Thursday, August 28
Winston-Salem, N.C.
5:30 p.m.
Wake Forest University
2-0-0, 0-0-0
2
vs
0
Oral Roberts
0-2-1, 0-0-0
1
2
F
Oral Roberts
0
0
0
Wake Forest
1
1
2
No. 5 Demon Deacons Secure First Clean Sheet Victory of 2025 Season
8/28/2025 8:09:00 PM | Men's Soccer
The Demon Deacons controlled play throughout the contest, allowing just one shot on goal while securing the first clean sheet of the 2025 campaign.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Highlighted by a stout defensive effort and goals from sophomore Jose Perez and junior Tate Lorentz, the No. 5 Wake Forest men's soccer team (2-0-0, 0-0-0 ACC) continued its winning start to the 2025 campaign as it defeated Oral Roberts (0-2-1, 0-0-0 Summit League), 2-0, Thursday evening at Spry Stadium.
Perez got the Deacs on the scoreboard in the 14th minute, one-timing a low-level blast from the top of the 18 to beat the Oral Roberts keeper for the third tally of his career. Then in the second half, sophomore Joel Torbic perfectly placed a ball to Lorentz from the corner. It marked the first career goal for the Winston-Salem native.
In goal, redshirt sophomore Jonah Mednard secured the first shutout of his career as he recorded one save.
The starting backline of junior Travis Smith, Jr., sophomores Mason Sullivan and Amoni Thomas, as well as graduate captain Cristian Escribano also excelled in helping the Demon Deacons to their first clean sheet of the season. Wake Forest limited Oral Roberts to just three shots across the 90 minutes.
With the win, the Demon Deacons are now unbeaten in their last 14 matches at Spry Stadium with wins in each of the last seven. Overall, the Deacs hold an 11-0-3 home record dating back to Aug. 25 of last year. Additionally, Thursday night marked the 113th home victory for the Demon Deacons under Muuss, the most during that span (2015).
Of note, sophomore defenders Daniel Krueger and Will Jackson made their season debuts. 24 total Deacs saw the field Thursday night.
How it Happened
Man of the Match - Jose Perez
National Leader In Wins
Total Wins Since 2015
Winning Ways At Spry
Since Bobby Muuss became head coach prior to the 2015 season, Wake Forest has created the most difficult environment in college soccer at Spry Stadium each matchday. With Thursday's victory, the Demon Deacons are now 113-19-12 at home under Muuss.
The 113 victories are the most in the country over the 11-year span:
Demon Deacon Details of Note
From Coach Muuss
"We kept a clean sheet. We were disappointed when we let the goal up the other night. It was a good team performance because we used a lot of guys. I was a bit disappointed with the guys that came in in the first half, but the energy was much better in the second half. I thought the energy at the beginning of the game was incredible to hold a team that can get you in transition if you're sloppy. We were sloppy a couple of times in transition, but the guys did a really good job of getting behind the ball and reorganizing our defense. We have to learn from it, though. I think Oral Roberts made it difficult to break down. They had a lot of numbers behind the ball. We just dropped immediately from the start of the game. I'm happy with second line shots on restarts. The best thing you can do against a team is sitting in so we did two of those things. Tate got his first goal; I'm really excited for that. What a great ball by Joel. It's a great team win, and it allowed us to hopefully get a little bit more out of the next two days of training for a really good St. John's team coming here on Sunday."
Up Next
Wake Forest will remain at Spry for three more non-conference clashes before hitting the road for the first time on Sept. 12 to take on North Carolina in the ACC opener. The Demon Deacons will welcome St. John's to Spry Stadium on Sunday, Aug. 31 at 7 p.m. The match will be streamed live on ACCNX.
Perez got the Deacs on the scoreboard in the 14th minute, one-timing a low-level blast from the top of the 18 to beat the Oral Roberts keeper for the third tally of his career. Then in the second half, sophomore Joel Torbic perfectly placed a ball to Lorentz from the corner. It marked the first career goal for the Winston-Salem native.
In goal, redshirt sophomore Jonah Mednard secured the first shutout of his career as he recorded one save.
The starting backline of junior Travis Smith, Jr., sophomores Mason Sullivan and Amoni Thomas, as well as graduate captain Cristian Escribano also excelled in helping the Demon Deacons to their first clean sheet of the season. Wake Forest limited Oral Roberts to just three shots across the 90 minutes.
With the win, the Demon Deacons are now unbeaten in their last 14 matches at Spry Stadium with wins in each of the last seven. Overall, the Deacs hold an 11-0-3 home record dating back to Aug. 25 of last year. Additionally, Thursday night marked the 113th home victory for the Demon Deacons under Muuss, the most during that span (2015).
Of note, sophomore defenders Daniel Krueger and Will Jackson made their season debuts. 24 total Deacs saw the field Thursday night.
How it Happened
- White recorded the first shot of the contest from an almost identical spot from his wonder goal against UCF on Sunday, but it just missed wide left.
- In the 13th minute, Umar created space for himself and fired a shot from outside the box that sailed high.
- A minute later, Wake Forest found the breakthrough as a weak clearance rolled to Perez who rocketed a first-time shot from 22-yards out for the opener.
- It marked the third goal of Perez's career and first since his strike against Virginia Tech last season (Oct. 19).
- After the goal, the Demon Deacons continued to control the contest and limited final third entries for the Golden Eagles.
- Wake Forest went into the locker room with a 1-0 advantage.
- The Deacs controlled 56 percent of the ball and held a 6-to-1 shots advantage, with the only shot on target from either side being the Perez strike.
- Krueger made his season debut as he started the second half.
- Winston-Salem native Tate Lorentz fired off the first shot of the second half in the 50th minute.
- The hometown kid got his first-career goal four minutes later, however, as he headed home Torbic's corner and doubled the Deacs advantage.
- The Deacs had a chance to make it three in the 61st minute, as Escribano played a brilliant ball across the goal to Umar, who was unable to put it away.
- Wake Forest continued to control the tempo throughout the second half.
- In the 83rd minute, Currie made his Demon Deacon debut and Jackson entered for the first time in 2025.
- The Demon Deacons saw out the 2-0 victory and earned the first clean sheet of 2025.
Man of the Match - Jose Perez
- After an incredible performance in the midfield on Sunday night against UCF, Perez continued his strong start to the 2025 campaign with an incredible goal in the first half Thursday evening.
- The junior went 63 minutes against the Golden Eagles and helped Wake Forest earn its first clean sheet of 2025, limiting the opponents to just three shots on the night.
- He is the second man of the match in 2025, following up Jeffrey White in the season opener.
National Leader In Wins
- Since 2015, Wake Forest's 154 total wins ranks No. 1 nationally, seven more than any program and 11 more than any other ACC program.
- Wake Forest also leads the nation in wins over the last quarter-century (359), nine more than second-most Maryland.
Total Wins Since 2015
| Rank | Team | Total Wins Since '15 |
| 1. | Wake Forest | 154 |
| 2. | Indiana | 146 |
| 3. | Clemson | 142 |
| 4. | Georgetown | 133 |
| 5. | Stanford | 128 |
Winning Ways At Spry
Since Bobby Muuss became head coach prior to the 2015 season, Wake Forest has created the most difficult environment in college soccer at Spry Stadium each matchday. With Thursday's victory, the Demon Deacons are now 113-19-12 at home under Muuss.
The 113 victories are the most in the country over the 11-year span:
- Wake Forest (113 home victories)
- Clemson (94 home victories)
- Indiana (93 home victories)
- Virginia (86 home victories)
- Georgetown (84 home victories)
Demon Deacon Details of Note
- Jose Perez earned his 25th career start and scored the third goal of his Wake Forest career.
- Lorentz tallied his first-career goal as Torbic picked up his second-career assist on the corner.
- Freshman Lorenze Currie made his collegiate debut, entering the match in the 83rd minute.
- The Demon Deacons are now unbeaten in their last 14 matches at Spry Stadium with wins in each of the last seven.
- The Deacs hold an 11-0-3 home record dating back to Aug. 25 of last year.
- Wake Forest started 2-0-0 for the seventh time under head coach Bobby Muuss.
- Additionally, Muuss remained perfect (5-0-0) all-time against Oral Roberts, with 14 goals scored and zero allowed over the five matches.
- Jose Perez earned his 25th career start and scored the third goal of his Wake Forest career.
- Amoni Thomas earned his 15th career start.
- Jeffrey White earned his 15th career start.
- Daniel Krueger made his first appearance of 2025, starting the second half.
- Will Jackson made his first appearance of 2025, entering the match in the late stages to help secure the clean sheet.
From Coach Muuss
"We kept a clean sheet. We were disappointed when we let the goal up the other night. It was a good team performance because we used a lot of guys. I was a bit disappointed with the guys that came in in the first half, but the energy was much better in the second half. I thought the energy at the beginning of the game was incredible to hold a team that can get you in transition if you're sloppy. We were sloppy a couple of times in transition, but the guys did a really good job of getting behind the ball and reorganizing our defense. We have to learn from it, though. I think Oral Roberts made it difficult to break down. They had a lot of numbers behind the ball. We just dropped immediately from the start of the game. I'm happy with second line shots on restarts. The best thing you can do against a team is sitting in so we did two of those things. Tate got his first goal; I'm really excited for that. What a great ball by Joel. It's a great team win, and it allowed us to hopefully get a little bit more out of the next two days of training for a really good St. John's team coming here on Sunday."
Up Next
Wake Forest will remain at Spry for three more non-conference clashes before hitting the road for the first time on Sept. 12 to take on North Carolina in the ACC opener. The Demon Deacons will welcome St. John's to Spry Stadium on Sunday, Aug. 31 at 7 p.m. The match will be streamed live on ACCNX.
Team Stats
ORU
WFU
Goals
0
2
Shots
3
12
Shots on Goal
1
2
Saves
0
1
Corners
3
3
Fouls
11
15
Scoring Plays
Jose Perez (1)
Assisted By: Ryan Belal
GOAL by WFU Perez, Jose Assist by Belal, Ryan.
13:33
Tate Lorentz (1)
Assisted By: Joel Torbic
GOAL by WFU Lorentz, Tate Assist by Torbic, Joel.
52:49
Game Leaders
Shots
2
SOG
1
Goals
1
Assists
0
mid
Shots
1
SOG
1
Goals
1
Assists
0
Shots
1
SOG
0
Goals
0
Assists
1
fwd
Shots
0
SOG
0
Goals
0
Assists
1
Players Mentioned
Defender
/ Men's Soccer
Defender
/ Men's Soccer
Defender
/ Men's Soccer
Defender
/ Men's SoccerMidfielder/Forward
/ Men's Soccer
Goalkeeper
/ Men's Soccer
Midfielder
/ Men's Soccer
Defender
/ Men's Soccer
Defender
/ Men's SoccerMidfielder
/ Men's Soccer
Midfielder
/ Men's SoccerWake Forest Head Coach Jake Dickert National Signing Day Press Conference
Thursday, December 04
Dec. 3, 2025: Coach Jake Dickert National Signing Day Press Conference
Wednesday, December 03
Steve Forbes Postgame Presser vs. Oklahoma
Wednesday, December 03
Wake Forest Women's Basketball Highlights vs Illinois St (Nov. 28, 2025)
Monday, December 01