Freshman Landon Hickam scored his first career goal with under a minute left to send SMU to the ACC Men's Soccer Championship quarterfinals.

Hickam got on the end of a long throw from Enzo Panozzo to give the seventh-seeded Mustangs the 5-4 victory, helping them avoid blowing a two-goal lead with under 10 minutes to play. 

It capped off a four-goal second half as the Mustangs came back from a 2-1 deficit to get a hard-fought win.

"That's a game that these guys will talk about, you know, when they're 60 years old, sitting around and talking about SMU soccer," SMU Head Coach Kevin Hudson said.

"They will always go back to, 'Remember SMU-Wake in the first round of the ACC tournament in 2025? What a game that was.' So, yeah, it's nice to see the rush of goals. We've got to continue to breathe and realize it's one game and the next one comes super quick. So we'll need to turn the page quickly and get ready for whoever's next."

It didn't take long for the scoring to start, as 10th-seeded Wake Forest took an early 1-0 lead just into the fourth minute. 

But the team leader in goals, Stephan Soghomonian, delivered his 10th goal of the season less than two minutes later to tie the game. After conceding early, a quick answer was key to getting the Mustangs right back into the contest.

"It was definitely huge for the team to be able to get back in the game really, really quickly after going down," Hickam said. "And then also for the team morale on the bench, not to get too low on ourselves, and to be able to get back in the game so quickly was just really a reset button for us."

Wake would regain the lead just 10 minutes later. This time, that lead would last a little longer as the Deacons took the 2-1 lead into halftime and for the first 15 minutes of the second half. 

The SMU set play clinic changed that. After not having much, if any, success on set plays this season, the Mustangs delivered two straight. 

Both times it was Charles-Emile Brunet on the delivery, who would add a third assist later. On the first, it was Panozzo getting up over his defender and heading it into the back of the net to tie the game in the 63rd minute. Then it was Slade Starnes doing the same less than six minutes later.

"Charles' service was much better. I mean, he put the ball in really good spots with enough pace," Hudson said. "And Enzo and Slade's headers were — those were grown-man headers."

In the 72nd minute, Milton Lopez collected his seventh goal of the season, as he pounced on a loose ball off a Brunet shot and put the Mustangs up 4-2 with just over 18 minutes left to play.

Then, chaos.

The game seemed especially in hand once Cooper Flax, who scored both of Wake's goals, got a straight red card for pulling Brunet's hair with just 14 minutes on the clock.

But the Deacons wouldn't go away. Down a man and two goals, Wake Forest scored twice in less than two minutes to tie the game with only 2:32 left in regulation.

"It was an absolute gut punch for sure to be up a man, we make changes to try to kill the game off," Hudson said. "The guy scores a fantastic goal, the third, to make it 4-3, and then, yeah, we absolutely botched a set piece. … When it goes 4-4 like that, it is an indictment on the way we see out games."

But the Mustangs had a little bit of magic left. 

Just as the clock ticked under one minute left, Panozzo delivered a long throw into the box. It bounced off a couple of players before settling at the edge of the 6-yard box. Hickam slid to beat the Wake defender to the ball and delivered it into the top of the net.

"I'm just really grateful for the opportunities that have been granted to me as a freshman," Hickam said. "... The coaches trusted me, and the team trusted me, and being able to take on that and just capitalize on it in a very important moment for the team, I'm really grateful for that and excited for whatever it is to come next."

And hopefully the set piece success will follow. Panozzo, who was on both ends of set pieces Wednesday night, knows they have put in the work.

It just took a little while for the results to follow.

"We just keep going at it in practice," Panozzo said. "It hasn't been working for us. And then (Saturday), set pieces, that was the whole game, four goals on set pieces. So it was good to finally get those."

When the SMU game ended, Boston College led Stanford 2-1. But the second-seeded and seventh-ranked Cardinal would come back to win 4-2 to host the Mustangs in the quarterfinal on Sunday.

It will be the second trip for SMU to Stanford in two weeks. SMU had played BC, so either foe would have created a recent rematch.

"We know both of those teams, had good games, crazy games with both of them," Hudson said. "Which I feel like almost every game is in this league. Either one is going to be a fun challenge for us. Our goal is to try to win this tournament, so whoever comes next will be a fun challenge for the boys."