Demon Deacons Open 2026 Campaign With Win Over San Francisco

Thursday, August 20

Winston-Salem, N.C.

7:30 p.m.

Wake Forest University

1-0-0, 0-0-0

San Francisco

0-1-0, 0-0-0

Team	1	2	Final F
San Francisco	2	0	2
Wake Forest	2	2	4

Demon Deacons Open 2026 Campaign With Win Over San Francisco

8/20/2026 11:50:00 PM | Men's Soccer

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Wake Forest will remain at home Sunday when it hosts VCU at 7 p.m. at Spry Stadium.

By: Dylan Shackelford

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Behind a first-career brace from senior captain Jeffrey White, the Wake Forest men's soccer team opened the 2026 season in victorious fashion Thursday night as it defeated San Francisco, 4-2, at Spry Stadium in front of a raucous home crowd of 3,233 fans.

The Demon Deacons have now won their season opener in 37 of their 46 seasons, including nine of 12 times under the direction of head coach Bobby Muuss. Additionally, Wake Forest continues to lead the nation in home wins (118) and overall wins (160) since 2015.

Four goals on the night marked the most for Wake Forest in an opening match since it faced Rutgers at home on Aug. 25, 2017 in a 5-1 thrashing of the Scarlet Knights.

San Francisco opened the scoring in the 15th minute before White leveled the match six minutes later a minute after the Dons went down to 10 men. Senior midfielder Jose Perez played Tate Lorentz into space down the right flank, and the Winston-Salem native delivered a perfectly weighted cutback for the captain, who finished first-time for the first Wake Forest goal of the year.

Perez then put the Deacs in front less than two minutes later, converting a penalty kick to give Wake Forest a 2-1 advantage. The Dons equalized in the 26th minute, sending the teams into halftime level at 2-2.

Thursday marked the first game of Perez's career with multiple goal contributions as he brought his totals to six goals and two assists.

In his collegiate debut, freshman Philip Biskupski restored Wake Forest's lead in the 58th minute, scoring his first career goal following a brilliant ball from fellow newcomer Ronnie Garcia into the box. Junior defender Daniel Krueger registered the secondary assist on the goal for the second of his career.

White added his second goal of the evening in the 77th minute after phenomenal play from Nguema and Lorentz to progress the ball into the box for another one-time finish. The goal gave White six for his Wake Forest career, while Lorentz's two assists moved him to seven over the last two years.

Nguema, meanwhile, recorded the first assist of his collegiate career after dominating the midfield for 65 minutes in his first-ever start.

In his 20th career appearance for the Demon Deacons, redshirt junior goalkeeper Jonah Mednard kept the Dons out over the final 64 minutes of play, with three of his four saves coming in the second half to bring his career total to 57.

The Deacs finished the night with an 18-to-14 advantage in shots, a 6-to-4 edge in corner kicks and controlled 61 percent of the ball over the 90 minutes.

MAN OF THE MATCH - JEFFREY WHITE

Senior midfielder Jeffrey White turned in a career performance Thursday night, scoring twice to captain the Demon Deacons to a 4-2 season-opening victory over San Francisco.
His first-career brace marked the first multi-goal performance of White's career and moved him to six career goals to go along with five assists.

WAKE FOREST DEBUTS

Eight Demon Deacons made their Wake Forest debuts Thursday, with sophomore forward Joby Reid and freshman defender Will Kuisel earning their spot in the starting eleven.
The go-ahead goal scorer (Biskupski) and provider (Garcia) both came off the bench and made instant impacts alongside Luke Kirilenko, Marcos Miranda, Henry Rosenfeld and Oliver Kurnik.

SERIES HISTORY

The Demon Deacons previously defeated the Dons in 1996 and 1998 and now own a 3-0 record in the all-time series.
- Wake Forest also improved to 7-1 all-time against current WCC institutions and 3-0 against those opponents under Muuss.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Chandler Young and Tate Lorentz recorded the first shots of the season for Wake Forest in the 10th and 12th minutes, respectively.
San Francisco struck first in the 15th minute when Raphael finished off an assist from Afsari, despite the Deacs controlling much of the early play.
The Dons went down a man in the 20th minute following a red card issued to Jameson Raby.
White equalized in the 21st minute as Perez played Lorentz into space down the right flank, with the Winston-Salem native delivering a perfectly weighted cutback for White to finish first-time.
Perez put the Deacs ahead less than two minutes later, calmly converting a penalty kick to give Wake Forest its first lead of the season.
San Francisco answered in the 26th minute through Beason, sending the teams into halftime tied at 2-2 with Wake Forest holding 62 percent of the possession.
Biskupski restored the Wake Forest lead in the 58th minute in his collegiate debut, finishing his first career goal after Garcia played a brilliant ball into the box. Krueger registered the secondary assist on the play.
White put the match out of reach in the 77th minute, finishing first-time for his second goal of the night after Nguema and Lorentz combined to progress the ball into the box.
Wake Forest held San Francisco scoreless over the final 64 minutes to secure the 4-2 victory and open the season 1-0.

FROM COACH MUUSS
"It wasn't pretty, but the goal to begin the season is to be 1-0, and we are 1-0. I thought San Francisco came out on the front foot. They were all over us. We were a little bit slow to adapt to be fair. I don't know why. We had a great week of training and the guys were super excited. Maybe it was opening night jitters, but San Francisco seemed to want it more than us. They got the opener. The guys responded well, and obviously the red card changed the game in our favor. The second goal could have been a back breaker after coming back, but to respond the way we did in the second half made me proud. We wanted to attack as they sat back deep, and one of the ways we did that was with Ronnie [Garcia] playing that ball to Phillip. Two great plays by newcomers, and seeing Phillip to get the winner as a true freshman was a great experience. Jeffrey White also had two great goals having the ball cut back to him in the box. We call those Wake Forest goals, and that's what we saw today. Proud of the guys today and we're 1-0."

UP NEXT
The Demon Deacons will remain at home Sunday when they welcome VCU to Spry Stadium for a 7 p.m. kickoff. The match will once again be streamed live on ACC Network Extra.