CARY, N.C. - Top-seeded Wake Forest countered an early NC State score with two first-half goals and went on to post a 4-1 victory in Wednesday night's Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Soccer Championship quarterfinal game.

The Demon Deacons moved on to Friday's 8 p.m. semifinal, where they will face the winner of Wednesday night's later quarterfinal match between fourth-seeded Virginia and fifth-seeded Duke.

"We're very excited to be alive and play another match Friday," Wake Forest coach Jay Vidovich said. "We played a much improved NC State team, so we were very fortunate to come from a goal down and get some good scores."

The No. 1-ranked and defending national champion Demon Deacons (18-0-1) extended their unbeaten streak dating back to last season to 24 games. Wake Forest has not lost since falling to Boston College in the 2008 ACC Championship title game.

The eighth-seeded Wolfpack (9-9-1) grabbed the Deacons' attention just over 12 minutes into the match, when Ronnie Bouemboue took a pass from Alan Sanchez from 14 yards out and drilled home his third goal in two tournament matches and his 14th of the season.

NC State's 1-0 lead held up for nearly 11 minutes before Wake Forest's Jamie Franks tied it with a 15-yarder from the left side of the box. Cody Arnoux assisted on the goal, Franks' second of the season.

The Deacons went ahead with just under six minutes left in the opening half as Evan Brown chased down a deflected ball and launched an 18-yarder into the upper right-hand corner of the net to put Wake Forest in front 2-1.

Sam Cronin's penalty kick midway through the second half pushed the Deacons' lead to 3-1, Wake Forest picked up one more insurance goal with 20:57 left in the match, when Corben Bone scored from 11 yards out off an assist from Kyle Adams.

The loss snapped a four-game NC State winning streak and was only the second defeat the Wolfpack had suffered since dropping a 4-1 decision to Wake Forest in early October.

"Wake Forest is a wonderful team," said NC State coach George Tarantini. "My team gave everything it had on the field - everything we had we put into it. (Wake Forest) is one of the best teams we've seen in a long time, and they beat us the right way."

Semifinal action will begin on Friday, Nov. 14, with games slated at 5:30 and 8 p.m. The championship game will kick off at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 16. All games are available online through ACCSelect.com, while the championship game will be nationally televised on Fox Sports Net. The ACC men's soccer awards ceremony will be held immediately following the title game.