UVA Soccer got out to a 5-0 lead on top-ranked Wake Forest, then survived a brief late flurry from the Demon Deacons to post the 6-3 upset win Friday night at Klöckner Stadium.
The dub was the Cavaliers’ first victory against a top-ranked opponent since 2019.
Virgina (5-1-1, 2-0-1 ACC) led 4-0 at the half, getting two goals from freshman Nick Simmonds in the opening 18 months.
Bacary Tandjigora became the second Virginia freshman to score in the game in the 32nd minute, and six minutes later, Sebastian Pop notched his first collegiate goal off a Cavalier corner kick to give Virginia a 4-0 lead going into the half.
In the 61st minute of play, Luke Burns recorded his second goal in as many games off a Cavalier counterattack.
Wake (4-1-3, 0-1-1 ACC) got a pair of goals in a five-minute stretch from Basit Umar, and got the margin to 5-3 on an own goal in the 88th minute.
Samuel Oulouheu scored 35 seconds later for the final margin.
“Kind of what I said to the team, 65-70 minutes of that game was exceptional, the way we played, with the ball, creating chances defensively. We pay a lot of attention to the details on how we do things defensively, and the guys executed superbly,” UVA coach George Gelnovatch said.
“The approach was to be aggressive, put things on top of them, and make it really tough on them, squeeze the field. We saw that right away. The goals were not half-hazard, no balls pinning around in front of the goal. They were great, great executed goals,” Gelnovatch said.
The Cavaliers will be back in action on Tuesday (Sept. 23) when they host Dayton at Klöckner Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
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Chris Graham
