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Duke men's soccer wins thriller against N.C. State in first round of the ACC tournament

Senior Nat Eggleston netted the game-winning goal in the second overtime period to give the Blue Devils the win Wednesday night.
Senior Nat Eggleston netted the game-winning goal in the second overtime period to give the Blue Devils the win Wednesday night.

With their season hanging in the balance, the Blue Devils were able to rely on their seniors to carry them to victory.

Duke prevailed against N.C. State with a 3-2 victory in the second overtime period Wednesday night at Koskinen Stadium in the first round of the ACC tournament. Senior Nat Eggleston scored the game-winning goal off a corner kick from fellow senior Sean Davis with four minutes remaining in the period.

“It’s amazing. First off, just to score the goal with 1:20 left to extend our season is incredible,” Eggleston said. “Then, on the final goal, we were just pushing and everyone is just fighting for our season, fighting for our lives. Sean puts in a great ball and [freshman midfielder] Brian White flicks it at the near post and it just fell to me. It’s one of those special moments where you just get to tap it in.”

The Wolfpack (7-7-4, 1-5-3 in the ACC) had scored what appeared to be the game-clinching goal with less than two minutes left in regulation. With the game tied at one apiece, midfielder Holden Fender scored his first goal of the season, heading a corner from sophomore Michael Bajza past Duke goalkeeper Wilson Fisher to give N.C. State a 2-1 lead in the 88th minute.

But with their backs pressed against the wall and less than two minutes left to save their season, the Blue Devils (10-8-1, 5-4-0) responded immediately. Duke executed an all-out offensive attack on its next possession, culminating in a shot from senior Nick Palodichuk that bounced past Wolfpack goalkeeper Alex McCauley to even the game once again at 2-2. The Blue Devils nearly pushed another goal across in the final seconds of regulation, but N.C. State was able to clear it and send the game into sudden-death overtime.

“You want to think positive, and we’re just hoping to scratch out an equalizer there late in the second half,” head coach John Kerr said. “At least we went for it. We weren’t going to sit back, so we took a couple defenders out and knocked the ball forward and got some bodies in the box and lo and behold, we scored.”

Despite such an exciting finish, the game got off to a surprisingly slow start. The two squads combined to put just one shot on goal in the first 45 minutes, a floater by Bajza in the 38th minute that Fisher snagged with ease. Duke outshot the Wolfpack 4-3 and both sides had ample chances around the 18-yard box, but were unable to convert their opportunities into shots on goal.

“We didn’t want to expose ourselves too early in the game,” Kerr said. "It was kind of like a boxing match, we were feeling each other out in the first half. Then everything changed in the second half and it became a wide-open game.”

The second half certainly featured much more aggressive play from both sides, with the N.C. State surging back out of the locker room to fire off four shots in the first 10 minutes. The Wolfpack finally broke the ice less than a minute into the second half. Senior defender Matt Ingram made a run down the right side of the field and sent a cross floating into the box, where sophomore Yanni Hachem headed it into the back corner of the net to give his team a 1-0 advantage.

N.C. State nearly extended its lead moments after the ensuing kickoff, as it quickly regained possession from the Blue Devils. Sophomore Travis Wannemuehler blasted a shot from inside the box that Fisher was able to get just enough of to redirect it off the crossbar and keep Duke from falling into a 2-0 hole.

The Blue Devils answered back 15 minutes later, with White providing the critical equalizer after getting roughed up earlier. White took a pass on the right side from midfielder Bryson Asher and fired it past a charging McCauley. McCauley actually got a hand on White’s blast, but it was not enough to keep it from rolling into the net to tie the game at 1-1.

“It was an unbelievable game. N.C. State played a great game,” Kerr said. “They could’ve got a second goal that might’ve knocked us out but Wilson Fisher came up with a huge, massive save. But then we kind of got our bearings back a little bit and got back into the game and scored a goal.”

Following this exhilarating victory, the Blue Devils will travel to Syracuse to take on the Orange Sunday afternoon in a 1 p.m. match at SU Soccer Stadium in the second round of the ACC tournament. Kerr knows that his squad faces a tough opponent in the second-seeded Orange, but will look to his veteran leaders to continue to carry the team as they did Wednesday.

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