Wake Forest's Gritty 1-0 Win Over Bowling Green
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – Wake Forest needed a response. It got one in the form of a ruthless first-half finish and a defiant second-half stand on a chopped-up road pitch in Ohio.
A single goal from Chandler Young just before halftime and a six-save shutout from redshirt junior goalkeeper Jonah Mednard carried the Demon Deacons to a 1-0 win over Bowling Green on Monday night at Cochrane Stadium.
Young strikes, Wake Forest cashes in
For 42 minutes, Wake Forest probed and pushed without reward. The Demon Deacons owned the ball, stacked up corners, and kept Bowling Green penned in, but the final touch kept missing.
Then the move clicked.
Mason Sullivan, the ironman of this Wake Forest side, drove a low ball forward. At the edge of the box, Marcos Miranda applied a clever redirect, glancing it into space for Young. One touch, one calm finish, and the Demon Deacons finally had the lead in the 43rd minute.
It was Young’s first goal of the season. For Miranda, it went down as his first assist at the NCAA Division I level. For Sullivan, it was a signature moment in another full-blooded shift; he was the only outfield player to go the full 90 minutes, doing so for the third straight match.
The numbers told the story of the opening half. Wake Forest outshot Bowling Green 7-5, earned four corners, and dictated 53 percent of the possession. The goal arrived right when their dominance needed a reward.
Mednard and the back line dig in
The game flipped after the break.
Bowling Green came out snarling, turning the second half into a siege. The Falcons fired 14 shots in the final 45 minutes and finished with 19 overall, but Wake Forest’s back line and goalkeeper refused to crack.
Mednard stood at the center of it all. He finished with six saves, four of them in the second half, including key stops on Lucas Brinkman and Luciano Perez-Cernuda. Crosses, long throws, corners – he dealt with them, one by one, to lock down his second clean sheet in three games and the fifth solo shutout of his career. His career save total climbed to 63.
In front of him, the starting unit of Daniel Krueger, Sullivan, Ronnie Garcia and Travis Smith Jr. absorbed wave after wave, with second-half help from Will Kuisel, Copeland Berkley and Lorenze Currie. Bowling Green kept coming, especially from set pieces and long throws, but clear looks remained scarce.
Wake Forest did not simply bunker. Young, Kuisel and Reid all carved out second-half chances of their own, threatening a second goal that never quite arrived. It didn’t matter. The back line and goalkeeper had already decided one would be enough.
By the final whistle, the box score reflected the grind: Wake Forest with 12 shots, five on target and five corners; Bowling Green with 19 shots, six on frame and six corners. Only one moment separated them.
A road swing reset before ACC play
This win carried more weight than a routine non-conference result.
Three days earlier, Wake Forest had gone toe-to-toe with No. 10 Akron, holding the Zips scoreless for more than 83 minutes before conceding late in a 1-0 defeat. The Ohio trip had threatened to become a bruising, empty-handed swing.
Instead, the Demon Deacons leave with a shutout win, their first non-conference road victory since a 4-1 result at UNCW on Oct. 15, 2024, and their first clean sheet away from home since a 0-0 draw at Duke on Oct. 12, 2024.
On a field that challenged their usual style and against a Bowling Green side dangerous on restarts and long throws, Wake Forest bent their approach, not their standards. They defended deep when they had to, managed set-piece pressure, and saw out a narrow lead on the road.
Man of the Match: Jonah Mednard
On a night defined by resilience, Mednard stood tallest.
His six-save performance, anchored by four key stops after halftime, preserved the 1-0 edge and delivered his fifth career solo shutout. He joins captain Jeffrey White and David Nguema (twice) among Wake Forest’s Man of the Match honorees this season, a growing leadership group driving the response from the back.
Duke awaits at Spry
The Ohio swing is over. The margin for error now shrinks.
Wake Forest returns to Spry Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 5, to host Duke in its ACC opener, carrying a 2-1-1 record, a fresh road clean sheet, and a reminder that it can suffer, adapt, and still walk away with points.
The question now is simple: can this gritty road win become the standard as conference play begins?
