Wake Forest pulled off its biggest win of the young season Saturday, stunning No. 16 Louisville 30-27 after blocking a potential game-tying 57-yard field goal in the closing seconds.
The Demon Deacons improved to 3-1 overall and 1-1 in the ACC, bouncing back from last week’s 33-20 loss to No. 5 Miami with an impressive road victory over another nationally ranked conference opponent.
Connor Calvert’s 32-yard field goal with 6:20 remaining gave Wake Forest a 30-27 lead and ultimately proved to be the difference.
Louisville had two chances to tie the game afterward but missed both field-goal attempts. The final opportunity came with 22 seconds remaining, when the Cardinals lined up for a 57-yard attempt that Wake Forest blocked to preserve the victory.
Carlos Hernandez delivered a huge afternoon for the Demon Deacons, catching nine passes for 194 yards, including a 77-yard touchdown reception.
Quarterback Gio Lopez completed 12 of 19 passes for 225 yards, while Ty Clark rushed for two touchdowns.
Calvert was perfect in the kicking game, converting all three of his field-goal attempts and all three extra points.
Defensively, Aiden Hall led Wake Forest with 11 tackles.
The victory moves Wake Forest to 3-1 and Louisville to 2-2 and further complicates an already crowded early-season ACC race.
Wake Forest returns home next week to face Stanford.
👉 Need more scores from today? View the North Carolina College Football Scoreboard, with updates and finals from all 24 games involving a team from the Old North State (FBS, FCS, D2, D3 and JUCO).
📊 Wake Forest-Louisville By the Numbers
- 402-399: Wake Forest finished with a three-yard edge in total offense despite Louisville running 13 more plays.
- 177-75: The biggest statistical difference was on the ground. Wake averaged 4.2 yards per carry while Louisville managed only 2.0.
- 4: Wake Forest sacks. The Deacons dropped Lincoln Kienholz for 33 yards in losses.
- 3-for-3: Connor Calvert on field goals, connecting from 39, 35 and 32 yards. Calvert kicked the game-winner last year when the Demon Deacons stunned SMU.
- 2-for-4: Louisville on field goals. Carson Hilbert missed from 42 yards with 2:29 remaining before Nick Keller’s 57-yard attempt was blocked with 15 seconds left.
- 4-for-4: Wake Forest scored on all four trips into the red zone.
- 2-for-10: Wake Forest on third down, which makes scoring 30 points and winning on the road even more interesting.
- 10: Wake Forest penalties for 85 yards. The Deacons were able to overcome what was hardly a clean hardly a clean performance
⭐ Wake Forest Standouts
Carlos Hernandez: Nine catches, 194 yards and a touchdown. Hernandez accounted for more than 85 percent of Wake Forest’s 225 receiving yards. His 77-yard touchdown gave Wake a 17-14 lead in the second quarter.
Ty Clark: 21 carries for 91 yards and two touchdowns, both on six-yard runs in the first half.
Gio Lopez: Completed 12 of 19 attempts for 225 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions — 11.8 yards per attempt and 18.8 per completion. The absence of interceptions may be the most crucial number in this stat line.
Aiden Hall: Team-high 11 tackles. And there are some nice defensive numbers farther down the sheet: Gabe Kirschke had two sacks, while Langston Hardy and Zach Lohavichan each added one. Wake finished with nine tackles for loss.
🔑 How Wake Forest Won
Wake didn’t win by dominating the box score. Louisville had more first downs (24-20), more passing yards (324-225) and held the ball for more than seven additional minutes. But Wake ran the ball much better, produced explosive passes when it needed them and repeatedly finished drives with points.
The defense rose up in crucial moments. Look at the fourth quarter. Hernandez fumbled on the first play, giving Louisville possession in Wake territory. The defense responded by forcing a turnover on downs at the Wake 38. Wake then went 11 plays, 48 yards and burned 6:35, ending with Calvert’s go-ahead 32-yarder.
Louisville’s final three fourth-quarter possessions after recovering that fumble: Turnover on downs → missed 42-yard field goal → blocked 57-yard field goal. The Cardinals did not score in the final period.
What does this win mean for Wake Forest?
It is still September, so declaring Wake Forest an ACC contender would be getting ahead of the evidence. But four games into the season, there is enough on the Deacs’ resume to say something more modest — and meaningful:
Wake Forest looks capable of having a voice in the ACC race.
That wasn’t necessarily the expectation entering the season. Wake was picked 13th in the 17-team ACC preseason media poll, well behind Miami, SMU, Louisville and Clemson.
The past two weeks have started to change the conversation.
Wake lost 33-20 to Miami, but the Demon Deacons held the Hurricanes to nine second-half points and stayed within striking distance against the team picked to win the ACC.
Then came Saturday. Louisville entered ranked No. 16 after beating then-No. 16 SMU 41-31 the previous week. The Cardinals had scored on every red-zone possession through their first three games and hadn’t committed a turnover.
Wake went to Louisville and beat them anyway.
