Wake Forest Survives Bowling Green in 1-0 Victory

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Wake Forest didn’t so much ease past Bowling Green on Monday night as survive them.

On a chewed-up Cochrane Stadium pitch, after a bruising loss at Akron and under a barrage of long throws and corners, the Demon Deacons ground out a 1-0 win built on one clean finish and 45 minutes of stubborn resistance.

Young strikes, finally

For 42 minutes, Wake Forest poked and prodded without reward. They owned the ball, dictated tempo and racked up chances: seven shots, four corners, almost all of the meaningful play. Bowling Green chased.

The breakthrough came just before the break, and it was worth the wait.

Mason Sullivan, ever-present again and the only outfield player to go the full 90 for a third straight match, drove a low ball into the final third. At the edge of the box, Marcos Miranda met it with a clever redirect, nudging it into space for Chandler Young. One touch, one calm finish. 1-0 in the 43rd minute and Young’s first goal of the season.

For Miranda, it was a landmark moment: his first assist at the NCAA Division I level. For Sullivan, it doubled as the first assist of his career and another example of why the staff trusts him to stay on the pitch from whistle to whistle.

Wake Forest carried that lead into halftime with full justification. Bowling Green had been limited to scraps. The Deacons had the control, the rhythm, the goal.

The game changed after the interval.

Under siege

Bowling Green came out of the locker room with a very different look: direct, aggressive and relentless. The Falcons poured on pressure, slinging in long throw-ins, stacking bodies on set pieces and firing from every angle.

They ended the night with 19 shots, 14 of them after halftime. But they kept running into one problem: Jonah Mednard.

The redshirt junior goalkeeper turned the second half into his stage. He finished with six saves, four of them after the break, and none of them felt cheap. Mednard denied efforts from Lucas Brinkman and Luciano Perez-Cernuda, stayed composed amid a swarm of bodies on restarts and never once flinched as the tempo spiked.

By the time the final whistle blew, he had secured his second clean sheet in three games and the fifth solo shutout of his career, pushing his career saves tally to 63. It was also Wake Forest’s first shutout on the road since a 0-0 draw at Duke on Oct. 12, 2024.

He had plenty of help in front of him. The starting back four of Daniel Krueger, Sullivan, Ronnie Garcia and Travis Smith Jr. absorbed wave after wave, clearing second balls and cutting out crosses. Off the bench, Will Kuisel, Copeland Berkley and Lorenze Currie added fresh legs and timely interventions as the Falcons chased an equalizer.

Wake Forest had to deal with more than just Bowling Green’s energy. Head coach Bobby Muuss had warned his team about the Falcons’ set-piece threat, and they were tested repeatedly: around 20 long throw-ins, six corners and a constant aerial assault on a field Muuss openly felt wasn’t up to high-level Division I standards.

The Deacons bent. They did not break.

Finding a response in Ohio

This win didn’t arrive in a vacuum. Just three days earlier, Wake Forest had battled No. 10 Akron to a scoreless draw for more than 83 minutes before conceding late in a 1-0 defeat. It was the kind of loss that can linger.

Instead, they turned it into fuel.

Across two games in Ohio, Wake Forest conceded just two goals, came within minutes of a ranked road result and then closed the swing with a shutout win. Against Bowling Green, they finished with 12 shots, five on target, five corners and 53 percent of the ball. They created enough to score again in the second half, with Young, Kuisel and Roald Mitchell Reid all taking aim, but one goal proved enough.

Bowling Green’s numbers told the story of the siege: 19 shots, six on frame, six corners and constant pressure after the break. The Deacons weathered all of it to claim their first non-conference road victory since a 4-1 win at UNCW on Oct. 15, 2024.

On a difficult surface, in a game that demanded adjustments and resolve, Wake Forest found a way.

Man of the Match: Mednard

On a night defined by grit, Mednard stood tallest.

Six saves. Four of them in a frantic second half. A fifth career solo shutout. A clean sheet that owed as much to concentration as it did to reflexes. His performance earned him Man of the Match honors, joining captain Jeffrey White and David Nguema (twice) as Wake Forest players recognized this season.

The Deacons needed someone to anchor them as Bowling Green threw everything into the box. Mednard did exactly that.

ACC test on deck

The Ohio trip is done. The stakes rise next.

Wake Forest returns to Spry Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 5, to open ACC play against Duke. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m., with the match streaming live on ACCNX.

A shutout on the road, a response to adversity, and a goalkeeper in form — the question now is whether the Demon Deacons can carry that edge into conference play when the margin for error gets even thinner.