On Thursday evening, No. 13 Wake Forest (7-2-1, 2-1-0 ACC) returned to Winston-Salem, knocking off No. 1 Stanford (8-1-0, 1-1-0 ACC) in a historic 1-0 win.
It followed a dominant 3-0 performance at No. 2 Virginia on Sunday.
The Demon Deacons clamped down on the Cardinal early. Freshman goalkeeper Valentina Amaral recorded a diving save in the ninth minute. She had four on the night, securing her second straight clean sheet. Amaral has a .909 save percentage on the season thus far.
The Wake Forest offense seemed to gain confidence as the first half progressed. Between the 18th and 25th minutes, the Demon Deacons had three shot attempts.
In the 30th minute, senior midfielder Emily Colton fired a perfectly placed ball into the top-right corner of the net to put the Demon Deacons up 1-0. Senior defender Kristin Johnson and junior forward Caiya Hanks recorded the assists on the play. Hanks now leads the team in total assists on the season with four. The goal was only the third allowed all season by Stanford.
Hanks out-ran her defender to the box in the 40th minute, but came up short at the goal. Senior forward Emily Murphy nearly scored in the 59th minute on a kick that hit both the top and left crossbar of the goal. A few possessions later, Murphy attempted another shot that forced back-to-back corner kicks for the Demon Deacons.
In the 74th minute, Amaral batted a Stanford corner kick against the top crossbar. The Cardinals briefly gained possession but missed a contested attempt just feet away from the goal. Hanks almost connected with Colton again in the 79th minute. However, Stanford goalkeeper Haley Craig made a terrific save to keep the Cardinal in the game.
Wake Forest held strong defensively in the closing minutes, forcing several turnovers to counter an aggressive attack. The Cardinal had a decent look in the 89th minute, but pushed the shot way to the right and over the goal.
At the sound of the final horn, the Demon Deacons sideline rushed onto the pitch in celebration. They finished with advantages in time of possession, total shots, corner kicks and fouls drawn.
“Our team put in a committed performance tonight,” Head Coach Tony Da Luz said. “We played great soccer, tackled with great timing and pressed a very good Stanford team. We are improving each game and sustaining high performances each ACC game.”
Stanford was unbeaten in 44 of its previous 45 matches entering the contest, with the only loss coming in the 2024 national title game against Florida State. Wake Forest is now 3-0-1 all-time against the Cardinal dating back to 1997.
The Demon Deacons are unbeaten in 13 consecutive home contests — one shy of tying the longest streak in program history, set in the 2007 and 2008 seasons. They will continue ACC competition on Sunday, hosting California at 12 p.m.
