Demon Deacons Draw Pitt on the Road

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Thanks to an 88th minute header by sophomore Harvey Sarajian, the Wake Forest men's soccer team (6-3-6, 1-3-3 ACC) took a point in its final road match of the regular season with a 1-1 draw with Pitt (5-6-4, 1-4-2 ACC) at Ambrose Urbanic Field Friday evening.

In a career-game, goalkeeper Jonah Mednard finished with six saves against the Panthers. His night started with an unbelievable triple-save in the second minute, as he stopped a penalty and two follow-up shots to keep the match scoreless. He would go on to make four more saves in the first half alone and kept the Deacs in the contest.

Pitt took the lead in the 71st minute, but the Deacs battled back and found a much-deserved equalizer in the 88th minute after senior midfielder Cooper Flax's corner found Sarajian. It marked his second goal for Wake Forest and the sixth of his collegiate career.

Now sitting on six goals and six assists for 18 total points, Flax extended his team lead and has recorded at least one goal contribution in five of the last seven matches.

Wake Forest is 10th in the ACC table headed into the final match against Notre Dame on six points.

How it Happened

Pitt won a penalty in the second minute of play, but superb goalkeeping from Mednard that saw him make three-consecutive saves in five seasons kept the match scoreless.
Mednard came to the rescue again in the 13th minute with a nice diving save following a Pitt header.
Walent won a corner in the 28th minute, which led to the first shot of the evening for the Deacs as Perez fired a shot from outside the box that was blocked behind for another corner.
Five minutes later, White fired a shot off target for Wake Forest's second and final attempt of the first half.
Mednard made two more massive saves before the break and finished with six total in the first 45, tying a career-high.
The two sides went into the locker rooms deadlocked at 0-0.
After a battle in the opening 25 minutes of the second half, Pitt found the breakthrough in the 71st minute.
Wake Forest played the final six minutes up a man after a Panther was sent off for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
The Demon Deacons found the equalizer in the 88th minute after a Flax corner found the head of Sarajian, who put it into the back of the net for his second goal of the year.
The points were shared as the two sides drew, 1-1.

Demon Deacon Details of Note

With the draw, Wake Forest now sits 10th in the ACC on six points.
In his 15th-career start, Mednard logged six saves, tying a career high.
- He now has 46 saves on the year which puts him third in the ACC.
Krueger made his 25th career start.
Perez made his 50th career appearance.
Flax and Escribano made their 65th career starts, tied for the most out of all active Demon Deacons.
Sarajian scored his second goal for the Demon Deacons with the equalizer and the sixth of his collegiate career.
With the assist on the goal, Flax brought his total to six on the year and now has a team-high 18 points.
- It also marked the 16th assist of his career.

From Coach Muuss
"A hard-earned point against an excellent Pitt team. When you look at what their record is, I don't know how it's possible with the team that they have. We were against it for a bit of the match, but I'm really happy with the resiliency these guys showed and the perseverance that they showed to get a goal late. Not just to get the goal, but to come back and try to get the game winner. We want to win games, but I do think getting a point at this place was a good result tonight and a fair result."

Up Next
Wake Forest will now return home as it hosts Notre Dame at Spry Stadium on Friday, Oct. 31 in the final regular season match of the season. The match is slated for 7 p.m. and will serve as the program's senior and graduates night.

The clash will be streamed live on ACCNX.

Next Event

Team Stats

Harvey Sarajian

Cooper Flax

Jeffrey White

Chandler Young

Players Mentioned

Cooper Flax

Jonah Mednard

Harvey Sarajian

Wake Forest Athletics