Wake returns to Men's College Cup

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Dec 10, 2007

[ELITE 8] Wake Forest will be the only team at this year's Men's College Cup that played in last year's finals in St. Louis. Indeed, the No. 2 seed Demon Deacons are the only team still alive to have ever played in a men's final four. They moved into Friday's semifinal against ACC rival Virginia Tech with a 1-0 overtime win over Notre Dame Saturday night before a record crowd of 4,589 at Spry Stadium.

Austin da Luz, the son of Wake's women's soccer coach Tony da Luz, has been a big spark off the bench with a team-high 13 assists, but he scored the game's only goal in the 97th minute
 
Deacon forward Marcus Tracy streaked down the right side and found da Luz on the opposite side of the box. Da Luz took the pass, spun around an Irish defender, turned and hit a shot that skipped by diving goalkeeper Chris Cahill and into the bottom left corner of the net.

“A couple guys made runs into the near post and I saw Austin hanging out far post," Tracy said. “He yelled for it, so I just tried to put it in and give it to him on his feet, he turned and gave it a great shot.”

Da Luz is part of a Wake bench that includes Freshman of the Year candidate Corben Bone (5 goals, 8 assists) and Zack Schilawski (8 goals, 3 assists).

“He has given us a big spark off the bench," Wake coach Jay Vidovich said of da Luz. "He’s done a tremendous job. He brings us a tremendous amount of energy, he’s very skillful, and he’s just done a great job with it. He’s been a great addition.”

Game Summary:
Dec. 8 in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Wake Forest 1 Notre Dame 0. Goal: da Luz (Tracy) 97.
Wake Forest -- Edwards, Cronin, Valentin, Phelan, Opara Adams, Franks, Brown, Tracy, Lahoud, Arnoux. Subs: da Luz, Bone, Schilawski.
Notre Dame -- Cahill, Miller, Traynor, Rellas, Besler, Thomas, Armstrong, Yoshinaga, Morrow, Lapira, Martin. Subs: Donohue, Thiermann, Brovsky.
Referee: Rob Mann.
Att.: 4,589.