No. 6 Virginia Squares Off Against No. 1 Wake Forest on Saturday
Live Stats | Wake Forest Game Notes | WATCH | Clear Bag Policy | UVA Game Notes
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 6 Virginia (9-1-2, 3-1-1 ACC) hosts the top-ranked team in the country on Saturday (Oct. 20) at 1 p.m. when Wake Forest (14-1, 5-1 ACC) comes to Klöckner Stadium. The game will air live on ACC Network Extra.
Game Coverage: ACC Network Extra is available to authenticated subscribers of ESPN3 through WatchESPN and the ESPN app. will be available on VirginiaSports.com. Fans can also get in-game updates on the match’s live stats feed on VirginiaSports.com and on the men’s soccer official twitter page (@UVAMenSoccer).
TICKETS AVAILABLE
Fans can purchase tickets at a discounted rate in advance by going online to VirginiaSports.com/Tickets. For all regular season home games, available reserved single-game tickets can be purchased in advance for $8 online or via mobile devices. Tickets are $10 at the sport-specific ticket office on game day. General admission single-game tickets are $5 in advance and $8 at the sport-specific ticket office locations on game day.
CLEAR BAG POLICY
Virginia Athletics has a clear bag policy and entrance procedures in effect for Klöckner Stadium this season. Please review FAQs here: https://virginiasports.com/sports/2018/5/22/facilities-clear-bag-Disharoon-Klockner.aspx
GAME PROMOTIONS
• Free scarves to the first 500 fans
• Free Bojangles Biscuits to the first 500 students
• 5 Sabre Reward points for students in attendance
FOR STARTERS
• Saturday’s contest will be a rematch of the 2017 ACC Championship game that ended in a 0-0 tie with the Demon Deacons prevailing in penalty kicks for its second-straight league title.
• The last time Virginia hosted a top-ranked team was also Wake Forest, back in 2008 a 2-0 Demon Deacon victory.
• Prior to the contest, Virginia will honor its five seniors – Daniel Barir, Prosper Figbe, Kennedy Nwabia, Sergi Nus and Simeon Okoro
• Virginia and Wake Forest are the only two one-loss teams remaining in the ACC and two of the eight teams in the NCAA with one or no losses in 2018.
• Wake Forest has scored 42 goals this season, the most of any team in the country while Virginia has conceded just six times in 12 games, tied for the second fewest of any team in college soccer.
• In Monday’s RPI Update, Wake Forest and Virginia ranked No. 2 and No. 3 respectively. Virginia’s final three opponents all rank in the top five (Notre Dame – 5; North Carolina – 4)
• Both Virginia and Wake Forest come into the contest winners of its last three games.
VIRGINIA DEFENSE
• For the first time in 2018, Virginia has allowed goals in back-to-back games. Fortunately, the Cavalier offense posted six goals in the last two games.
• Among the national rankings, Virginia ranks fourth in goals against average (0.48), sixth in shutout percentage (.583) and second in save percentage (.857).
• Wake Forest is the third top-10 offense to play at Klöckner Stadium this season. The Cavaliers posted shutouts of Wright State (then 8th) and Denver (then 2nd).
CHAMPIONSHIP REMATCH
• The Demon Deacons and Cavaliers played to a scoreless tie after 110 minutes in last year’s ACC Championship final. Wake Forest prevailed in penalty kicks, 4-3 overcoming two saves by Virginia goalkeeper Jeff Caldwell.
• Wake Forest played a man down for the final 67 minutes of the game when a Logan Gdula was shown his second yellow card.
• The Demon Deacons managed to hold a 14-6 advantage in shots despite playing a man down.
SERIES HISTORY
• Wake Forest is unbeaten in its last three matches against Virginia and own a 5-3-2 edge in the last 10 meetings.
• Virginia leads the all-time series that dates back to 1980, 37-12-7. UVA head coach George Gelnovatch is 20-11-5 in his tenure against the Demon Deacons.
• Wake Forest has been the No. 1 team four times in the all-time series with Virginia holding a 2-1-1 mark in those games. In 2008 No. 1 Wake Forest bested Virginia in the regular season, 2-0 in Charlottesville before Cavaliers eliminated top-ranked Wake Forest seven days later in the ACC Tournament with a 3-2 result.
RESPONSE TIME
• Of the two equalizing goals surrendered by Virginia in the past two games, Virginia was tied for less than five minutes.
• Against Radford on Tuesday (Oct. 16), Simeon Okoro scored the eventual game-winner 1:48 after the Highlander game-tying goal.
• Last Friday (Oct. 12) against Clemson, Robin Afamefuna scored 2:26 after the Tigers knotted the game at 1 in the second minute of the second half.
CROFTS HELPERS
• Sophomore Nathaniel Crofts recorded his fifth assist in three games with a helper on Simeon Okoro’s game-winning goal against Radford on Tuesday night.
• The six assists for Crofts are tied for the second most in the ACC and are the most by a UVA player since Scott Thomsen’s eight in 2014.
• Of his 10 points this season, Crofts has recorded seven of them against ACC opponents, tied for the fifth most in the conference.
• Crofts and classmate Joe Bell (four assists), have started 32-straight games for Virginia, the longest streaks of any active Cavalier.
CAVALIER ATTACK
• Freshman Daryl Dike moved into a tie with classmate Cabrel Happi Kamseu on Tuesday night for the team’s scoring lead, recording his fifth goal of the season.
• Dike, the reigning ACC co-Offensive Player of the Week, now has five goals in five games, including a two-goal performance against then-No. 5 Denver on Oct. 8.
• UVA first years account for 12 of the 20 Cavalier goals this season.
• The Cavaliers have scored 13 of their 18 goals between the 30th and 60th minutes.
NOTING WAKE FOREST
• The Demon Deacons have spent seven of the eight weeks of the regular season as the nation’s No. 1 team according to the United Soccer Coaches Association Poll.
• Wake Forest has been ranked in the top-5 for 29 consecutive polls dating back to 2016.
• Of the NCAA-best 42 goals this season, a total of 33 have been assisted and 14 of them have been double assisted.
• Freshman Omir Fernandez leads the team and is third in the ACC with 10 goals. Senior Bruno Lapa has 26 points (9g, 8a), the eighth most in the NCAA