Demon Deacons Take All Three Points at Cal

BERKELEY, Calif. – Capped off by an 86th-minute penalty kick winner from senior midfielder Cooper Flax, the Wake Forest men's soccer team (6-3-3, 1-3-1 ACC) earned its first ACC win of the season as it took down Cal (4-6-2, 1-4-1 ACC) at Edwards Stadium Saturday evening.

Wake Forest found the opener in the 17th minute when sophomore forward Harvey Sarajian hustled to a loose ball in front of the Cal keeper and played it across to senior midfielder Basit Umar for an easy finish.

It marked Umar's eighth goal in a Demon Deacon uniform as he surpassed 20 career points (21) for the Deacs. He is now third on the squad with four goals this campaign. Meanwhile, Sarajian picked up his first assist for Wake Forest and the seventh of his career.

The Golden Bears found an equalizer in the 52nd minute.

After a back-and-forth battle for a majority of the second half, Wake Forest finally found the much-deserved winner from the Flax penalty, which was won on the edge of the box by Sarajian.

Flax is now 4-for-4 from the spot this season and 8-for-9 over the last two seasons. Flax is now tied for the team-lead in points (15) with Tate Lorentz with five goals and a team-high five assists. Of note, he was recently named to the 2025 MAC Hermann Midseason Watch List.

In goal, redshirt sophomore Jonah Mednard logged six saves, which tied a career high and brought his total on the year to 38, the third most in the ACC.

The Demon Deacons are now 4-3-1 on the west coast, with this being their first win since Sept. 27, 1998 in a 2-1 upset over the No. 1-ranked Washington Huskies in Seattle. Additionally, Wake Forest evened the all-time series against Cal at 2-2-1 as it defeated the Golden Bears for the first time since the first-ever meeting 1993.

How it Happened

Wake Forest opened the contest on the front foot with a pair of blocked shots and a corner in the first two minutes of play.
Lorentz was free on goal in the fourth minute, but was called offside.
Cal registered its first shot in the sixth minute.
Mednard was called into action in the 12th minute as he made his first save of the afternoon.
The opener came in the 17th, as great hustle from Sarajian saw him reach a loose ball in the box before he played it across to Umar for a wide open finish.
Flax and Lorentz tested the keeper two minutes later as the Deacs kept the pressure on and won another corner.
The Golden Bears increased their attack as the second half went on, but the Deacs defended well and limited real chances.
Mednard made a great point-blank stop in the 33rd minute and kept Wake Forest in front.
Cal was awarded a penalty in the 37th, but the Golden Bear attempt went wide right.
Wake Forest went into the break leading, 1-0.
Umar nearly found a second right out of the break but the Cal keeper made the save.
The Golden Bears would equalize in the 52nd minute.
Just 30 seconds after the equalizer, Perez almost regained the lead as he fired a rocket from 25 yards out to the top-right corner that was somehow kept out.
Mednard made another tough save in the 54th.
Cal continued to push forward, forcing Mednard into two more key stops in the 66th and 83rd minutes to keep the score level.
Wake Forest's persistence paid off in the 86th minute, as the Deacs were awarded a penalty following a foul in the box drawn by Sarajian.
Flax calmly converted from the spot to put Wake Forest back in front, 2-1.
The Deacs saw out the final minutes with composed defending and strong goalkeeping to secure all three points on the road.

Man of the Match - Harvey Sarajian

Sarajian recorded his first Wake Forest assist and seventh of his career, in addition to earning the game-winning penalty as he created both goals in the tough ACC road victory Saturday evening.
He is the ninth Wake Forest player to win man of the match this season:
- August 24 vs. UCF: Jeffrey White
- August 28 vs. Oral Roberts: Jose Perez
- August 31 vs. St. John's: Jonah Mednard
- September 5 vs. Lipscomb: Basit Umar
- September 9 vs. Campbell: Mason Sullivan
- September 12 vs. North Carolina: Cristian Escribano
- September 16 vs. UNCW: Tate Lorentz
- September 22 vs. Liberty: Cooper Flax
- October 11 at Cal: Harvey Sarajian

Demon Deacon Details of Note

Wake Forest secured its first ACC win of the season and now sits on four points with three conference matches left to play and moved up to 11th in the standings.
- This also marked the first road win for the Deacs in 2025, now holding a 1-1-1 record away from Spry.
Since 2015, head coach Bobby Muuss has led the Deacs to a stellar 70-26-18 overall record against ACC opponents (including postseason).
- Also during that span, Wake Forest is 110-19-11 against unranked opponents and 38-18-11 in road matches.
Saturday's win marked Wake Forest's eighth game in program history played in the Pacific time zone and first since Nov. 26, 2005.
- The Demon Deacons are now 4-3-1 on the west coast, with this being their first win since Sept. 27, 1998 in a 2-1 upset over the No. 1-ranked Washington Huskies in Seattle.
- Additionally, Wake Forest evened the all-time series against Cal at 2-2-1 as it defeated the Golden Bears for the first time since the first-ever meeting 1993.
Flax scored his fourth penalty of the year to move his totals to 15 points on five goals and five assists.
- For his career, he is 8-of-9 from the spot with 17 goals and 49 points.
Umar scored his fourth goal of the year for his eighth in a Wake Forest uniform and 13th in his collegiate career.
- He now has 21 points for the Deacs.
12 separate Demon Deacons have contributed to the 28 goals scored so far this season, with Tate Lorentz leading the way with six and Cooper Flax behind him with five.
- Wake Forest's 28 goals this year rank 8th in the country and fourth in the conference.
- The Deacs are also fifth in the ACC in assists (24) and fourth in total points (80).
The Demon Deacons currently hold a plus-10 goal-differential in 2025, the sixth-best in the ACC.
Cooper Flax made his 70th career appearance, the most out of any active Demon Deacon.
Amoni Thomas made his 25th career start.
David Nguema made his 10th career appearance.
Joel Torbic made his 25th career appearance.

National Leader In Wins

Named the fourth head coach in program history prior to the start of the 2015 season, Bobby Muuss' Demon Deacon squads have built on the longstanding and rich 45-year history of the program.
Since 2015, Wake Forest's 158 total wins ranks No. 1 nationally, five more than any program and 11 more than any other ACC program.
- During that span, Wake Forest is also joined only by Indiana as the only Division I programs to have won at least 10 matches every season.
Additionally, Wake Forest and Indiana are the only two programs of the 211 programs nationally to hold double-digit NCAA Tournament appearance streaks.
Wake Forest also leads the nation in wins over the last quarter-century (363), eight more than second-most Maryland (355).

Total Wins Since 2015

Rank	Team	Total Wins Since '15
1.	Wake Forest	158
2.	Indiana	153
3.	Clemson	147
4.	Georgetown	139
5.	Stanford	136

ACC Dominance

In addition to leading the nation in wins and home wins under head coach Bobby Muuss, the Demon Deacons have consistently been atop the nation's best conference with three ACC Championships and five divisional championships.
Wake Forest also leads the ACC in regular season conference wins since 2015.

ACC Regular Season Wins Since 2015

Rank	Team	Total ACC Wins Since '15
1.	Wake Forest	57
2.	Clemson	49
3.	North Carolina	46
4.	Virginia	41
5.	Duke	40

From Coach Muuss
"What a win. I thought it was not pretty football from the Deacs tonight, but when you're on the road in the best soccer conference in the country, three points are hard to come by, and we were up against it early. We scored quite a little bit of a weird goal in the first to go up. When we conceded, the guys heads could have gone down, but after we conceded I thought we got better when we started trying to play a little bit better football in the second half. I thought we took the game over. Credit to Cal. It just shows you, where both of us are in points, how good this conference is. That's a really good team, a bit unlucky. I'm just really proud of the guys today, the way they just kept going for 90 minutes. They grinded and competed, and we hope this is something that we need to move forward. We are moving in the right direction for the rest of the season."

Up Next
Wake Forest will now return home as it hosts Louisville in the annual Genna Wiley Memorial Pink Match on Friday, Oct. 17. The match against the Cardinals is slated for 7 p.m. and will be shown live on ACCNX.

The Deacs will wear special pink jerseys that will be auctioned off with all proceeds raised benefiting the Cancer Health Equity Patient Care fund at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. Bidding is open now and fans can do so here.

Next Event

Team Stats

Cooper Flax

Basit Umar

Harvey Sarajian

Jose Perez

Players Mentioned

Cristian Escribano

Cooper Flax

Tate Lorentz

Jonah Mednard

David Nguema

Jose Perez

Harvey Sarajian

Mason Sullivan

Amoni Thomas

Joel Torbic

Basit Umar

Jeffrey White

Wake Forest Athletics