Wake Forest went to Dallas as a slight underdog and left with one of the most surprising wins of the college football season.

The Demon Deacons led 42-0 at halftime and crushed SMU 49-7 on Saturday. Gio Lopez ran for two touchdowns and threw for another as Wake Forest won its seventh straight game.

Wake Forest is now 9-1 and 6-1 in the ACC. The Demon Deacons came in at No. 13 in this week's College Football Playoff rankings and gave the committee plenty to think about.

A first half to remember

Ty Clark opened the scoring with a 27-yard touchdown on third-and-18. It was the first of four Wake Forest touchdowns on third down in the first half.

Jamar Searcy set up a 1-yard score with a 38-yard run on fourth-and-1. Three of the first-half scoring drives covered 26 yards or less after a fourth-down stop, a fumble and a short kickoff that SMU let bounce. Kyndall McCaleb recovered that one at the SMU 21-yard line.

Carlos Hernandez caught a 44-yard touchdown and finished with 94 receiving yards. Clark ran for 77 of Wake Forest's 286 rushing yards. Lopez threw for 201 yards before Steele Pizzella took over late in the third quarter.

"Statement after statement"

Coach Jake Dickert signed a contract extension two days before the game. He thinks people still do not know what to make of his team.

"People, they don't know what to make of us because they don't understand how we're doing it," Dickert said. "We keep making statement after statement. Eventually, they're gonna have to say we're a pretty good team."

Lopez said the scoreboard tells the story. "I think we've played really good teams and we've dominated all those games," he said.

A rough night for SMU

SMU had been 12-0 at home in ACC games and had won 10 straight at home overall. The Mustangs fell to 7-3 and 5-3 in the league in their Ford Stadium finale.

Kevin Jennings threw for 209 yards with a touchdown and an interception in his last home start. He had just 40 passing yards late in the first half.

"They whipped us in every area you can whip somebody in a football game," SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said.

By the numbers

Wake Forest outgained SMU 535-275. The Demon Deacons are the first team since Alabama in 2013 to score at least 20 points while shutting out their opponent in the first half of four straight games. Their combined first-half score in those games is 145-0.

The only losses this season came against Miami, which beat Wake Forest 33-20 almost two months ago. The two teams could meet again in the ACC championship game.

What's next

Wake Forest plays at Georgia Tech next Saturday.