Wake Forest Scores 2-0 ACC Victory Over Boston College

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Fueled by a complete team performance and the second clean sheet of the week, Wake Forest men's soccer (5-3-3, 2-1-1 ACC) scored a 2-0 victory over Boston College (3-3-5, 0-3-2 ACC) on Saturday night at Spry Stadium.

The Deacs would take a 1-0 lead into the halftime break, as freshman Ryan Belal logged his second goal of the season, one-timing a rebounded shot by graduate Colin Thomas in the 43rd minute. Then in the second half, graduate Sidney Paris completed an end-to-end run from the Deacs for his first goal of the campaign.

Defensively, the Deacon backline was led by senior goalkeeper Trace Alphin's six saves as Wake Forest logged its third shutout of the season and the second in as many games.

Wake Forest will conclude a three-match homestand on Tuesday evening, hosting Wofford for the third consecutive season.

Kick-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the match will stream on ACC Network Extra.

ACC Win No. 54 Since '15
Now with back-to-back wins in conference play following last Friday's 2-1 comeback against Syracuse, Wake Forest has now won an ACC-best 54 regular season matches since the start of the 2015 season. During that span, the Deacs' 54 wins are 10 more than any ACC program.

School	ACC Regular Season Wins Since '15
Wake Forest	54
North Carolina	44
Clemson	44
Duke	36
4. Virginia	36

Stout At Spry
Including Saturday night's victory over Boston College, Wake Forest is tied with current No. 1 Pitt for the longest active home winning streak against ACC opponents in regular season play at eight matches.

Dating back to a 3-1 victory over Boston College on Oct. 15, 2022, Wake Forest is 5-0-3 and has outscored opponents +9 with four clean sheets:

Wake Forest 2, Boston College 0 (Oct. 5, 2024)
Wake Forest 1, Virginia 1 (Sept. 13, 2024)
Wake Forest 1, No. 6 Notre Dame 1 (Oct. 20, 2023)
Wake Forest 1, No. 14 North Carolina 0 (Oct. 14, 2023)
Wake Forest 1, Clemson 0 (Sept. 22, 2023)
Wake Forest 1, No. 7 Syracuse 1 (Sept. 16, 2023)
Wake Forest 3, No. 9 Louisville 0 (Oct. 28, 2022)
Wake Forest 3, Boston College 1 (Oct. 15, 2022)

80 Appearances For Amponsah
A mainstay in the Demon Deacon lineup since 2020, graduate Prince Amponsah on Saturday night became just the 13th active NCAA Division I player to appear in 80 career matches. He is also the only active ACC player to reach 80 appearances at one school.

Player	School	Career Appearances
Joey Maher	Saint Louis/Indiana	91
Pierce Infuso	Hofstra	86
Marlon Tabora	Georgetown	85
Wessel Speel	Duke/Hofstra	84
Sergio Ors Navarro	West Virginia	81
Ryan Baer	West Virginia	81
Gabe Threadgold	Syracuse/Washington	81
Prince Amponsah	Wake Forest	80
Samuel Sarver	Indiana	80
Tommy Mihalic	Indiana	80
Roc Carles	Hofstra	80
Patrick McDonald	Indiana	80
Simon Carlson	West Virginia/Georgia State	80

65 Career Starts For Alphin
Now in the Starting XI for 45 consecutive matches, senior goalkeeper Trace Alphin made his 65th career start on Saturday evening. Through Saturday's action, Alphin is third nationally in career starts and fourth nationally in career minutes by current goalkeepers.

Player	School	Career Minutes
Wessel Speel	Duke/Hofstra	7,626
Oren Asher	UIC/Rutgers	5,853
Trace Alphin	Wake Forest	5,848
Carlos Gonzalez	UC Riverside	5,788

How It Happened

Senior goalkeeper Trace Alphin logged a save on the first shot on goal of the match in the 14th minute.
Freshman Pariss Mitchell, meanwhile, tallied Wake Forest's first shot on goal in the 15th minute.
Alphin prevented a Boston College goal in the 19th minute, getting a fingertip of an Eagles attempt that would hit the crossbar.
Redshirt sophomore Nico Rabiu collected his first attempt of the evening in the 28th minute, an attempt that would find the Eagles keepers' gloves.
Junior Cooper Flax nearly got the Deacs the opening goal two minutes later, as a pass back from Rabiu found the Dix Hills, N.Y., native alone at the top of the 18, but his shot went wide of the frame.
The Deacs had back-to-back near goals, as Rabiu had a 34th-minute attempt stopped by a hand before White was off target just seconds later.
An incredible individual effort from Rabiu created separation inside the 18 for a 42nd-minute shot that went wide.
Wake Forest would take a 1-0 lead into the halftime break, however, as freshman Ryan Belal pounced on a deflected attempt by graduate Colin Thomas for his second goal of the year.
- Both of Belal's goals so far in 2024 have come in the 43rd minute, as that was the minute mark of his game-winning strike against Radford.
The Deacs finished the first 45 minutes with 12 shots to Boston College's five while maintaining 54 percent of the possession.
Graduate Sidney Paris tallied the first Demon Deacon shot of the second half, a 53rd-minute attempt that went across the frame of the goal and out.
- After a beautifully placed ground-level pass from junior Basit Umar, Paris had a 58th-minute shot saved by the Boston College keeper.
Umar got a one-on-one with the Boston College keeper, but it was stopped before hitting the crossbar.
Alphin came through with a huge 65th-minute stop on an Eagles counter, opening his body up to knock away the attempt.
Wake Forest would take a 2-0 lead in the 67th minute, as end-to-end possession from the Deacs was capped off with graduate Sidney Paris' first goal of the season.
- Rabiu tallied the first assist of the career and freshman Amoni Thomas collected his second assist of the year.
Alphin continued to make big-time stops at the other end, including pushing away a 71st-minute rocket from the Eagles.
Wake Forest continued to push in the closing minutes of the match, as the Deacs outshot the Eagles 26-12 on the night with eight of those attempts coming after Paris' goal.

Demon Deacon Details of Note

Graduate Prince Amponsah earned his 72nd career start, tied for 28th-most in program history with Raimo de Vries (1989-92).
Senior Trace Alphin earned his 65th career start.
Graduate Sidney Paris earned his 30th career start.
Sophomore Jose Perez earned his 15th career start.
Junior Cooper Flax made his 45th career appearance.
Senior Nicolas Mancilla made his 25th career appearance.
Redshirt sophomore Nico Rabiu made his 15th career appearance.
With the victory, Wake Forest leads the all-time series 13-7-2 with eight of those wins coming under 10th-year head coach Bobby Muuss.
Wake Forest is now 7-1-1 against Boston College at Spry.

From Coach Muuss
"I thought that after the first 15 minutes the team really settled into the game and I thought we were able to impose ourselves on them. We were a little bit unlucky not to get a couple more goals in the match, but I thought it was a really good team win. Protecting Spry is really important and I thought the crowd was great tonight. The energy was great and the guys fed off that. We just keep getting better and that's the most important thing this time of year."

Up Next

Wake Forest will remain at Spry Stadium on Tuesday night, hosting Wofford in the penultimate non-conference game of the season.

Kick-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be streamed on ACC Network Extra.

Wake Forest Scores 2-0 ACC Victory Over Boston College

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Team Stats

Sidney Paris

Ryan Belal

Nico Rabiu

Amoni Thomas

Players Mentioned

Trace Alphin

Prince Amponsah

Ryan Belal

Cooper Flax

Nicolas Mancilla

Pariss Mitchell

Sidney Paris

Jose Perez

Nico Rabiu

Amoni Thomas

Colin Thomas

Basit Umar

Wake Forest Athletics

Wake Forest Scores 2-0 ACC Victory Over Boston College

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Next Event

Team Stats

Game Leaders

Sidney Paris

Ryan Belal

Nico Rabiu

Amoni Thomas

Players Mentioned

Trace Alphin

Prince Amponsah

Ryan Belal

Cooper Flax

Nicolas Mancilla

Pariss Mitchell

Sidney Paris

Jose Perez

Nico Rabiu

Amoni Thomas

Colin Thomas

Basit Umar

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