The Demon Deacons will scrimmage this afternoon at 3:30, so check the blog this evening for a report. ESPN.com's Heather Dinich will be in attendance; I'm interested to see what she thinks of the team and the scrimmage.

Men's soccer had it's first practice yesterday, and not surprisingly coach Jay Vidovich says there's work to be done. It's going to be a couple of weeks, and I'm going to miss the first one on the 19th, but I should definitely be at the August 23rd scrimmage to give everyone an early look at this year's team.

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I don't know how many of you are regular Deadspin readers, but I'd be willing to guess it's less than half of you. I don't know if I'm a true regular or not, but I do at least scan post titles there on a daily basis, so I'm pretty close. Either way, they're working through the top 25 right now posting previews by readers, commenters, bloggers, or whomever else volunteered to write for them. It wasn't me in this case, but the person who wrote about Wake did a pretty amusing job, even if it isn't entirely "safe for work." Check it out.

ESPN worked hard to cover the Deacs yesterday. Its work included this Mark Schlabach's column which basically predicted a Wake/Carolina ACC Championship game, and HD with another preview, this time about Grobe's system.

Someone doesn't know a lot about college football...he's surprised Wake is a 13 point favorite over Baylor, apparently because "The Big 12 is generally considered a strong (sic) football conference than the ACC." Sure.

No surprise...the men's soccer team is ranked #1 in the nation in preseason polls. John Dell of the Journal wrote a nice preview of the team here. I'm hoping to ramp-up my soccer coverage here pretty soon. I'm plan to attend most home games this season, particularly conference games and those that don't conflict with football games. I know we've got some soccer fans out there and I'm going to do my best to cover them for you. They are number one and the defending national champs, after all.

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It’s been 10 days since I’ve posted anything, and I suppose I apologize for that, but I kind of needed the break. I guess I’m not really that sorry. I didn’t miss that much.

The summer will definitely be somewhat inconsistent around here. There will be a couple of stretches of about a week or 10 days where I’ll have pretty much no internet access so obviously there won’t be anything posted then. I’ll let you know when those are coming.

But still, even when I am around, I don’t anticipate there being a whole lot to report on (in fact I kind of hope there isn’t, because if there is I feel like it’s likely to be something bad).

I’ll definitely start doing some previewing of football season, but I don’t know how I want to do that yet or when exactly it will happen.

Also, I was thinking it might be fun to do some “reader editorials.” Basically, if you have an idea for something Wake-related you might want to write and have published on the blog, shoot me an email (oldgoldblog@gmail.com) and we’ll work on getting it done. Then you can tell all your friends to go read the article you had published on the internet (Just don’t tell them it’s on a site some guy started in his dorm room without any prior experience or knowledge and that you would have been just as qualified to start the exact same site—it might not seem as cool to them if you tell them that part).

Having said all that, I’m guessing there’s only about a 10% chance someone actually contacts me about it. I hope you prove me wrong.

I’ve got a couple of other things tentatively up my sleeve, so we’ll see what happens. No matter what happens this summer, though, come mid-August we’ll get back into the swing of things and you can count on reading new content on a daily basis.

On to a couple of specific notes: I highly recommend going to the official soccer page and reading about the soccer team's trip to Brazil. Sounds like a pretty cool deal.

Also, I believe that Wake's 3 game sweep of Duke over the weekend to close out Hooks Stadium means that they will make the ACC tournament, leaving them in position to potentially still make the NCAA tournament (I think it's a bit of a long shot, but it's certainly not impossible).

Someone posted this on the DeaconSports message boards and I thought it might be worth sharing just to get excited about the other sport that’s pretty fun to keep track of in the fall:

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The fall of 2007 was an exciting time for Wake Forest athletics. Sure, the football team’s nine wins, including a Meineke Car Care Bowl victory over UConn, was great, but the real highlight of the fall was the soccer team’s National Championship.

Four months later the team is not idling basking in the glory of that accomplishment. Since the middle of March the soccer team has been participating in its own version of spring practice, and in their case it even includes a seven game exhibition schedule against other teams. After Friday night’s 1-1 tie with New Mexico at Spry Stadium I had the opportunity to talk with Coach Jay Vidovich about the team’s work this spring and the outlook for next fall.

“Spring is extended time for preseason,” said Coach Vidovich. “We’re fortunate that we’re one of the sports that has that opportunity to play during the spring. You don’t have your seniors around; you’re trying to find your new leadership, looking for people to step up; trying to find replacements for those players that left and just keep everybody developing. Fill the holes, find those pieces, find the leadership, and just develop everybody.”

So who is stepping up? “The team is stepping up as a whole,” said Vidovich. “The team is developing and working very hard, getting stronger, and their speed of play is quite good. Leadership-wise it takes awhile. Sam Cronin obviously was captain last year so he’s in an immediate situation where he’s a leader, but now he has to assume a different role because before he was with Julian Valentin. But all the upper classman - Marcus Tracy, Mike Lahoud, Jamie Franks - all those guys are doing their part.”

The soccer team is in a great position to accomplish a lot of things in the spring. Because all of the games are exhibitions, younger players and those who haven’t had much game experience get the opportunity to play full games. Multiple times this spring the Deacs have had two games in one day, as they did yesterday (Sunday).

On those two-game days “we’ll play two teams so our “second team” will get the opportunity to play a full 90 (minutes), which is a big thing for them now to have to step up and carry the game rather than just being in a substitute role,” explained Vidovich. “We’ve had a couple opportunities like that and a couple people have stepped up – Nick Courtney, Danny Wenzel, and Justin Lichtfuss.”

Defender/Midfielder Danny Wenzel is one of two 2008 recruits who have entered school this spring and are already practicing with the team. Wenzel has been getting playing time with the first team, while the second early enrollee and fellow D/M Chris Estridge has been playing more with the second team. (There’s a good write-up on all seven recruits on the official website here).

So what about next fall? Coach Vidovich is certainly excited: “I think it’s going to be a great year to be part of the program. There’s just tremendous seniority where guys have gone to a final 16, a final four, the national championship. These guys have been through a lot, so now to have them share their experiences with the freshman coming in and teach them the ropes and what’s going on should be a good situation. It will be very difficult for people to find time on the field.”

It’s great to hear that the team is having a productive spring. Fan interest seems to be remaining high for the soccer team following the championship; there were around 200 people at the game Friday night. I know I’m excited to watch this team in the fall as they try to defend their National Championship, and I plan on having Old Gold & Blog provide regular coverage of the season.

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There hasn't been much of anything going on in Wake Sports since Saturday's basketball victory, and when that gets combined with two exams and a paper things here at Old Gold & Blog slow down. Hopefully I haven't let anyone down too much.

I don't think I'll be previewing the FSU game until tomorrow morning, but I've got a couple of other quick things to touch on for now.

Those of you who are students or still live in and around Winston may have heard about this, so I suppose this is for the rest of you. Yesterday the school announced plans for a $25 development on Deacon Boulevard next to the Joel and BB&T. Apparently they're looking to develop a village-like layout and atmosphere, and will feature new restaurants, shops and entertainment venues.

Since there is very little actual detail available right now I'm going to guess that I will never see this in my time at Wake, but nonetheless it's an interesting idea and it sounds like something that could really add some life to an otherwise dreary area. The athletic venues are nice, but almost everything else over there isn't.

The school's full press release is available here.

Secondly, I asked the school about Soccer recruiting stuff over the weekend and was told that Soccer doesn't have a big signing day deal like football does, so letters of intent tend to trickle in over a much longer period of time. It sounds like we won't here too much about them until that process is completed, but it also looks like I'll be able to talk with coach Vidovich sometime in the near future and ask him about these guys.

As of right now, here is the best list I can compile:

• Dan Wenzel - Federal Way, WA - U-17
• Sean Haglund - Raleigh, NC - CASL
• Chris Estridge - Indianapolis, IN - Carmel United
• Luke Norman - Rochester, MI - Vardar
• Nick Millington - Raleigh, NC - CASL U-17
• Doug Ryan - Statesville, NC CSC
• Kyle Adams - GA - Georgia Lightning
• Jesse Sokolow - McClean, VA - McClean FC

Some of that list came from SoccerMogul.com, the rest from sources on the message boards who are likely to know more about this than I. When I get official word on these things I'll let you know. Also, it appears that Wenzel and Estridge have already enrolled this Spring, which is probably a good thing for their development, much like it is for the football players.

That's about all I got for today. Happy Valentines Day Eve...or something like that.

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No new injury news since last night, so I'm going to catch up on something that slipped off my plate last week: Soccer News!!!

Many of you probably already know, but last week Wake Forest soccer coach Jay Vidovich was named the NSCAA coach of the year at the same time three of Wake's best soccer players from this year's graduating class were drafted in the MLS draft.

Defender Pat Phelan went 10th to Toronto FC, while GK Brian Edwards and Defender Jules Valentin went back-to-back in the 28th and 29th picks to to Toronto FC and the Los Angeles Galaxy, respectively.

I'll be honest and say I haven't paid too much attention to previous MLS drafts and which Wake players have been taken, but I imagine this has been one of the best years the school has had in the draft. With the talent the team currently has I imagine it will only continue.

Also, coach Vidovich deserves lots of credit for the incredible work he's done here at Wake and was more than deserving of these Coach of the Year honors. Well done, gentlemen.

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From time to time I find blog posts or articles that are off the beaten path for most Wake Forest News. "Around the Interweb" will be my way for sharing these with you and maybe even commenting on them myself. Enjoy!

I had never paid enough attention to know this, but Julian Valentin (of the men's soccer team) is from Lancaster, PA. His hometown paper recently did a feature on him, mentioning the 25 stitches he received for his facial injury from the national championship game and that Roger Espinoza - the player who put his boot in Valentin's face - called to apologize the next day.

Valentin is now preparing for the MLS draft on January 18th, and although I wish him all the best in his professional endeavors, we can all be glad they won't include a career in web design (Apparently made for a First Year Seminar at Wake. good stuff).

On an entirely different note, Paul Rugani from Blue Devil Hoops wrote a post on New Year's Eve that included "New Year's Resolutions" for each ACC basketball team. Regarding Wake Rugani wrote:

"Stop shooting 3s. Wake is under 30% from beyond the arc, but devote nearly 38% of their shots to the 3. Their most accurate outside shooter is Ish Smith, and that is not a good sign. Particularly problematic have been James Johnson (who has had an otherwise fantastic freshman season thus far) and LD Williams, who are a combined 19 for 83.
Will it be kept? Probably not. The Deacons have some guys who love to shoot the long ball - Harvey Hale, Jamie Skeen, Williams, Johnson - and so the attempts are likely going to stay near the current average of 22.75/game. Wake can only hope that Skeen, Williams, and Hale all see their percentages rise to where they were last season."

As much as it pains me to agree with a Blue Devil, I do agree with Rugani. Our three point shooting has definitely been atrocious and we'd currently be better off without it. Unfortunately I also agree that it's not going to change. The team loves the three-ball and although our inside presence is getting stronger, it's still not strong enough to nullify the need to shoot threes. We should be better at it than we are, but the fact remains that regardless of what we should be doing the shots aren't falling. Hopefully with more time our shooting will improve but it needs to happen in a hurry. Coach always says he wants to be averaging over one point per posession, but when we're shooting under 30% we're definitely not getting over 1 ppp from those posessions. Until we can make 1/3 of them they aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing. Something's gotta give.

That's all I got for this installment of "Around the Interweb." Hopefully I'll find good material regularly to keep it going!

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It was almost three full months ago now that I began to write this blog, and to be honest I never thought I’d devote too much space to the soccer team. I knew I would fully cover football and basketball and that I will probably cover baseball reasonably well in the spring, but anything other than that seemed like a long shot to get any significant coverage.

Three weeks ago that all changed when I realized that the NCAA tournament was happening in our own backyard and that it would be foolish of me to avoid such a cool event. I admittedly know very little about the sport; most of my knowledge comes from FIFA video games and the World Cup two summers ago. Furthermore I had only seen two Wake games all season long and knew very little about our team. However, when I realized that the only coverage being provided for these tournament games was in the form of the CSTV Gametracker, I knew there was probably a service I could provide.

As it turned out, I ended up having more fun covering the three games at Spry Stadium than I have at any other Wake sporting event this fall. As a lover of sports in general I tried to take full advantage of the opportunity to learn more about the game while providing the best coverage I could to readers of the blog. Your response was great, with over 700 of you visiting the Old Gold & Blog on the night of the Elite 8 Notre Dame game to follow the play by play and several hundred more visiting to read about it the next day. I loved being able to share with you all the highs and lows of those games from my vantage point, even if I had no clue what I was talking about most of the time.

I couldn’t help but fall in love with the team over the course of the tournament, and it started of course with Coach Jay Vidovich. First and foremost he loves his team, loves the sport, and is proud of all they’ve accomplished. He was more than happy to talk about the games, but he loved talking about the guys on his team even more. Austin da Luz, Corben Bone, Jules Valentin, and the other players I had the chance to interact with were all passionate about the team and their performance and loved to brag about their fellow teammates more than themselves. After the West Virginia game Bone jokingly suggested that da Luz should be called “Hollywood,” and one week later Austin proved to be deserving of the nickname, scoring a beautiful overtime goal against Notre Dame and following it up with a celebration reminiscent of Brandi Chastain’s celebration in the World Cup. Moments like that made this team a joy to follow.

Heading into the Final Four nothing could have frustrated me more than knowing I was going to have to miss the second half of Friday night’s match against Virginia Tech because of an accounting exam. When the proctor informed us of the 2-0 victory I was greatly relieved, and the stage was set for Sunday’s championship match against Ohio State.

What a game it turned out to be. Certainly the most poorly officiated game I saw throughout the tournament, but an incredibly exciting game nonetheless. Like all of you, I had a huge pit in my stomach when OSU scored their goal, but watching our guys gut it out and find a way to put two in the net was incredible. I brought my whole family running to the TV when I exploded with Tracy’s goal to tie the game, and as the seconds ticked off the clock and the game ended I was as happy as I’ve ever been as a Demon Deacon. Wake Forest - 2007 National Champions.

The rest of the world calls it a beautiful game. For at least this one weekend I was in full agreement.

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The title says it all. I'm almost as happy as I was when we won the ACC Championship in football last year, and I never imagined I would get to say that. I'm incredibly proud of these guys and their effort throughout this tournament run. It's unfortunate that I wasn't interested enough to watch them all year long, they're a great group of guys to root for.

They absolutely deserved this win, and I only wish we were all still back at school to roll the Quad for them.

Congrats, men.

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I'm happy to inform you all that I am home safely and firmly planted on the couch for the next two hours and looking forward to watching Wake win a National Championship. We should be less than 10 minutes away from the start of the game, and as much as I wish I was there I'm still going to enjoy it quite a lot here. I'll be giving my thoughts throughout so check back throughout, but no play by play since it's on TV. Let's get it done!

39:00 - Not much of note yet. Ohio State had one set piece opportunity but covered it well. Wind looks like it could be a bit of a factor. Long shot from Ohio State - actually a pretty good shot but wide left.

35:30 - WHOA...CLOSE CALL. OSU played a great ball and had two shooting opportunities but the defense held strong (OSU probably didn't do as much with it as they should have). Lucky to get out of that 0-0.

32:56 - Well now we're in a hole. OSU goal off a corner, shot by Espinoza goes right through the legs of Franks. Not too much that could have been done, just a good shot. We've got to come up with a response now. Wake down 0-1.

34:30 - Wake responds, very nearly a goal, but Phelan or Arnoux (couldn't tell) was less than a step offsides. Exciting stuff so far.

28:40 - Yellow Card for OSU, not entirely sure it was deserved. Decent looking shot off the free kick, but nothing there. I'm thinking that being down a goal may actually loosen us up and we'll play better now. We'll see. We're already attacking better.

24:00 - love the "Wake" "Forest" cheer. Definitely our crowd. Free kick for the Deacs...well defended by OSU.

16:00 - We're working hard, but not getting much. Good free kick at the near post, big corner kick but nothing.

14:00 - Not sure why our defense is struggling so much, they just keep letting them get open opportunities without much pressure. The offense is attacking well but I'm worried we'll give up another goal.

11:31 - Not a good shot from Schilawski there. Had a wide open shot and looked like he tried to put it in the upper right corner but couldn't keep it low enough.

9:02 - We just got screwed. Absolutely a foul, the ball was not touched at all. I cannot believe we didn't ge that penalty. Terrible terrible job of officiating. He blew that one.

8:00 - Well Schilawski just got a little lazy - probably pissed off about the no call on the foul in the goal, which I can understand, but that does us no good. I'm still very very mad.

Half - Tough half for the Deacs. I'm not even sure we had many shots even though it seemed like we had lots of offensive opportunities. We definitely got screwed by the refs, but the fact is that OSU has still played better than we have. OSU plays physically and works hard to keep us from getting good offensive opportunities. On the other side our defense has not played well at all and OSU was able to capitalize. We're not out of it, but we've got to come up with something. Don't want lose an opportunity like this. Deacs down 1-0 (Basketball update - Deacs up 66-54 with a few minutes left in the game against Bucknell).

43:00 - I really like the fact that Schilawski went ahead and shot that instead of doing something cute with it. That's what we're going to need to do this half - take the opportunities we are given. This game still has a couple goals in it.

39:00 - Well we blew that Corner kick opportunity. What are we doing out there? I'm starting to feel like I'm watching our basketball team right now.

32:30 - Big corner here. Let's actually hit one here....we did but nothing. Phalan got a foot on a shot from the 18 but way high.

30:27 - Free kick here, important set piece. deflected by the wall and still nothing. We're absolutely struggling here, but Edwards is on his way in we'll see what we can get.

28:20 - Well of course there was no call in the box, although this time it was probably the right call. I guess soccer refs don't do make up calls. Frustration yellow card there - missed who got it.

27:15 - finally a cross from the Deacs, got a head on it but not quite enough. We need more of that to get back in this game. The announcers keep talking about needing Marcus Tracy to do something for us, but I'm ont sure he's going to be the answer. I guess when you've only seen one game you can only go off of that performance, but we've got much more firepower than just Tracy.

26:00 - Decent opportunity for Arnoux there (maybe Bone) but OSU's goalie did a good job coming to get it. Still not getting to much on goal.

23:59 - THERE IT IS!!!!! Marcus Tracy on the goal with the assist from Cody Arnoux. Beautiful job capitalizing on the OSU mistake. Time to go get another one for the win. This could be a huge momentum shift.

22:20 - And.....a TV timeout. Still ridiculous, but if that's what it takes to get these games on TV then I guess I'm okay with it. Anyway great goal (although it looks like the assistant made the wrong call on the ball still being in. I guess that's the make-up call we needed. Marcus Tracy was very stoic with his celebration, definitely looking for another one.

18:12 - Wow, definitely looked like it was going to be another goal, but on the replay it looks like the goalie actually got a hand on the initial almost-shot. Great play by him, even though I still think we should have been able to take the lead there.

15:44 - Great offensive series there for the Deacs but nothing came of it. I like the effort and the way we controlled the ball. got a good header opportunity. We may still have one in this.

12:47 - GOALLLLLLLLL....Schilawski on the pass from Tracy. Great Great shot, and even more impressvie job by Tracy to get him the ball. I don't konw what Ohio State's goalie is so mad about, but he was really pissed. Amazing goal, now lets put the clamps on.

9:45 - Jules Valentin got cut bad in the face by a terrible high kick on OSU's goal scorer Espinoza. That hurts very badly. I think that should have been a red not a yellow.

5:02 - WOW, TRACY MISSES JUST LEFT ON A WIDE OPEN NET. Looked like a goal for sure on a great run by Schilawski do get the ball to a wide open Tracy. Hopefully it doesn't come back to bite us.

3:38 - Almost another goal. Wow. Great play by the goalie this time.

1:12 - Brian Edwards on an incredible catch there off the corner. 1 minute to go. Let's finish the job.

FINAL - WAKE FOREST 2007 MEN'S SOCCER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS. GO DEACS!

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Time to go win a National Championship.

I'm on a flight back to Texas this morning and should be home in plenty of time to watch the game and do a little blogging, but if something weird happens with flights then I'll be watching as soon as I can.

Go Deacs!

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I'm in the middle of the worst possible way to end a semester (possible all-nighter before 2 exams on the very last night) and it was time to do something to cheer myself up. Tonight, nothing could do that more than writing about a beautiful victory against Virginia Tech in the semis of the Mens Soccer College Cup.

Unfortunately I only got to see the first half tonight, and although we looked good VT had shown themselves well and I wasn't overly confident as I headed to my accounting exam. But halfway through the exam when the proctor walked up to the white board and wrote Wake 2-0 I was about as pumped as I could possibly be.

Coming back to my room and seeing Marcus Tracy's 2 beautiful goals made my night, and I am more than excited for the championship game on Sunday afternoon (if not a bit peeved that I'll be watching it from my house in Texas rather than from the SAS press box). Getting back I saw most of the 2nd half of the Ohio State/UMass game, including the OSU goal. They executed well on a poorly defended posession and played solid defense to close it out. Wake is sure to have their hands full come Sunday afternoon.

It is certainly unfortunate that I don't have a way to see the 2nd half, but from what I've heard it was a thing of beauty. Now I can only hope to see something even better on Sunday. I'm ready for my first National Championship since becoming a Wake Forest student. Get the job done, boys!

Go Deacs!

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Time for a great game of soccer. I'll be around for the first half, but I'll be leaving it to all of you in the 2nd half. Feel free to talk about the game in the comments section. Time to take the final step to the championship game.

Go Deacs!

40:00 - Fast start - both teams attacking. Nyarko is clearly very good for VT, but that opportunity Tracy had was great as well. Could be several goals in this game, hopefully all for us though.

35:00 - Seems to have settle down a tiny bit, but Wake is controlling most of the posession. ESPN's camera work could use some improvement.

32:50 - We just got VERY VERY LUCKY. Misplayed a ball, Edwards couldn't defend and the net was wide open. Nyarko stumbled and couldn't get a shot off and the shot off his pass went high. Definitely should have been a VT Goal.

31:15 - Wake opportunity off of a corner, cleared by VT though.

25:00 - Another scary VT chance off of a free kick. Defense is scaring me a bit. We haven't had a good attack for a little while now.

24:00 - Marcus Tracy with a great blast from just outside the 18 saved. Great offensive series there. Be sure to answer the poll over in the right column, I appreciate it!

22:00 - They just took a TV timeout. Seriously? Do they know what sport this is? Unbelievable. Show me the game...I want to see this half before I have to go take my exam!

17:00 - We're getting some good runs of the sides, but not getting much in front of the net. Defense seems to be settling in and I'm starting to feel a bit better about the way we look. I'm tired of the ESPN announcers talking almost exclusively about VT. Quick mention about Vidovich but they don't seem to realize that we're the 2 seed. Annoying.

11:30 - Hollywood da Luz in the game. Always good to see. VT's big English guy just got himself a yellow on a bad tackle from behind. Well deserved card.

6:00 - And that's all I've got time for. Just no way around it. I hope to get out of my exam and be happy. Make it so. I'll leave you all to your own, feel free to talk amongst yourself in the comments. Go Deacs!

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Tonight the Demon Deacons Men's Soccer Team head across the state to take on fellow ACC member Virginia Tech in the semifinals of the 2007 College Cup (Final Four). I had thought I would end up writing a pretty extensive preview, but just when it looked like it wasn't going to happen (exams of course) ESPN came through in the clutch...check it out. Not to be left out, the official Wake website has a recap of the team's hectic day yesterday in Cary which is pretty interesting as well.

Since ESPN took care of the prose, I'll do a little statistical comparison of my own:

Wake leads the nation with 2.63 goals per game, while VT is 5th with 2.32
Wake is third with .52 goals against while VT is 85th at 1.12

Virgina Tech is led by Sophomore Patrick Nyarko, who has 16 goals and 8 assists on the season
Wake has several standouts, including Cody Arnoux (15 goals, 7 assists), Marcus Tracy (8,8), and of course Hollywood (or Brandi) da Luz who has 13 assists and one of the biggest goals ever (overtime vs. Notre Dame last weekend)

Considering what I've seen recently and the numbers above I certainly feel confident about the game, however they played us to a 3-3 tie in the regular season and soccer is a sport where I'm learning you never take anything for granted. Needless to say, I'm hoping we put three in the back of the net in the first half so I can take my Accounting exam stress free. I may try to do a little live blogging in the first half, but I'll be completely MIA in the 2nd, so I'll leave it to you all in the comments section to keep people updated. You may also notice the new poll at the top of the page on the right - please let me know what you think! Let's go get a win and play for a Championship on Sunday!

Go Deacs!

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3:21 - GOAAAAALLLLLL - Austin Hollywood da Luz from Marcus Tracy!!!!!!!!! WAKE ADVANCES TO THE FINAL 4!!!!!! HOLLYWOOD RIPS OFF HIS JERSEY IN CELEBRATION!!!!! WE WILL PLAY VIRGINIA TECH NEXT FRIDAY NIGHT!!!
Tracy dribbles up, gets a little through ball to Austin who takes a shot, lower left corner. Beautiful pass, beautiful shot.

4:08 - Cody Arnoux gets on opportunity but mis hits it way high. Looked like a promising effort all around on that posession, but nothing came of it.

5:18 - ND crosses one in front of the net, caught by Edwards.

5:52 - ND yellow to Matt Besler. Free kick from about 20 out...Nothing.

6:00 - ND pushes up but gets nothing.

7:00 - Corner for the Deacs, looking strong on offense and controlling posession right now. Nothing from the corner.

9:06 - Cody Arnoux gets a shot off, a little weak but it was on net. Saved by ND, got my heart racing.

10:00 - Here we go...

90 is not enough...Overtime rules: two 10 minute overtimes, played as golden goal (sudden death).

2:45 - ND corner...shot deflected out, another corner...shot deflected right to Edwards, Wake pushing, ND defense holds, no shot.

5:50 - Notre Dame has threatened a bit more, but nothing too scary. Our offense has gotten quite though.

7:40 - Corner for Notre Dame, actually put this one in, but headed out by Wake. Notre Dame subsequently offsides.

10:00 - Almost had an opportunity in the box, but no shot. Notre Dame isn't getting much of anything on the offensive end, but it's definitely time to capitalize.

14:22 - Corben Bone tries a shot on a ball at about waist level from the 18, misses high. Deacs lead shots 13-3, but game is tied at zero. Really wish we would put one in the back of the net.

19:44 - Marcus Tracy's shot deflected, corner for Wake. Nothing.

22:05 - miscommunication on a through ball in the box, and no one is home for the Deacs. Still 0-0.

23:25 - Wake gets a corner after the goalie doesn't grab the ball that was clearly deflected, pretty dumb. Nothing comes of the corner.

26:35 - To answer the question from the comment section - Of the first half shots, I'd say definitely 2, maybe 3 we were on net, however for whatever reason they don't actually keep that stat officially, so that is my best guess. Nothing of great significance happening on the field currently.

28:14 - We just took what looked like a shot with absolutely no angle that may have skimmed across the cross bar. Looked like another opportunity right afterwards, but we were called for offsides.

31:15 - Lahoud drives one form well outside the 18, misses wide right.

32:00 - Schilawski in for Tracy, Wake pushing..

35:30 - Almost a good opportunity when ND's defense lost posession, Hollywood tried to center for someone to get a shot, but we couldn't get a good one off.

37:00 - Corner for Notre Dame, who once again uses the tactic of passing it short and then putting it in, and once again it failed pretty miserably.

41:00 - Couple shots from Notre Dame, including one blast from probably 35 out that missed just right.

43:25 - Cody had a wide open shot from 8 out on the left and missed it wide right. Definitely looked like it should have been a goal. Still 0-0.

2nd Half, 45:00 - 2nd Half starting now, Corben and Hollywood da Luz both in the game. Let's get a quick strike, Deacs.

Halftime - Tied, 0-0. Deacs dominated the half but we've got nothing to show for it. Hopefully missed opportunities won't come back to bite us. Wake leads shots 9-1, I don't know many stats other than that, but I may be able to find them if you want me to.

Stats Update: Notre Dame has 2 saves , 1 corner, nad 4 fouls. Wake has no saves, 5 corners, and 4 fouls. That's about it.

0:30 - Corner by Cronin...no shot, foul called on the Deacs.

1:00 - Another Notre Dame foul, possibly our last opportunity of the half free kick from the left half...header goes over the goal for a corner...

3:42 - Notre Dame called for a foul just outside the box, free kick being taken from about 25 out...Initial kick blocked, Corben Bone misses the rebound just right. Still 0-0.

5:51 - Irish get a cross, but the Deacs head it out. Still only one Notre Dame shot to the Deacs' seven.

11:00 - Unbelievable! Marcus Tracy got free and ND's goalie came outside the box to try to beat him to the through ball. Tracy controlled it and got past the goalie and it looked like it would be an easy goal, but had his shot deflected by a ND defender. Very disappointing! Shortly after the following corner Sam Cronin missed a shot wide right.

12:40 - "Hollywood" da Luz checks in. Often a good spark for the Deacs.

14:30 - Wake misplays the ball on defense again and Notre Dame's Joseph Lapira misses the shot wide left.

16:39 - Cody Arnoux swung and missed from point blank on a little chip shot cross. Arnoux checks out, Schilawski comes in. Another corner for the Deacs, but straight to the goalie.

18:00 - Mike Lahoud takes a shot that gets deflected, looked like another pretty good opportunity for the Deacs. I have a feeling we'll find the net once before the half.

18:25- Corben Bone checks in for the Deacs.

20:16 - Nasty collision at midfield, but it was all pretty inadvertent, so no card. Foul called on the Deacs. Wake's continuing to control posession for the most part, and has 4 shots while ND has zero.

23:59 - Tracy had beautiful header from 8 feet out, but Irish goalie Chris Cahill made an incredibly save on the shot that nearly found the top right corner. Evan Brown missed the rebound high. Very nearly a Deacon goal.

25:24 - Cross into the box was deflected straight up into the air and now results in a corner for Wake. Franks' corner finds a Deacon head but gets deflected wide right. Evan Brown on the next corner doesn't find anything. Cronin gets a shot form outside the box but is deflected.

29:39 - Notre Dame corner - didn't actually put it in the box, rather passed short to a teammate and then didn't get anything from it. Still 0-0. Just found out that the stadium is officially full/sold out. Impressive job by Wake fans showing support.

35:30 - Notre Dame took advantage of Wake's mishandling of the ball and got a great cross off, but weren't able to get a foot on the ball for a shot.

36:23 - Terrible call by the referee - gave Notre Dame a goal kick on what was pretty clearly a Corner. Tough break for the Deacs. Still controlling posession and keeping most everything on Notre Dame's half of the field.

39:00 - Pushing pretty hard to start the game, which is pretty typical of our strategy so far this post-season. Early corner kick for the Deacs doesn't threaten, and the Irish don't accomplish anything on a throw into the box. Mike Lahoud got a non-threatening shot off for the Deacs as well

We're about 5:00 from the kickoff of the Wake Forest vs. Notre Dame Quarterfinal match. I'll be trying to keep you updated about every 5-10 minutes, and of course more frequently when big things are happening. Great crowd on hand tonight, Spry looks almost completely full. Should be a fun night.

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It should be a fun day in the world of Deacon sports as the basketball team travels to Athens this afternoon for a game against Georgia and the Soccer team has a huge game against Notre Dame in the Elite 8 of the NCAA tournament here at Spry.

Georgia comes into this game having just won what must have been a scrimmage against D-II Augusta State, and is 4-1 against D-I opponents. Judging by their stats they aren’t a bad team, shooting 51% from the field and keeping opponents to only 40%, but I don’t know much about them past that. My gut says that we’re a better team and should get a win today, and although I’ll be happy with any win, I’d love to see a double digit win over an SEC opponent. It will be interesting to see whether Harvey or Teague gets the start at shooting guard today, and if Chas starts again after his rough outing at Vanderbilt. Another good performance today will have me thinking we can win out in non-conference play. I don’t know if I’ll be quite as active live-blogging this game as some, but I’ll definitely be commenting here throughout.

On the soccer side of things, tonight’s game against Notre Dame should be a lot of fun. Notre Dame does not rank in the top 30 in either scoring offense or goals against average, however they do have a pretty large number of shutouts (11) indicating to me that they may be the kind of team who’s defense is either very hot or very cold on any given night. They also do not have any individual players in the top 30 of the nation in any statistical category, indicating to me that they’re a side who has to put everything together as a team and cannot count on the individual effort of any one player. In my mind, all indications are that Wake should definitely come out on top in this match. I’ll be at Spry blogging throughout the game, so check in frequently as I try to update at least every five minutes, and of course more often when big things are happening. If you’re in town though, I definitely recommend that you come out tonight as I think it will be a really great evening of soccer out at Spry.

Go Deacs!

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Some of you may have recently noticed that ACC Nation was added to my blog roll over in the right column. The last several weeks the Old Gold & Blog has been featured in their weekly "Tuesday Twelve" feature that takes a look at the ACC blogsphere and highlights something going on at all 12 schools.

This week ACC Nation hosts Patrick Hite and Jim Quist asked me to join them on their weekly ACC Nation radio show/podcast to talk about Wake Forest, and I was more than happy to oblige. They do a great job every week and I highly recommend listening to the whole thing, but they brought me on to start talking about Wake at the 28 minute mark and talked exclusively about Wake for the next 7 or so minutes. We briefly discussed the men's soccer team and the Meineke bowl, and more extensively early season basketball, so make sure to check it out.

To listen to the show, click here and either play the show in your browser or download it to your computer to play it in Windows Media Player, iTunes, or any other media player. Better yet, subscribe to the podcast and listen to it weekly. You can also find a brief summary of the entire show here.

Enjoy!

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The Demon Deacon soccer team played a great game this afternoon against a very tough West Virginia side and emerged with a 3-1 victory. West Virginia, who are known for playing some of the stingiest defense in the nation, held the Deacs scoreless in the first half and even began the 2^nd half with the game’s first goal. Wake’s offense refused to be contained for much longer, breaking out for three unanswered goals for a convincing victory and advancing to face Notre Dame next Saturday evening at Spry stadium.

West Virginia’s goal came on a Andy Wright penalty kick in the 50^th minute off of what was in my opinion a questionable foul call in the box. What I saw was a pretty good acting job, but unfortunately the referee didn’t see it that way. It didn’t take the Deacs long to respond, however, as Austin “Hollywood” da Luz’s cross found the foot of Zack Schilawski who blasted it into the goal in the 56^th minute. Ten minutes later Cody Arnoux gave Wake the lead on a beautiful give and go with Corben Bone, who returned to the lineup today having not played since the ACC championship due to a hip injury. In the 87^th minute, after WVA’s Gift Maworere was ejected with his 2^nd card, Cody Arnoux sealed the game with his 2^nd goal of the day (15^th of the season) on another Austin “Hollywood” da Luz assist.

I was very impressed with the team’s play today. The first half was frustrating for everyone; the Deacs had several opportunities where it really looked like they could have and maybe even should have scored but weren’t able to either because of missed opportunities or great saves by West Virginia. Knowing the Mountaineers’ defensive prowess, I was concerned when West Virginia went up 1-0 early in the 2^nd half, but I was very proud of the resiliency of the Deacs. Corben Bone looked very good returning from injury (he said he felt fine all game, so that's a great sign) and Austin “Hollywood” da Luz and Cody Arnoux obviously played quite well with two assists and two goals respectively. Schilawiski is also much more dangerous than I previously realized, definitely right up there with Arnoux when it comes to attacking ability.

I’m excited to see what the team comes up with next Saturday night against Notre Dame. Although I know very little about the Domers, I’m certain they wouldn’t have advanced this far if they weren’t a very solid side. I expect to see a hotly contested match, but I fully expect to see the Deacs headed back to Cary the following weekend.

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Final - a beautiful 3-1 win for the Deacs. They advance to play Notre Dame next Saturday night here at Spry. I'm headed to hear what coach has to say, I'll post some final thoughts after that. Go Deacs!

3:30 - Cody Arnoux on the goal assisted by Ausitn da Luz. Great goal, should absolutely put the game out of reach. Deacs up 3-1.

5:00 - WVU's Gift Maworere just received his 2nd yellow card, resulting in a red. WVU now has a corner kick and is threatening, even though they're a man down. Nothing comes of it.

9:00 - WVU's goalie just made a great save on a Schilawski shot, and on the ensuing corner Jules Valentin's header hit the top right corner of the post. Very nearly another goal on both occasions.

15:00 - The Deacs have continued to control the game, attacking and pushing the ball upfield, not allowing WVU many offensive opportunities. I can definitely see one more goal in this game, question is which way it will go. Things definitely seem to be getting a bit more physical down there, more fouls and such. West Virginia just got another yellow card.

25:27 - Like I said, we had another one in us. Wake's Cody Arnoux makes a beatuiful shot and was assisted by Corben Bone. Beautiful pass from Corben and a great shot to the far right corner. 2-1 Deacs.

34:00 - GOALLLLL... Austin da Luz assists Zack Schilawski on a beatiful goal to even the match at 1-1. Wake had just missed a header wide left on a corner kick, and responded with a great pass and shot from close range. We got the momentum back and I can definitely see us putting another one in the goal.

40:00- Wake's Zack Shilawski was called for a foul in the box and WVU's Andy Wright drilled the penalty kick into the upper right corner to give WVU a 1-0 lead. Very frustrating considering all the opporutnities we've had. It's not fun to be down. I feel like we've still got 1 or 2 goals in us though, so we'll see what happens. We just barely missed a pretty good shot. Deacs down, 0-1.

2nd Half

Halftime - Almost another opportunity after a 2nd WVA yellow card, but nothing came of it and the half ended. I feel like the Deacs played a really solid half. Although it was frustrating not to have any of the shots go in, there were about 4 great opportunities that easily could have been even 2 goals. I never felt like WVA was really threatening, so defensively I'd say we played a very solid half as well. 2nd half could get interesting as it is starting to sprinkle and may turn into a bigger storm. Could also make it difficult for me to post since I usually have to be outside to get a connection, but I'll see what I can do.

1:30 - A beautiful cross led to a shot off the the post, and on the rebound we missed the shot high. Another great opportunity that nearly paid off.

7:30 - We just has 2 very exciting corner kicks in a row. A shot by Corben Bone on the first corner was saved and on the ensuing corner Wake had 2 shots (one looked like it was nearly in) with a great goalie save and then a team save. I don't really even know how to properly describe what I saw, but it was very exciting. Just a lot of people kicking and heading and diving in front of the goal, I really thought we would score. (Like my great soccer terminology there?)

13:00 - WVA just took their first shot, but it wasn't really much of a threat, taken from pretty deep and going way high. Wake quickly gave the ball back and gave them a corner, but GK Brian Edwards punched it out.

16:55 - Another shot for Arnoux when he got past the defense on a little break away, but WVA goalkeeper Zach Johnson made a great save.

21:00 - Cody Arnoux just got off his second shot off of a corner kick when his header missed high. His first shot was off of a corner as well. The previous WVA yellow card was apparently given because of something he said.

25:00 - West Virginia's gotten a bit more aggressive, but still hasn't taken an offical shot. The Deacs have gotten one shot off, but nothing came of it. West Virginia just got themselves a yellow card, but I couldn't see what he did to get it. I'll see if I can find out.

36:00 - Deacs have controlled possession early, playing almost exclusively on WVA's half of the field. The Mountaineers have a strong defense though, and we just got our first legitimate opportunity of hte game on a cross from the left where it looked like we had a shot in front of the net. We missed the opportunity, but are threatening again with a corner.

About a minute from kickoff, I'm here at the game and will be blogging periodically throughout. Stay tuned.

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Yesterday was a pretty good day for Wake athletics, as the basketball Lady Deacs won their Big 10/ACC Challenge game at Northwestern pretty handily, 60-45. As I wrote extensively about last night, men’s soccer beat Furman 1-0 in the 2^nd round of the NCAA tournament.

I’ve been quite impressed by the women so far, and am now thinking I may need to start heading over to some of those game. Does that make me a bit of a fair weather women’s basketball fan? Maybe, but I think I’m okay with that. If they keep winning like this we may be ranked here in the next couple of weeks.

Men’s basketball travels to Charlotte tonight to play UNC-C at Bobcats Arena. I’ve thought about driving down for it, but with school doing a pretty good job swamping me already this week, I think I’ll watch from my couch.

I also missed this yesterday, but Steve Justice was named a finalist for the Rimington Trophy. Congrats to him.

Site Update: You know how I regularly ask you to leave your thoughts or questions in the comment section? Well I found out that I’m the big idiot who made it impossible for you to do so. I don’t know if any of you have tried and been unable to, but I believe I have fixed it now so that as long as you have a google account you can leave a comment. That may still be a hassle for some, but if I leave them totally open I’m positive I’ll end up with a lot of comment spam which is annoying to everyone. So comment away, but if you have a problem email me and let me know.

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