Wake Forest Men’s Soccer Equalizes Late Against Wofford

The Demon Deacons wrapped up their non-conference slate with a draw against the Terriers.

Midfielder Cooper Flax (18) fires a low-driven shot to equalize for Wake Forest in the 80th minute against Wofford on Tuesday night at Spry Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. | Seth Seebaugh / Wake Forest Athletics

Tuesday night, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (6-3-5, 1-3-2 ACC) came away with a hard-fought point in their 2-2 draw with the Wofford Terriers (5-8-2, 1-2-0 SoCon).

The opening 45 minutes at Spry Stadium were even, with neither side able to find a breakthrough in the first half. Out of the break, though, the Deacons drew first blood. Midfielder Jose Perez was picked out beyond the 18-yard box and flashed a right-footed shot that was deflected into the back of the net to put Wake Forest in front 1-0. Assists from Tate Lorentz and Ethan Subachan led to Perez's third goal this season.

Just two minutes later, Wofford struck back. Kalle Rahbeck, a Southland Conference All-Freshman Team player a year ago, notched his fourth goal of the season to level the match at a goal apiece. Rahbeck’s strike in the 52nd minute spurred the Terriers to take a 2-1 lead in the 57th minute with a goal from Sam Diebold–his first of the season.

Despite struggling to find a way through Wofford’s back line, Wake Forest continued to push for an equalizer. In the 80th minute, the Deacons countered. Nico Rabiu ran onto a brilliant through ball and had an effort on goal. It was parried away, but Rabiu found Cooper Flax at the edge of the box, who fired in a low-driven shot into the bottom corner of the net.

Flax came through with his sixth goal of the season, providing the crucial equalizer to draw the Deacons level with the Terriers. He now leads the team with 17 points on the season, coming with six goals and five assists. Flax is now tied for 20th in program history with 18 career goals.

Wake Forest outshot Wofford 12-7 on the night, with both of their shots on target ending up in the back of the net. The Deacons also had 10 corners to the Terriers’ two. Head coach Bobby Muuss said the result was disappointing.

“I thought we started the game well and generated some half chances and a couple of good looks. We dominated possession, and then we gave up some soft goals. We got a goal early in the second half, which I thought we needed in order to calm the game down,” he explained. “Less than five minutes later, we conceded out of nowhere. We then went down again off a square ball in the midfield, which we know is not in our attacking principles. We just continue to shoot ourselves in the foot.”

Despite falling behind 2-1, the Deacons fought back. Muuss said, “I give the guys a lot of credit for coming back and finding the equalizer against a team that was playing really deep and slowing the tempo of the game down every possible opportunity. I think we were a bit unlucky to find the game winner, but that's football.”

What’s Next?

Now that the non-conference slate has concluded, Wake Forest will travel to take on Pitt (5-6-3, 1-4-1 ACC) on Friday, Oct. 24. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. ET and will be available for streaming on ACC Network Extra.

It will be just the seventh all-time meeting between the two programs as the Deacons have a 5-1-0 record against the Panthers dating back to 2013.