Sports > October 11, 2007

By Connor Swarbick | Contributing writer

The Deacons were in action twice this past week. They first traveled to Blacksburg, Va., to play the No. 9 Virginia Tech Hokies. Going into the Oct. 5 showdown against Virginia Tech the Deacons knew it would be difficult to redeem themselves after the Oct. 2 tie with Elon.

“They are a workman-like team and they have one of the most special players in the country, Patrick Nyarko, along with some transfer boys from Germany that are not only experienced players but are older and physically bigger,” Head Coach Jay Vidovich said before his team boarded the bus for Blacksburg. “I think it’s going to be a really big game.”

Early on, it did not appear as if it would be a difficult contest for the Deacons.

They were up 2-0 going into halftime. Junior Sam Cronin scored his first goal of the season in the 26th minute from junior Lyle Adams’ pass. Freshman Corben Bone scored his sixth goal of the season just minutes later. Sophomore Cody Arnoux and junior Michael Lahoud assisted Bone’s goal to put the Deacons ahead 2-0 in the 35th minute.

The second half was a different story. In his first minute of the game and the first minute of the second half junior forward Robert Edmans put the Hokies on the board.

In the 54th minute Cronin struck again with a goal from a Bone free kick in the 54th minute. Edmans then countered, scoring his second of the night in the 73rd minute.The crowd of nearly 2,500 stood for the remainder of the match and responded boisterously when Patrick Nyarko tied the game at three apiece in the 86th minute.

The Deacons were outshot 17-16 overall and 10-6 in the second half. After the customary two 10 minute overtime periods, the game remained knotted at three. The tie moved the Deacons to 6-0-2 on the year.

“We take out three mistakes and we just hammered what is supposed to be a good team,” Vidovich said after the game. “The second part of that is that when they did draw even with us we didn’t cave in. We stayed strong and dominated the overtime, so I think that while we slipped, we didn’t fall.”

When the polls came out Oct. 10, the Deacons fell to No. 2. Connecticut now occupies the top spot with a record of 11-0-1. The Deacons faced Appalachian that evening at Spry Stadium. In just the second minute of the match, the Mountaineers were called for penalty in the box.

Senior defender Pat Phelan netted the penalty kick to give the Deacons an early 1-0 lead.

The goal was the first of his career.

“The guys were giving me a hard time about not having scored since it’s my senior year and freshmen are coming in and scoring so, I just stepped up and took the penalty kick,” Phelan said.

Phelan previously played in 65 games and after not scoring in any of those contests he got the second goal of his career just four minutes later. He netted an Austin da Luz cross to put the Deacons up 2-0.

“The second one I found myself in the right spot at the top of the box and Austin played a great ball across and I just took one touch and I put it in,” Phelan said.

Sophomore da Luz finished the night with three assists, which is the most in one game since the Deacons faced Central Florida in August of last year.

In the 19th minute, Arnoux scored his sixth goal of the season to give the Deacons a 3-0 lead over the Mountaineers.

After a long scoreless drought from both teams, sophomore Zach Schilawski scored in the 67th minute as the rain started to come down. In the 83rd minute the Mountaineers scored an own goal to give the Deacons a 5-0 victory. It is the largest margin of victory for the team since the game against Central Florida.

“I was happy that we got the goals and a lot of people got some goals that they needed,” Coach Vidovich said. “I think more importantly we kept goals out because the last two games we have allowed way too many for a Wake Forest team.”

Next up for the Deacons is an Oct. 7 ACC showdown with N.C. State at Spry Stadium. The Wolf Pack are 4-4-3 on the season.