Wake Forest wasted a huge opportunity to climb its way to bowl eligibility. The Demon Deacons were home against a Cal team that had not won an ACC game this season. But the Deacs got decimated by Cal’s offense in a 46-36 loss in Winston-Salem Friday night. After winning three of the last four games, Wake throws away its recent success and is up against it now.
Consider this stat. At the end of the first half, Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza was 30 of 40 passing for 289 yards and two touchdowns. Mendoza’s 30 completions were more than the total number of plays the Wake Forest offense had even run. That tells you all you need to know about how this went.
Wake Defense Was Just What Cal Needed
Mendoza finished the game 40 of 56, throwing for 385 yards and two touchdowns. Wake finished the game 4-5 overall. The Deacs have to win two of their last three to become bowl-eligible. One of those games is against Miami. The way Mendoza performed against the Wake defense, Miami quarterback Cam Ward, one of the leading passers in the country, would like to play the game today. He will enjoy watching the film of this.
Cal was up 10-0 on Wake before the Demon Deacons even took a snap on offense. The Bears got a 29-yard Derek Morris field goal to go up 3-0. Then on the ensuing kickoff, Wake’s Demond Claiborne fumbled the return at his 18-yard line. It was picked up by Cal’s Hunter Barth and returned for a touchdown. Wake had already dug itself a hole from which it would never exit. “I just think we got completely outplayed,” Wake head coach Dave Clawson said after the game.
It’s not that Wake did not have opportunities. Halfway through the first quarter, Mendoza was picked off by Wake’s Nick Anderson at the Demon Deacons 40-yard line. Anderson returned it 30 yards to the Cal 30-yard line. One Hank Bachmeier completion and three Claiborne runs later, Wake got a one-yard touchdown from the running back to make it 10-7 Cal.
But the Bears answered. They always had answers on Friday night. Mendoza engineered a seven-play drive that covered 59 yards and only took 1:57 off the clock. On first and 10 from the Wake 11, he rolled to his right and hit a diving Mikey Matthews in the front of the end zone to go back up by 10 points at 17-7 in the second quarter.
Shaking Up The Offense
Cal got a 38-yard field goal out of Morris to expand that lead to 20-7. And Wake Forest had not even managed 100 yards of offense yet with four minutes left in the half. So offensive coordinator Warren Ruggiero decided to shake up the snow globe a little.
On fourth and one from the Cal 44-yard line, the Deacs ran a flea flicker. Claiborne took the direct snap. He handed it off to Horatio Fields on the end around and then discreetly faded into the mix downfield. Fields pitched it to Bachmeier who had set up out wide on the snap. Bachmeier found a wide-open Claiborne at the 15-yard line and the receiver ran it in from there for a 44-yard touchdown play.
But Cal responded with ease. A Deacs’ defensive secondary that was already reeling all season was playing without Jamare Glasker and Capone Blue due to injuries. Mendoza picked the defense apart on the next drive. The Bears’ entire trip downfield was built on passing yards with Mendoza going six for six for 65 yards. He connected with Tobias Merriweather for a two-yard touchdown pass to put the Cal lead back up to 26-14 after the missed two-point conversion.
Ryan Coe, the Cal kicker who had been benched earlier in the year after missing several key field goals managed to get a 54-yarder just over the crossbar at the end of the half to give the Bears a 29-14 lead.
Second Half Signs of Life
Playing with Cal pass rushers in his face all night, Bachmeier managed to put together a short, big play drive halfway through the third quarter. After two completions totaling 33 yards, he connected with the “new guy” for a score. Donavon Greene, who has missed most of the season with nagging injuries managed to high-point the catch over a Cal defender along the left sideline at the Bears 26-yard line. He was alone for the rest of the play for the 45-yard touchdown to shrink the Deacs deficit to 29-21.
Mendoza also had a good night with his feet, netting 58 yards on the ground. Near the end of the third quarter, he ran up the middle for a five-yard touchdown to put the lead back up to two scores at 36-21.
Claiborne had 47 yards of his 113 total rushing yards on the first series of the fourth quarter. That put Bachmeier in position to scramble in from four yards out for the score. He completed a pass to tight end Harry Lodge for the two-point conversion and Wake was within a touchdown at 36-29 with most of the fourth quarter still to go.
Coe, who was kicking the long attempts, hit another 54-yard field goal to get it back up to 39-29 for Cal.
Desperation Plays
On fourth and 10 from their 25-yard line, the Deacs had no choice but to go for it. Bachmeier hit Taylor Morin up the middle for 18 yards. The sixth-year quarterback kept the drive alive again several plays later with his running, diving forward on a gain of eight yards for a first down at the Cal 34-yard line.
Tate Carney finished the scoring drive with a two-yard rush up the middle to make it 39-36 with still four minutes left to play.
The Wake defense stiffened, holding Cal to a three and out. The Deacs started their drive at their 17-yard line with 2:16 to play and all of their timeouts available. The opportunity to tie or win the game was right in front of them. But on the second play of the drive, Bachmeier forced a pass into double coverage. It was intended for Morin at the Wake 27 but was intercepted by Cal’s Liam Johnson. It was the kind of high-wire attempt Bachmeier had a history of attempting but had mostly stayed away from this season. Bachmeier finished the night 19 of 36 passing for 274 yards, two touchdowns, and three interceptions. He was sacked seven times on the night.
A Jaivian Thomas 11-yard touchdown run put the game away for Cal. The Bears moved to 5-4 on the season. Cal had lost their first four conference games by a total of 10 points. But now they will be bowl-eligible in their inaugural ACC season with one more win.
The Hill to Climb
For Wake Forest, it is another week of going back to look at what will surely be painful game films to watch. But Clawson already has a pretty clear assessment of the night. “It’s hard to feel good about any aspect of today. I don’t feel we played well on offense. I don’t think we played well on defense. And I thought our kicking game was probably one of the worst special teams games we had here in the last few years.”
Last Word will have more post-game reactions from the coach and players on Saturday.
