By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
 
The day before, William & Mary men's soccer coach Chris Norris said Tuesday night's home game against No. 10 Wake Forest had "a chance to be special." He was spot on.
 
With a pair of spectacular goals and an outstanding defensive effort, the Tribe kept its unbeaten streak alive with a 2-1 win Tuesday night at Martin Family Stadium. It was W&M's first win over a top-10 team since 2015 and its ninth consecutive game without a loss.
 
"We've been on a good unbeaten run, but we haven't always gotten the win — we've had some ties in there, obviously," said Norris, whose team was 3-0-5 in its previous eight games. "But we felt like we were playing well, and this was a good opportunity.
 
"We knew it would take a good performance to get a win tonight. And we had one our best performances of the season."
 
Senior Nathan Messer gave W&M (4-2-6) a 1-0 lead 19 minutes in and freshman Lucas Caldas scored the tie-breaker with 15:52 remaining. Those were the Tribe's only two shots on goal. Wake had six, five of which grad student Danilo Nikcevic turned away.
 
The game-winner didn't go quite as planned, but it looked perfect. Following a foul, W&M (4-2-6) had a free kick about 35 yards from the goal. Catching the Demon Deacons off guard, Alfredo Bozalongo sent the ball into the box, where Alexander Levengood had excellent position to the right of the net.
 
Levengood whiffed on the opportunity, but he quickly recovered sent a pass directly in front of the goal. Caldas charged in and with his left foot kicked the ball just under the cross bar and into the net.
 
"A beautiful way to win," said Caldas, whose goal was the first of his career. "All the teammates together and everything, there could be nothing better than that."
 
 
Less than five minutes earlier, Nikcevic had prevented Wake Forest (10-3) from taking the lead. The Demon Deacons' Babacar Niang took a give-and-go pass and had an excellent opportunity from 15 yards in front of the goal.
 
But Nikcevic got his left hand on the ball to deflect it over the goal.
 
"We've been playing tough and hard defensively for a long time, and we did in this game," Nikcevic said. "The defensive line, and when I say that I mean the whole team defensively, they prevented some attacks."
 
Nikcevic's five saves were one fewer than his career high, which came in a 2-0 win at Stony Brook on Sept. 17.
 
"We've had some games where Danilo hasn't been called on to make any saves, and that's unusual in soccer, especially against some of the teams we've been playing," Norris said. "Tonight, it was a combination of all 11 guys who were on the field at any given moment really working hard to defend and Danilo coming up with some big saves."
 
William & Mary had been outscored 10-0 in its last three games against Wake Forest (2021, '19 and '11). But 19 minutes into Tuesday night's game, that streak ended.
 
Having mounted a chance after a W&M goal kick, Messer took a pass from Levengood on the right side and just outside the 18-yard box. He brought it back to the center and with his left foot drilled a 25-yard shot past Demon Deacons' keeper Trace Alphin to make it 1-0.
 
Thirteen and a half minutes later, Wake got the equalizer. On a free kick, Ryan Fessler's shot grazed the left post and ricocheted into the net. It was such a perfect shot that Nikcevic had no chance.
 
The Tribe returns to conference play Saturday at home against UNCW, which is third place in the CAA standings.
 
"This was a very important game to raise our confidence and our level of play," Nikcevic said. "This is a good example that we can win against any team if are playing our game.
 
"But I would like to add that after a win like this, we don't need to fly high. We need to stay humble and modest and prepare as best we can for our next game."