Demon Deacons Host Tribe For Regular Season Home Finale
10/24/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Oct. 24, 2011
Wake Forest Match Notes
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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Wake Forest enters its final regular season home match coming off its highest scoring performance in two years, as the Tribe of William & Mary will pay a visit to Spry Stadium on Tuesday, Oct. 25 for a 7:00 p.m. kick.
The Demon Deacons routed NC State 5-2 on Saturday night, scoring five goals for the first time since Oct. 9, 2009, and will look to keep the offense rolling against a defensive-minded Tribe side that has spent a total of nine weeks in the NSCAA Top 25 this season.
Junior striker Andy Lubahn paces the Deacs with 10 points on the season (3g, 4a), while sophomore attacker Luca Gimenez leads WFU with four goals and is coming off his first career brace in a 5-2 win over NC State. Teddy Mullin leads WFU and is tied for fourth in the ACC with six assists. Junior mid Ben Newnam (3g, 3a) also has eight points, good for third on the squad.
In goal, junior Michael Lisch has recorded a 1.29 GAA to go along with 49 saves and four shutouts on the season.
Scouting The Tribe
William & Mary enters Tuesday's tilt at 8-7-0 after dropping three of its past four fixtures and falling out of the NSCAA Top 25. The Tribe had been ranked as high as eighth this season in the national coaches poll.
The program is coming off a 15-win 2010 season which saw its seventh CAA title and eighth all-time appearance in the NCAA Tournament Round of 16. W&M finished third in this season's CAA preseason poll.
So far it has been a low scoring season for W&M with just 12 goals scored. Opponents have outshot the Tribe 214-164 and taken far more corner kicks, 95-55, while producing 15 goals.
Senior midfielder Nicolas Abrigo, a preseason All-CAA pick, has generated half of the goal scoring for the Tribe with six tallies and leads the team with 13 total points as well as four game winners. Freshman Josh West leads W&M with three helpers. Four others have scored for W&M, including two more midfielders in sophomore John Ciampa and RS junior Ben Anderson. Both have two goals apiece.
Colin Smolinsky has been a solid presence during his first season between the pipes. The senior has posted a 1.00 GAA to go along with a .806 save percentage when tested, seven shutouts and 58 total saves.
Next Up...
The Deacs will return to the road for their final two matches of the regular season. First up will be a meeting with the defending NCAA champion Akron Zips on Saturday, Oct. 29 at 7:00 p.m. followed by a 7:30 p.m. tilt against Maryland, the current leaders in the ACC standings, on Nov. 3.
Series History
The Deacons lead the all-time matchup 5-1, but lost 2-0 to the Tribe for the first time last season in a meeting with the then-20th ranked Tribe on Oct. 12, 2010. Prior to that, WFU had outscored the Tribe 8-0 in its previous five matches during the series, which began with a 3-0 Wake win on Sept. 27, 1991. Wake is 4-0 in the series at home.
Last Time Out
A season-high offensive outburst carried the Wake Forest men's soccer team to a 5-2 ACC win over NC State at Dail Soccer Stadium on Saturday, October 22.
The Deacons got scores from freshman Teddy Mullin, the first of his young career, and sophomore Luca Gimenez in the first half before adding three more after the break for the program's highest scoring output since Oct. 9, 2009 when Wake also buried five goals against an ACC rival in Virginia Tech.
Danny Wenzel added a penalty kick in the 62nd minute, freshman Sean Okoli booted his first career tally in the 71st minute and Gimenez tallied again in the 75th for his first career brace as the Deacs improved to 7-6-2 overall (4-3 ACC).
The Deacs also remained undefeated this season when finding the back of the net first and extended their unbeaten streak against NC State to seven straight. More importantly, the win moved Wake into second in the ACC standings.
Notes from the NC State Match
• The Deacs had five goals, the most for the program since Oct. 9, 2009 vs. Virginia Tech.
• Teddy Mullin and Sean Okoli both had first career scores. Luca Gimenez added his first career brace.
• Wake Forest jumped into second-place in the ACC (4-3) with the result.
• WF now leads NC State 22-11-3 all-time and has an unbeaten streak of seven in the series. Going back to 1995, Wake has won 18-of-20 (18-1-1).
• Wake won on the road for the first time since beating Davidson 2-0 on Nov. 2, 2010.
Brace Yourself
Sophomore forward Luca Gimenez recorded the first multi-goal match of his career in a 5-2 win over NC State on Saturday, Oct. 22. The Sao Paulo, Brazil-native leads the Deacs with four tallies, including two game-winners, in 2011.
Don't Call Him Theodore
Freshman Teddy Mullin has made an immediate impact for the Deacs, most recently scoring his first career goal and adding an assist to help the Deacs to a 5-2 win over NC State on Saturday, Oct. 22.
In his last ACC match, the midfielder recorded his first career multi-point effort to help Wake defeat No. 25 Virginia on Oct. 14. The Durham-native assisted on both Sam Fink and Ross Tomaselli's first career goals to help Wake to a 4-3 win. He leads Wake Forest and is tied for fourth in the ACC with six assists this season.
He also had a helper in a 4-1 win over Davidson on Wednesday, Sept. 28 and had assists in back-to-back matches against Clemson and Cleveland State earlier in the year. Mullin has seen action in all 15 matches this fall with eight starts.
Mullin found Ben Newnam on a cross against Cleveland State on Wednesday, Sept. 14 and recorded his first career assist off a restart in the Deacs' 2-1 win over Clemson on Sept. 9. Against CSU, he took a long throw from GK Michael Lisch, and launched a through ball to Andy Lubahn, who found Ben Newnam on a cross for the goal.
Today In Deacon History - Oct. 25
Wake Forest is 5-4 all-time when competing on Oct. 25, but the last two matches have resulted in big Deacon wins against top-20 opponents. In 2008, No. 1 Wake Forest closed out an undefeated regular season (15-0-1) with a 5-2 rout of No. 19 Boston College. Five years prior, the No. 5 Deacs shut out No. 3 North Carolina 4-0 in front of 3,868 fans at Spry.
Deactober
Wake Forest has compiled an all-time record of 148-82-29 (.627) during the tenth month of the year.
Since 1998, however, Wake Forest has owned October with an 82-13-13 (.819) overall record. The Deacs were unbeaten from Oct. 3, 2001 until Oct. 22, 2005 with a ledger of 28-0-2 (.967) over a 30 match unbeaten streak.
The Early Goal Gets The `W'
Scoring first has been a sign of good things to come for the Deacs. Since 2003, when scoring the first goal, Wake Forest is 117-7-5 (.926). Conversely, when the opponent draws first blood, the Demon Deacons are 19-36-5 (.358).
In 2011, WFU is 6-0 when getting on the board first.
