Wake Forest Defeats Bowling Green 1-0 in Ohio Road Swing
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – Wake Forest didn’t just survive its Ohio road swing. It dug in, suffered, and left with exactly what it needed.
A single, well-worked move finished by Chandler Young and a defiant second-half rearguard carried the Demon Deacons to a 1-0 win over Bowling Green on Monday night at Cochrane Stadium.
Young strikes, Wake finally cashes in
For 42 minutes, Wake Forest prodded and probed without reward. The ball stayed mostly in orange and black territory, but the final touch kept eluding the visitors.
Then the sequence clicked.
Mason Sullivan, already logging another exhausting shift, drove a low ball forward. At the edge of the box, Marcos Miranda added the bit of class the move needed, redirecting with a neat touch into space. Young arrived, calm and composed, and swept home his first goal of the season in the 43rd minute.
One pass to break a line. One deft redirection. One ruthless finish.
The goal capped a dominant first half for Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons fired seven shots, earned four corners, and largely kept Bowling Green at arm’s length. The lead matched the flow.
For Sullivan, the play meant even more. The ball in led to the first assist of Miranda’s NCAA Division I career and the first of Sullivan’s as well. Sullivan then went wire-to-wire again, the only outfield player to play all 90 minutes, doing so for the third straight match.
Mednard and the back line dig in
The second half told a very different story.
Bowling Green came out with purpose, pressing higher and hitting more direct. The Falcons peppered the Wake Forest box with long throws and corners, turning the game into a test of nerve and organization.
They finished with 19 shots on the night, 14 of them after the break. But every time the pressure crept toward breaking point, Jonah Mednard was there.
The redshirt junior goalkeeper faced six shots on target and turned away all six, four of them in the second half. He denied efforts from Lucas Brinkman and Luciano Perez-Cernuda, among others, reading the game well and handling the chaos around him.
By the final whistle, Mednard had secured his second clean sheet in three games and the fifth solo shutout of his career, pushing his career save 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.
In front of him, the starting back four of Daniel Krueger, Sullivan, Ronnie Garcia and Travis Smith Jr. absorbed wave after wave, with crucial second-half minutes from substitutes Will Kuisel, Copeland Berkley and Lorenze Currie. They didn’t erase Bowling Green’s shot count, but they did what mattered most: they limited clear, high-quality looks.
Set pieces became the story. Wake Forest had to deal with six corners and a barrage of long throw-ins that repeatedly turned the box into a crowd scene. The Demon Deacons held their ground.
Response after Akron heartbreak
This trip through Ohio could easily have gone sideways.
Wake Forest had just come off a gutting loss at No. 10 Akron on Friday, a match it held scoreless for more than 83 minutes before conceding late in a 1-0 defeat. The physical and emotional toll was obvious.
Against Bowling Green, the Demon Deacons had to recalibrate again, this time on a field that demanded a more direct, pragmatic approach. They adjusted, dug in, and found a way.
Wake Forest finished with 12 shots, five on target, five corners and 53 percent of the ball. Bowling Green countered with those 19 attempts, six on frame, and six corners. The numbers underline the shift after halftime, when the Falcons surged and Wake Forest had to weather the storm.
The Demon Deacons still carved out chances late, with Young, Kuisel and Roald Mitchell Reid each testing Bowling Green in the second period. But the story of the final 45 minutes was resilience, not flair.
The result snapped a long wait: it was Wake Forest’s first non-conference road victory since a 4-1 win at UNCW on Oct. 15, 2024. It also closed the two-match Ohio swing with four gritty halves, one key goal, and a much-needed win.
Man of the Match – Jonah Mednard
On a night defined by defending, Mednard stood tallest.
His six-save shutout, with four stops under heavy second-half pressure, preserved Young’s first-half strike and locked in Wake Forest’s 1-0 win. The performance earned him Man of the Match honors, joining captain Jeffrey White and David Nguema (twice) as Demon Deacons to claim the recognition this season.
What’s next
The road miles are banked. Now comes the real measuring stick.
Wake Forest returns to Spry Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 5, to open ACC play against Duke under the lights at 7 p.m.
A clean sheet on the road. Momentum restored. The question now is simple: can the Demon Deacons carry this hardened edge into the conference grind?
