Twumasi's OT Winner Lifts No. 2 Wake Forest Into ACC Finals

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Published Nov 9, 2016

Twumasi's OT Winner Lifts No. 2 Wake Forest Into ACC Finals

Wake Forest Athletic Communications

Staff

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Ema Twumasi scored 1:29 into overtime on Wednesday night at Spry Stadium to lift No. 2 Wake Forest to a 2-1 victory over No. 7 Louisville in the ACC Men’s Soccer Semifinals, sending the Demon Deacons back to the ACC Finals for the first time since the 2007 season.

Twumasi took a pass just over the midfield line from Jon Bakero and broke away from his defender to create the scoring chance. With Louisville goalkeeper Stefan Cleveland charging off his line, Twumasi broke right and had a wide open goal after beating Cleveland. With a right-footed shot, Twumasi scored his fourth goal of the season and lifted Wake Forest to its second overtime victory of the season.

Back in the ACC Finals for the first time since 2007, Wake Forest is now 14-2-3 on the season while Louisville fell to 12-5-2. The Demon Deacons have now won four matches against the Cardinals over the course of the last two seasons, twice beating Louisville in the ACC Tournament. A season ago, the Deacs beat UL 2-1 in overtime of the ACC Quarterfinals on Jacori Hayes’ game-winning goal.

Wake Forest will next take the field on Sunday, Nov. 13, in Charleston, S.C. The Demon Deacons will take on fourth-seeded Clemson in the championship match at MUSC Health Stadium at 2 p.m. on ESPNU. Since head coach Bobby Muuss took over prior to the 2015 season, Clemson marks the only ACC regular-season loss for Wake Forest, when it fell 1-0 earlier this year on Sept. 30 at Historic Riggs Field in Clemson.

Louisville forced overtime when it scored with just 50 seconds to go in regulation. Tim Kubel fired a shot low past Wake Forest goalkeeper Alec Ferrell to tie the game 1-1. The goal broke up Ferrell’s bid at a career-high ninth shutout of the season.

Wake Forest’s first goal of the game came off the right foot of Hayden Partain in the 29th minute. Less than two minutes after coming off the bench as a the first sub of the game, Partain scored his third goal of the season when he took a ball from Hunter Bandy and went up against his defender one-on-one. Initially breaking left, Partain quickly cut back to the right and beat his defender, creating an easy shot that he fired across the mouth of goal into the far right side to put the Deacs up 1-0.

In the game, Wake Forest was outshot for just the fourth time this season as Louisville fired 11 shots to the Deacons’ five. Of those five shots, three were on target and two found the back of the net. Last time Wake Forest was held to five shots or less was in 2015 when Wake Forest topped Indiana in the Sweet 16. In that contest, Wake Forest also had five shots, the last coming in the 88th minute when Ricky Greensfelder scored to send Wake Forest to the Elite Eight.

In scoring in the first half and going to the locker room up 1-0, Wake Forest is now 13-0-2 when scoring first and a perfect 10-0-0 when leading at halftime. Last season, Wake Forest was 14-0-0 when scoring first, giving the Deacs a stellar 27-0-2 record under Muuss when scoring the first goal of the game.

Looking ahead to the ACC Finals, Wake Forest all-time is 0-3-1, but won the 1989 ACC Tournament title in penalty kicks. The trip to the championship match is the first since 2007, when the Demon Deacons fell 1-0 to an Alejandro Bedoya-led Boston College.