Over the weekend, the Notre Dame men’s soccer team traveled to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to take on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Halloween night. They suffered a 3-0 loss and with it fell to 8-5-4 on the season and 3-3-2 in Atlantic Coast Conference play. This now places them as the No. 8 seed heading into the ACC Tournament, where they will host No. 9 seed North Carolina on Wednesday night.
Head coach Chad Riley commented on the disappointing loss.
“Obviously we are all disappointed in the result,” Riley said. “Credit to Wake, they took their chances well and played well. We had spells where we were very good and unfortunately we couldn’t capitalize. Now we have to respond like competitors and have great preparation for the ACC tournament.”
Notre Dame got out on the front foot offensively as senior forward Wyatt Borso fired the first shot around the 10-minute mark, but it was a tad wide, missing the net. Throughout most of the first half, the two teams stayed stout defensively until around the 37th minute, when the hosts earned a penalty. Vlad Walent converted, sending it past sophomore goalkeeper Blake Kelly to take the 1-0 lead. In the final moments of the first half, junior forward Nate Zimmermann looked to even the score with a strike from outside of the box, but was denied by Demon Deacon goalkeeper Jonah Mednard. Overall, in the first half of the match, Wake Forest outshot the Irish 7-3. It was hotly contested, with both teams picking up four fouls throughout.
Heading into the second half of the match, the Demon Deacons didn’t waste much time increasing their lead, sending in their second goal of the day 15 minutes into the half. Four minutes later, they knocked in their third goal to take a comfortable 3-0 lead over the Irish. While the Irish pushed back against the strong Wake Forest defense, they were unable to break them down in the end.
Wake Forest came out on top in all statistics as they finished 12-8 in shots, 6-3 in shots on target and held possession of the ball 56% of the match. They played with more physicality as well, finishing the game with a total of 12 fouls, while Notre Dame only had six.
Borso, senior midfielder KK Baffour, and freshman midfielder Karson Baquero all contributed to Notre Dame’s fight against the Demon Deacons, as all three had a pair of shots throughout the match. Kelly finished the match with a total of three saves for the Irish in goal.
Their ACC Tournament opponents, North Carolina, finished 8-4-4 overall and 2-2-4 in conference play. They rounded out their regular season with a 2-0 loss to rival Duke this past weekend. The Tar Heels are led by graduate student forward Nacho Abeal, who leads the team in all offensive categories. Abeal has five goals, eight assists, 18 points and 22 shots on goal in his prolific 2025 campaign. Senior goalkeeper Andrew Cordes stands in goal with 39 saves and a .780 save percentage in 16 matches.
The Irish will host the Tar Heels at Alumni Stadium on Wednesday, Nov. 5, starting at 7 p.m.
