No. 14 Wake Forest Routs Virginia 51-7 as Gio Lopez, Carlos Hernandez Reconnect

The last time Gio Lopez saw Virginia, the quarterback was wearing North Carolina blue, getting sacked three times and throwing two interceptions in a 17-16 loss. A year later, in Wake Forest's old gold and black, the evening went very differently.

No. 14 Wake Forest beat Virginia 51-7 on Saturday at Allegacy Financial Stadium in Winston-Salem, a Halloween beatdown that was decided long before the trick-or-treaters hit the streets. Gio Lopez threw for 229 yards and a touchdown, Carlos Hernandez caught eight passes for 136 yards in a return to the lineup, Ty Clark III ran for three scores, and the Wake defense kept Virginia off the board until the final minute of the third quarter. The Demon Deacons improved to 7-1 and 5-1 in the ACC, extending their winning streak to five games. Virginia fell to 4-5 and 2-4, its third straight loss.

It was 20-0 at halftime and 44-0 late in the third quarter before Beau Pribula found Da'Shawn Martin for a 47-yard touchdown with 50 seconds left in the period to avoid the shutout.

Carlos Hernandez is back, and so is the offense

The biggest pregame question in Winston-Salem was the health of Carlos Hernandez. Wake's top receiver came in with 49 catches for 720 yards but missed the 41-7 win over Cal on Oct. 17. It took exactly two passes to answer the question.

After Kam Shanks returned Virginia's opening punt 30 yards, Lopez hit Hernandez for 16 yards and then 33 more, and Ty Clark III punched it in from 2 yards out at 12:29 of the first quarter. Five plays, 51 yards, 1:08. Virginia had barely gotten its helmets on.

The Cavaliers had a chance to respond and did not take it. Beau Pribula led a nine-play drive into Wake territory, helped along by a Wake personal foul, before Braylon Johnson stepped in front of a throw at the Wake 35. Lopez then put together an 11-play march that ended with a 45-yard Connor Calvert field goal, and it was 10-0 after one.

The turning point: fourth-and-1 at the 6

Virginia's best drive of the day came early in the second quarter, and it ended as a symbol of everything that has gone wrong in Charlottesville this month. Wake had just gone 81 yards in 10 plays, with Clark ripping off a 26-yard run and scoring from 4 yards out at 11:33 to make it 17-0. The Cavaliers answered with a 13-play, 75-yard march that chewed 6:44. Pribula found Jacquon Gibson for 35 yards, and Virginia got all the way to the Wake 6.

On fourth-and-1, Xay Davis took the handoff and ran into Zach Lohavichan for no gain. Turnover on downs, 4:45 left in the half.

Wake took over and went 82 yards in 14 plays, with Hernandez snagging a 25-yarder and Shanks adding a 21-yard catch, before Calvert hit a 25-yard field goal with 10 seconds left. Instead of a 17-7 game, it was 20-0 at the half, a 10-point swing built entirely on one stuffed run. For an offense that had scored 16 points or fewer in three of its previous four games, that was a mountain.

Shanks flips it, Hernandez finishes it

The third quarter was a clinic in how a good team suffocates a struggling one. Calvert's third field goal, a 44-yarder at 9:59, pushed it to 23-0. Then Dallas Afalava sacked Pribula for an 11-yard loss, Virginia punted, and Shanks took the kick 64 yards to the Virginia 14. Two plays later, Lopez found Hernandez for a 10-yard touchdown at 7:07. 30-0.

Virginia went for it again on fourth-and-2 at the Wake 49 and again came up empty, with Gabe Kirschke chasing Pribula into an incompletion. Wake needed two plays to punish it. Lopez hit Drayden Dickmann for 47 yards, and Clark scored for the third time, from 2 yards out at 4:24. 37-0.

Searcy and the second unit finish it

Jamar Searcy kept the avalanche going on the next possession, breaking a 55-yard run and finishing the drive with a 7-yard touchdown at 1:57 of the third quarter. 44-0. After Virginia's lone score, Wake went to its reserves and kept scoring anyway. KD Daniels and Steele Pizzella moved the chains on a 10-play, 75-yard drive, and Kyndall McCaleb capped it with a 27-yard touchdown run at 9:08 of the fourth quarter. 51-7.

Eli Holstein took over at quarterback for Virginia and drove the Cavaliers to the Wake 5, but three straight incompletions from there ended in a turnover on downs with 5:52 left.

Stars beyond the box score

Lopez was sharp and in control from the opening drive, completing 13 of 21 passes for 229 yards and a touchdown without an interception and running 13 times for 64 yards. The damage came from timing and patience rather than chaos, and the one ugly moment, a first-quarter fumble, ended with Lopez falling on the ball. Hernandez finished with eight catches for 136 yards and a touchdown, and the receiver's return changed the geometry of the entire offense. Virginia's secondary simply had no answer.

Clark was the hammer, scoring three times on eight carries for 48 yards, and Jamar Searcy added 78 yards and a touchdown on eight carries. And Shanks may have been the most valuable player nobody will talk about. The two Shanks punt returns, 30 yards and 64 yards, both set up touchdown drives of fewer than 60 yards.

Defensively, Wake made Virginia earn every yard and then took them away on the money downs. Lohavichan's fourth-down stop, Afalava's sack, Johnson's interception and Kirschke's pressure all came at moments when the Cavaliers were trying to climb back into the game. Braylon Johnson finished with seven tackles to go with the interception, and Virginia's running game never got going, finishing with 16 yards on 19 carries.

The numbers that tell the story

Wake Forest ran for roughly 300 yards at better than six yards a carry, while Virginia managed 16 yards on the ground. Kam Shanks returned two punts for 94 yards, and Connor Calvert went 3 for 3 on field goals. Da'Shawn Martin was Virginia's lone bright spot, catching nine passes for 119 yards and the touchdown, and Pribula finished 20 of 29 for 212 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Virginia came up empty on three fourth-down tries, two of them inside the Wake 10. The full breakdown is in the official box score (opens in a new tab).

What it means

For Wake Forest, this is the kind of game that tells you a ranking is real. Jake Dickert's team came out of its open date without missing a beat. Over the last four games, the margin is now 187-31. At 5-1 in conference play, Wake is firmly in the ACC title picture.

For Virginia, the slide continues. The Cavaliers were 3-1 after four games, but they have now lost four of their last five, including a loss at SMU and a 19-16 heartbreaker against Duke, and now this. "Guys have got to strain a little bit harder," Tony Elliott said this week. An offense that had topped 16 points only once in its previous four games has to find a pulse quickly. At 4-5, Virginia needs two wins in its last three games to reach a bowl.

Wake Forest hosts Merrimack for homecoming on Nov. 7 at 3:30 p.m. on ACC Network. Virginia is off next week before hosting Cal on Nov. 14.

The last word

Revenge is a strong word for a quarterback facing an old foe in a new uniform. But the quarterback who threw two picks against Virginia a year ago spent this Halloween picking the Cavaliers apart instead, and Wake Forest looked every bit like a team that intends to play in December.

Sources: ESPN box score and play-by-play, theScore, Wake Forest Athletics, Field Level Media and Sports Illustrated's Virginia site. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Wake Forest Athletics.