Second Half Surge Propels Deacs Past Syracuse

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Behind two second-half goals from junior Cooper Flax and sophomore Travis Smith Jr., the Wake Forest men's soccer team (9-4-5) has advanced to the ACC quarterfinals with a 2-1 victory over Syracuse (7-7-3) Wednesday night at Spry Stadium.

After falling behind in the 16th minute, the Demon Deacons continued to battle until the 70th minute, when Flax capitalized from the spot following a handball in the box. It marked the New York-native's team-best fifth goal of the season. Additionally, he now has 26 points for his career and a career-best 11 on the year.

The winner came just 13 minutes later, as freshman standout Dylan Borso flicked the ball up to sophomore defender Travis Smith, Jr., who then headed it into the top-left corner of the net for his first-career goal. Of note, Borso now has three assists and seven points on the year.

Wake Forest controlled 58 percent of the possession throughout the contest and out-shot Syracuse, 23-to-7, while holding an 8-to-3 edge in shots on-goal.

Quarterfinal Advancement
With Wednesday evening's advancement against Syracuse, Wake Forest has now reached the quarterfinals every single season since the round of 8 was introduced for the ACC Men's Soccer Championship in 2005.

Over this span, Wake Forest is the only program to reach the quarterfinals every single season.

Additionally, since 2015 the Demon Deacons are the only ACC program to reach 10 consecutive trips to the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.

Program	ACC Quarterfinal Appearances Since '15
Wake Forest	10
2. Clemson & North Carolina	9
4. Duke & Notre Dame	8
6. Louisville & Virginia	7

Win No. 109 At Spry Since 2015
With the 2-1 victory over Syracuse, the Demon Deacons have extended their national best mark of home victories over the last decade to 109.

Over this 10-year period, Wake Forest is the only program in the country with more than 100 home wins. Additionally, Wake's 82.1 home winning percentage since 2015 ranks third nationally behind only Denver (84.0 percent) and Indiana (83.75 percent).

The Demon Deacons are also the only ACC program with a winning percentage higher than 80 percent since 2015, joined nationally above the mark by Denver, Indiana, Missouri State, Georgetown and New Hampshire.

Program	Home Wins Since '15
1. Wake Forest	109
2. Indiana/Clemson	92
4. Virginia	85
5. Georgetown	83

This season, Wake Forest is now 7-1-3 at Spry Stadium with victories against ACC opponents Syracuse, NC State, Virginia Tech and Boston College.

How It Happened

The first shot of the evening came in the fourth minute, as a Jose Perez freekick nearly found the bottom left corner, but the Syracuse keeper got a hand on it and pushed it behind for a corner.
Despite continuous pressure from the Deacs over the opening stages, Syracuse took a 1-0 lead in the 16th minute.
Senior Trace Alphin recorded his first save in the 22nd-minute, controlling a ball that was shot directly at him.
The Raleigh, N.C., native was once again called into the 31st minute for his second save of the evening.
The Demon Deacons had a near equalizer in the 35th minute, as freshman Ryan Belal connected with sophomore Jeffrey White for a one-timed attempt that was saved off the line by the Orange keeper.
In the 39th minute, senior Bo Cummins had another Wake shot inside the 18 that was stopped by the leg of Syracuse's keeper.
Smith Jr. and Nico Rabiu each had attempts blocked inside the box within eight seconds of each other in the 42nd minute.
The Deacs went into the locker room with a 9-to-4 edge in shots while controlling 63 percent of the ball.
Cummins logged the first shot of the second half by either side, a 54th-minute attempt that was blocked.
Great team play up top nearly created an equalizer for Thomas in the 59th minute, but a feet-save kept the Deacs off the scoresheet.
- Flax and Smith Jr. each fired attempts shortly after, but neither called the keeper into action.
A glancing header from White in the 64th minute marked the Deacs' fifth shot on-goal of the evening.
Following a handball in the box, Flax leveled the game from the spot with 20 minutes remaining in regulation.
- With his team-best fifth goal of the season, Flax now has 26 career points and a career-high 11 on the year.
Wake Forest came close to a go-ahead goal two minutes later as Kennedy fired a shot just over the bar.
In the 77th minute, a great bit of skill from Borso set up Cummins for a dangerous low-driven ball across the face of goal, but the Deacs were unable to put it in.
Wake Forest took the lead with just under eight minutes remaining as a flick-up from Borso found the head of Smith Jr., who then directed it into the top-left corner of the net.
- It marked Smith Jr.'s first-career goal and second-career goal contribution.
- It was also Borso's third assist of the season as he brought his points tally on the year to seven.
Two minutes later Wake Forest had a chance to double the lead, but were unable to capitalize on the counter.
The Demon Deacons held strong and defended well to secure the 2-1 victory and advance to the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament.

Demon Deacon Details of Note

Graduate Prince Amponsah earned his 78th career start, tied for the 14th-most in program history alongside 2007 National Champions Pat Phelan (2004-07) and Julian Valentin (2004-07), Chad Evans (1996-99), David Kawesi-Mukooza (1996-99) and Wake Forest Sports Hall of Famer Mark Erwin (1980-83).
Senior Trace Alphin earned his 72nd career start, tied with Raimo DeVries (1989-92) for the 29th-most in program history.
Freshman Amoni Thomas earned his 10th career start.
Junior Basit Umar made his 45th career appearance.
Sophomore Jeffrey White made his 35th career appearance.
Senior Nicolas Mancilla made his 30th career appearance.
With the result, Wake Forest now leads the all-time series 7-3-3 with five of those wins coming under 10th-year head coach Bobby Muuss.
- Earlier this year, Wake Forest earned the first road victory by either program in the all-time series.
This was the first-ever postseason matchup between the two programs in the 13 matches played.

From Coach Muuss
"Our resilience has been incredible. We've been down early a lot in some of these matches this year, even the one at Syracuse. Their resiliency–dealing with so much adversity throughout the year–I'm just proud of the way the guys fought back. It wasn't a question of if we could battle back, and I think that's special for a coach to feel that in the locker room at halftime. I thought in the first half we had some uncharacteristic and easy turnovers. I thought that if we could clean that up and we won the second balls off the big kicks, I thought that we could really take control of the game. I thought we did that for the entire second half."

Up Next
Wake Forest will continue ACC Tournament action on Sunday, facing SMU for the second time in Dallas over a 16-day span.

The match will be at 4 p.m. EST and air nationally on ACC Network.

Next Event

Team Stats

Travis Smith Jr.

Cooper Flax

Dylan Borso

Julian Kennedy

Players Mentioned

Trace Alphin

Prince Amponsah

Ryan Belal

Dylan Borso

Bo Cummins

Cooper Flax

Nicolas Mancilla

Jose Perez

Nico Rabiu

Travis Smith Jr.

Amoni Thomas

Basit Umar

Jeffrey White

Wake Forest Athletics