WINSTON-SALEM – Wake Forest hit an offensive stride and rarely slowed down during a 36-20 win over visiting Vanderbilt on Saturday.

Demond Claiborne rushed for 165 yards and Tate Carney rushed for 117 and a touchdown. It’s the first time since 2020 that Wake Forest had two players go over 100 rushing yards in a game.

Fourth-year quarterback Mitch Griffis threw touchdown passes to the two receivers who enrolled when he did; Jahmal Banks (7 yards) and Ke’Shawn Williams (24 yards), both coming on third-and-long situations.

The Deacons (2-0) beat Vanderbilt (2-1) for the second straight year, though they had to wait a while to make this one official. The game was delayed after five snaps by lightning and didn’t resume until two hours later.

Wake Forest got a 44-yard field goal on its first drive of the second half and came up with a goal-line stand to force a turnover on downs on Vanderbilt’s next possession.

Carney’s 74-yard run to Vanderbilt’s 2-yard line, with Wake Forest leading 27-14, put the Deacons in position to effectively put this thing out of reach. But he fumbled on the next play and Vanderbilt recovered.

Wake Forest got another turnover on downs, this time at midfield, and went up three scores on Griffis’ touchdown to Williams with 11:39 left in the game.

Vanderbilt got a touchdown to make it 33-20, and Wake Forest chewed up a chunk of the fourth quarter and settled for a field goal in the final three minutes to effectively close out its second home victory to start the season.

We had five snaps before a lightning delay was called and only one of them was all that significant.

On third-and-4, AJ Swann threw a deep ball that floated and safety Malik Mustapha intercepted it. It was Mustapha’s third interception in his Wake Forest career (third year), and he returned it 50 yards to Vanderbilt’s 10-yard line.

The Deacons got two plays — a 4-yard run by Demond Claiborne and an incompletion to the end zone — before the lightning delay was announced.

A two-hour delay followed, as heavy rain and high winds followed, along with lightning that felt directly overhead. When play resumed, Wake Forest had an incompletion on third-and-goal and Matthew Dennis made a 25-yard field goal.

Momentum shifted near the end of the first half, when Wake Forest led 17-14 and punted back to Vanderbilt. Walker Merrill dislodged the ball from returner Will Sheppard and Brendon Harris — the Vanderbilt transfer who’s in his second season with the Deacons — returned it 31 yards for a touchdown.

That sent the Deacons into halftime with a 10-point lead. Swann threw his second interception of the half in the last minute, but Dennis missed a 44-yard field goal on the final play before halftime.

Wake Forest had two long drives — nine plays for 80 yards and 14 plays for 75 yards — in the first half. Banks had a 7-yard touchdown catch to end the first one, and Carney plunged in from 1 yard out for the second.

Both of them were answered by lightning-quick touchdown drives by Vanderbilt, five and four plays, both going 75 yards.

The key plays of each were long passes. Jayden McGowan bounced off of a tackle attempt and turned a medium gain into a 50-yarder, and London Humphreys caught a deep pass through defense from DaShawn Jones for a 48-yard gain. Swann threw touchdown passes of 11 and 10 yards to Sheppard for those scores.

Wake Forest was without two starters — running back Justice Ellison and linebacker Chase Jones — because of concussions, Pete Thamel of ESPN reported before the game.