Fernando Mendoza threw for two touchdown passes and ran for another to help Cal beat Wake Forest 46-36 on Friday night in Winston-Salem, N.C., for the Bears’ first Atlantic Coast Conference win.
Mendoza threw for 385 yards by completing 40 of 56 passes with an interception.
Derek Morris kicked two field goals and Ryan Coe booted a 54-yarder in the fourth quarter for Cal (5-4, 1-4 ACC), which dropped its previous four conference games by a total of nine points. The Bears are first-year ACC members.
Demond Claiborne rushed for 113 yards and a touchdown and added a scoring reception for Wake Forest (4-5. 2-3). Hank Bachmeier was 19-for-36 for 274 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions.
Liam Johnson intercepted Bachmeier’s pass on the first play after the two-minute timeout. Five plays later, Jaivian Thomas’ 11-yard TD run sealed the victory.
Bachmeier threw a 45-yard touchdown pass to Donavon Greene with 7:43 left in the third quarter to trim Wake Forest’s deficit to 29-21.
The Demon Deacons were poised to score again, but a blocked field goal flipped momentum. Cal capitalized as Mendoza scored on a 5-yard run to cap a six-play drive with 18 seconds left in the third quarter.
But Bachmeier’s 4-yard TD run and two-point conversion pass closed the gap to 36-29 with 11:46 left. Coe kicked a 54-yard field goal, but Wake Forest converted on fourth down in its own territory and went on to score on Tate Carney’s 2-yard run with 3:57 left.
Mendoza was 30-for-40 for 289 yards in the first half, which ended with the Bears up 29-14.
Cal scored the game’s first 10 points in a nine-second span. After driving 64 yards and settling for a field goal, Hunter Barth forced a fumble on Claiborne’s kickoff return and Miles Williams made a 16-yard return for a touchdown.
The Demon Deacons scored five plays after Nick Andersen’s 28-yard interception return to the Cal 30. Claiborne plowed in from 1 yard out.
Cal had a chance to increase its 20-7 lead, but an incomplete pass on fourth-and-2 at the Wake Forest 32 halted that threat.
On the next possession, the Demon Deacons used a reverse that resulted in Bachmeier’s 44-yard pass to wide-open Claiborne for a 44-yard touchdown.
Then the Bears scored 10 points in the last 90 seconds of the half.
