No. 4 Deacs Open Season by Beating No. 15 UCF, 2-1

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- No. 4 Wake Forest opened the 2019 season by taking down No. 15 UCF, 2-1, at Spry Stadium on Friday night.

The Demon Deacons (1-0-0) scored two second-half goals after a scoreless opening period, as Bruno Lapa and Kyle Holcomb found the back of the net.

After a scoreless opening half, Lapa stole the ball from a Knight (0-1-0) defender and beat the keeper far post in the 58th minute.

In the 67th minute, Michael DeShields sent a long ball to an open Holcomb, who beat the keeper 1v1 to double Wake Forest's lead.

Gianluca Arcangeli got the Knights on the board with 47 seconds to play with a header off a cross from Jeremy Di Lallo.

UCF out-shot Wake Forest by an 8-5 margin, and the Deacs didn't take a shot in the first half. Wake Forest had a 5-3 lead in the same category in the second half.

For Wake Forest, Steve Armas and Dane Brenner served as acting co-head coaches as Bobby Muuss served a one-game red card suspension.

"Our guys are students of the game, and they knew they didn't put their best foot forward in the first half, and a lot of that is credit to UCF," Armas said. "They made the adjustments in the second half. Whenever you can beat a quality opponent on the opening weekend like UCF tonight and Indiana last year, it sets the tone for the year. Did we play our best soccer tonight? Probably not, but we learned a little about ourselves and we can hopefully apply that to our plan Sunday."

On Sunday, the Deacs debut on the brand new ACC Network, playing host to Creighton at 7 p.m.

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Team Stats

Bruno Lapa

Kyle Holcomb

Michael DeShields

Omar Hernandez

Players Mentioned

Michael DeShields

Kyle Holcomb

Bruno Lapa

Players Mentioned

Michael DeShields

Kyle Holcomb

Bruno Lapa

Wake Forest Athletics