Wake Forest with 88 rushing yards. Lawrence had 47. Ty Clark III added 23, Pizzella 21 and Jamar Searcy 14.
Wake Forest finished with six rushing touchdowns.
That balance complicated Stanford’s defensive choices. Concentrating on Lopez as a passer opened opportunities for designed quarterback runs and scrambles. Committing additional defenders to him created opportunities elsewhere.
Wake Forest averaged 5.3 yards per rushing attempt and accumulated 197 yards on the ground.
Through the air, Lopez averaged nearly 10 yards per completion.
The result was an offense capable of attacking Stanford in multiple ways rather than depending on a single matchup.
Stanford’s promising momentum disappears
The contrast was severe for Stanford.
The Cardinal arrived in Winston-Salem at 2-2 after one of the most encouraging performances of Tavita Pritchard’s first season as head coach.
Stanford had rallied past Georgia Tech 34-27 after trailing 20-10. Warren threw for 396 yards and three touchdowns. The victory gave Pritchard his first ACC win and offered signs that Stanford might be developing an offensive identity.
None of that carried over.
Stanford fell to 2-3 overall and 1-3 in the ACC. More troubling, the Cardinal have scored in single digits in all three of their losses this season.
The defeat also extended Stanford’s school-record road losing streak to 13 games. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=”18″}
The road gets no easier.
Stanford travels next to face No. 3 Notre Dame, giving the Cardinal little time to dwell on what happened in Winston-Salem.
For Pritchard’s team, the immediate challenge will be determining why an offense that had looked so dangerous against Georgia Tech produced only three points and fewer than 200 yards one week later.
A different kind of victory for Wake Forest
Wake Forest’s season has already included several distinctly different tests.
The Demon Deacons opened with a 38-16 victory over Akron.
They survived a 38-36 road game at Purdue.
They lost 33-20 at home to then-No. 5 Miami.
They responded by going to Louisville and upsetting the No. 16 Cardinals 30-27.
Now comes 57-3 over Stanford.
Taken together, those results paint an increasingly interesting picture.
Wake Forest has demonstrated that it can win a close game away from home. It has competed against a highly ranked Miami team. It has won as a road underdog against a ranked ACC opponent. And now it has shown the capacity to overwhelm a conference opponent that entered the game coming off a victory.
At 4-1, Wake Forest’s only defeat came against a Miami team that entered this weekend ranked among the nation’s best.
The Demon Deacons are also 2-0 away from Winston-Salem.
Saturday’s result therefore should not be viewed only through the size of the score. More important is what it suggests about Wake Forest’s trajectory.
The Demon Deacons appear to be getting better.
Lopez’s development changes Wake Forest’s ceiling
Quarterback play is often the dividing line between competitive teams and legitimate conference contenders, and Lopez’s first five games suggest Wake Forest may have found an answer at the position.
His efficiency against Stanford was especially important.
Lopez completed 74.1 percent of his passes. He threw two touchdowns. He did not throw an interception. He averaged 9.8 yards per pass completion and added 7.3 yards per rushing attempt.
The three rushing touchdowns created a career-high five total scores.
Through five games, Lopez has already generated more total touchdowns – 15 – than the 13 he produced across 11 games at North Carolina in 2025. Wake Forest’s schedule provides plenty of opportunities for the quarterback to be tested.
But Saturday demonstrated what the Demon Deacons’ offense can become when Lopez is decisive and accurate.
Stanford could not consistently pressure him without sacrificing containment.
It could not focus solely on the passing game.
And once Wake Forest established its running game, the Cardinal struggled to force the Demon Deacons off schedule.
That combination is difficult for any defense.
The numbers underline the domination
A glance at the final statistical sheet illustrates just how little separation there was between perception and reality Saturday.
Total offense: Wake Forest 519, Stanford 197.
Passing yards: Wake Forest 322, Stanford 148.
Rushing yards: Wake Forest 197, Stanford 49.
First downs: Wake Forest 26, Stanford 13.
Touchdowns: Wake Forest eight, Stanford zero.
Final score: Wake Forest 57, Stanford 3.
One statistic was unusual: Stanford actually held the ball longer, finishing with 31:14 in time of possession compared with Wake Forest’s 28:46.
It did not matter.
Wake Forest was dramatically more efficient with its possessions.
The Demon Deacons needed only 28 minutes and 46 seconds with the football to generate 519 yards and eight touchdowns. Stanford possessed it for more than half the game and produced three points.
That is the difference between possession and production.
Wake Forest had both explosiveness and finishing ability.
Reserves maintain the standard
Another indication of the depth of the victory came after Lopez’s afternoon ended.
Wake Forest did not simply drain the clock.
Pizzella completed two of three passes for 57 yards and led another touchdown drive. He scored himself on a 10-yard run with 10:43 remaining, pushing the lead to 50-3.
Searcy finished the scoring with a 6-yard touchdown run with 2:19 remaining.
The Demon Deacons had scored two touchdowns in every quarter.
That consistency supported Dickert’s emphasis on playing a complete game.
Wake Forest had not merely produced an early avalanche and coasted.
It won the first quarter 15-0.
It won the second 14-3.
It won the third 14-0.
It won the fourth 14-0.
For coaches, that may have been as satisfying as the record margin itself.
From Louisville drama to Stanford domination
Wake Forest’s past two Saturdays could hardly have looked more different.
At Louisville, the Demon Deacons needed to survive a talented ranked opponent in a hostile stadium. Dickert called that performance “so far from perfect” but celebrated his team’s ability to find a way to win.
Against Stanford, Wake Forest eliminated most of the suspense.
That progression matters.
Teams hoping to contend over a full conference schedule cannot depend on one style of victory. Some Saturdays require survival. Others require a favorite to establish control and prevent an opponent from gaining confidence.
Wake Forest has now done both in consecutive weeks.
The result is a 4-1 record and a team that should receive increased attention in the broader ACC discussion.
Before Saturday, the Demon Deacons could point to the Louisville upset as evidence of their potential.
After Saturday, they can point to something more substantial: consecutive conference victories achieved in dramatically different ways.
Attention turns to an old rival
There will be little opportunity for Wake Forest to celebrate.
Next comes NC State.
Wake Forest travels to Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh next Saturday for a noon kickoff on The CW. It will be the 120th meeting between the programs and the continuation of one of college football’s longest continuously played rivalries.
The Demon Deacons won 34-30 the last time they visited Carter-Finley Stadium in 2024, securing the victory with a late Branson Combs interception.
The rivalry also represents another measuring point for Dickert’s team.
Beating Louisville established Wake Forest’s ability to win against a ranked opponent.
Crushing Stanford showed that the Demon Deacons could handle success and avoid a letdown.
Winning at NC State would extend the momentum and strengthen Wake Forest’s position in the ACC.
Dickert was already looking toward Raleigh after Saturday’s victory.
He described himself as “excited for a Big Four matchup next week.”
That game should reveal more about how far Wake Forest has come.
Wake Forest is becoming difficult to overlook
There are Saturdays when a football team wins and leaves questions unanswered.
This was not one of them.
Wake Forest entered Saturday needing to demonstrate that its victory over Louisville was not an isolated high point. The Demon Deacons responded with the largest ACC victory in school history.
Lopez accounted for five touchdowns.
The offense generated 519 yards.
The defense allowed 197.
Stanford never reached the end zone.
Wake Forest scored two touchdowns in every quarter and did not commit the kind of offensive mistakes that might have given the Cardinal an avenue back into the game.
The 57-3 final score was historic, but the broader significance lies in what Wake Forest has constructed through five games.
The Demon Deacons are 4-1.
They have won twice on the road.
They own a victory over a ranked Louisville team.
Their only defeat came against a top-five Miami team.
Their quarterback has produced 15 touchdowns against one interception.
And their defense just held an ACC opponent to three points.
No single October victory determines a season. Stanford’s struggles, particularly on the road, provide necessary context, and much more difficult work remains on Wake Forest’s schedule.
Still, the trajectory is clear.
A week after proving it could win a tense conference game in Louisville, Wake Forest proved it could deliver a complete one in Winston-Salem.
“Plenty of areas to get better obviously,” Dickert said afterward. “Plenty to learn from.”
That is the coach’s task.
For everyone else, Saturday offered a simpler conclusion.
Wake Forest is 4-1, Gio Lopez is emerging as one of the ACC’s most productive quarterbacks, and the Demon Deacons are heading into their rivalry game at NC State with considerably more than momentum.
They are heading there with evidence that they belong in the ACC conversation.
Next: Wake Forest visits NC State at noon Saturday, Oct. 10, at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh. The game will be televised on The CW. Stanford travels to face No. 3 Notre Dame.