Wake Forest University
11-3-0, 4-2-0
Boston College
3-6-3, 1-4-1
Wake Forest Picks Up 3-1 Victory Over Boston College, Muuss Earns 200th Career Victory
10/15/2022 10:11:00 PM | Men's Soccer
The Deacs scored three second half goals en route to a victory over Boston College as Bobby Muuss earned his 200th career victory as a head coach.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- The No. 10 ranked Wake Forest men's soccer team (11-3-0, 4-2-0 ACC) scored three goals in an 11-minute span in the second half to earn a 3-1 victory over Boston College (3-6-3, 1-4-1 ACC) on Saturday night at Spry Stadium. The match served as the program's annual Genna Wiley Memorial Match.
After the two sides were deadlocked at 0-0 through the first 70 minutes of action, the Deacs picked up goals from junior Colin Thomas (74th minute), junior Oscar Sears (81st minute) and freshman Vlad Walent (85th minute) to secure Wake Forest's fourth conference victory of the season.
The outcome marked career win No. 200 for head coach Bobby Muuss, as the East Islip, N.Y., native holds a 126-29-12 mark over eight seasons at Wake Forest. His first 74 career victories came at the helm of Denver from 2007-14.
Wake Forest will next face Wofford for the first time since the 2012 season on Tuesday night in the Deacs' final non-conference regular season match.
Kick-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the match will be streamed on ACC Network Extra.
How It Happened
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Wake Forest opened the contest with back-to-back shots in the third minute that were blocked inside the box.
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The Deacs created another prime opportunity in the 12th minute, as sophomore Baba Niang composed a through ball to sophomore Roald Mitchell that was saved.
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Another buildup in the 21st minute had Mitchell find freshman Vlad Walent on a connecting pass with the shot hitting the side of the net.
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Sophomore Leo Guarino recorded the Deacs' sixth shot of the first half, but it went directly to Brennan Klein for the Eagles' first save of the night.
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Wake Forest finished the first half with 59 percent of the possession and a 9-2 advantage in shots.
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The Deacs weathered a storm at the midway stage of the second half, as the Eagles fired off four shots in a four-minute span starting in the 60th minute. None of those attempts, however, tested sophomore Trace Alphin.
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Boston College earned a 68th-minute free kick, but the direct attempt from Ted Cargill of the Eagles was saved by Alphin.
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The Deacs jumped out in front in the 74th minute, as sophomore Ryan Fessler found junior Jahlane Forbes down the left side of the pitch before he crossed it over to fellow junior Colin Thomas to break open the scoring.
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The assist was Forbes' sixth of the season, which is a team-high while the goal was Thomas' second (scored the game-winner against Virginia Tech on Sept. 16).
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Fessler also picked up the fourth assist of his sophomore campaign.
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Junior Oscar Sears would then double the Wake Forest lead in the 81st minute, rocketing a beautiful attempt past Klein to push the Deacs' lead to 2-0.
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The goal was the fifth of the season for Sears, while Fessler and Thomas set up his score.
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The assist was Fessler's fifth of the season while Thomas logged his fourth assist in 2022.
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Wake Forest collected its third goal in an 11-minute span in the 85th minute, as junior Garrison Tubbs would create a turnover before finding Walent who beat Klein to his left to push Wake Forest's advantage to 3-0.
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The goal was Walent's third of the season and the first since Wake Forest's 6-1 victory over Clemson while Tubbs picked up his second assist of the season.
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Senior Sebastian Scrivner made his season debut in the 87th minute.
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Boston College struck in the 89th minute to make the match 3-1.
Demon Deacon Details of Note
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With the victory, Wake Forest head coach Bobby Muuss reached 200 career victories. His last 126 victories came with the Demon Deacons as he earned 74 victories as Denver's head coach from 2007-14.
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The 126 overall victories since the start of the 2015 season are 15 more than any other NCAA Division I men's soccer program (Indiana, 111).
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Ninety-one of those victories have come at Spry Stadium, the most home victories for any NCAA Division I men's soccer program (Indiana, 71).
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Wake Forest has earned 47 ACC regular season victories over the last eight seasons, most in the conference (North Carolina, 39).
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Wake Forest has won eight home matches this season as well, tied for most in the country along with No. 1 Washington and No. 23 UNC Greensboro.
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The 11 wins on the campaign are tied for second-most in the country along with No. 5 Syracuse.
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Senior Takuma Suzuki earned his 50th career start.
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Junior Jahlane Forbes earned his 35th start in his 45th career appearance.
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Freshman Vlad Walent earned his 10th career start.
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Junior Chase Oliver made his 50th career appearance.
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Sophomore Roald Mitchell made his 35th career appearance.
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Sophomore Trace Alphin made his 30th career appearance.
From Coach Muuss
"I thought it was a really good performance. It was a little sloppy at the end, obviously, but I told the group zeros at the half and we are playing well and we created a couple of good looks. The second half started OK, and then there was about a 10- to 15-minute span where it got a little bit end-to-end and we were blocking a lot of shots. We were a little bit off and then the guys showed a lot of resiliency and scored a couple of really good goals. I'm really proud of the group. Given the last couple of weeks, maybe when we were up against it a little bit for that 10 or 15 minutes, a lot of teams may have broke, given up or conceded. We were at 1-0 at the time, but at the same time, their resiliency was very good and it was mature. We had a mature performance tonight. Obviously really disappointed that we conceded at the end, but we've got to celebrate the wins. ACC wins are very difficult to come by." - Bobby Muuss
Up Next
Wake Forest will host its final non-conference regular season match of the season when the Deacs face Wofford at Spry.
Kick-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the match will air on ACC Network Extra.
Team Stats
Colin Thomas (2)
Assisted By: Jahlane Forbes , Ryan Fessler
GOAL by WFU Thomas, Colin Assist by Forbes, Jahlane and Fessler, Ryan.
73:13
Oscar Sears (5)
Assisted By: Ryan Fessler , Colin Thomas
GOAL by WFU Sears, Oscar Assist by Fessler, Ryan and Thomas, Colin.
80:21
Vlad Walent (3)
Assisted By: Garrison Tubbs
GOAL by WFU Walent, Vlad Assist by Tubbs, Garrison.
84:07
Stefan Sigurdarson (8)
GOAL by BOS Sigurdarson, Stefan.
88:17
