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Two late North Carolina goals sink Duke men's soccer

<p>A Cameron Moseley goal gave the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead almost halfway through the second half.&nbsp;</p>

A Cameron Moseley goal gave the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead almost halfway through the second half. 

Zach Wright needed no help from his teammates.

The Tar Heel forward got the ball just past midfield, then bolted toward the goal. After a few long strides, the 5-foot-11 junior left Duke's Carter Manley in the dust.

And with a swift strike off his right foot and a slight deflection off Blue Devil defender Markus Fjortoft’s leg, Wright converted.

The 82nd-minute tally from North Carolina's second-leading scorer was just enough to lift the No. 8 Tar Heels past the Blue Devils 2-1 Friday evening at Koskinen Stadium. Duke jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 64th minute, but a pair of North Carolina goals in the final 21 minutes helped the visitors to their fourth conference win of the season. It was the 17th time in the last 18 matchups between the Tobacco Road rivals that the game was either decided by one goal or ended in a tie.

Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, they had failed to come away with a win in 10 of the previous 11—and the trend only continued Friday.

"It’s like a broken record," Duke head coach John Kerr said. "It’s sad for me to say this after every game that we keep benefitting from our good play, but we don’t convert our chances. And we made some really awesome chances tonight—that’s what’s so frustrating."

Although the Tar Heels (10-2-1, 4-1-1 in the ACC) started out on the front foot, bringing serious pressure and keeping the ball in the Blue Devils' third for much of the first half, Duke (4-6-2, 1-4-1) responded. About midway through the first half, the hosts flipped the script, maintaining possession and carrying the ball deep into North Carolina territory.

Thanks to tough defending from both sides, the two teams combined for only four shots through 45 minutes. The Blue Devils did not even get a shot off until the 39th minute.

As expected, Friday's tilt was a gritty rivalry game with nine first-half fouls and no shots on goal as the teams entered intermission.

"Our guys just worked really hard," Kerr said. "We made it tough for them to break us down centrally, so the only way they were going to get by us was wide."

But after halftime, it was clear that both teams were on a mission to find the back of the net.

Duke had multiple chances in the first 10 minutes of the second half, including a golden opportunity set up when freshman Max Moser sent a through ball to Cameron Moseley to spring the junior. Moseley slotted a perfect pass to a wide-open Brian White, but White could not make contact at the back post, keeping the game scoreless.

Eventually, the Blue Devils' persistence on offense paid off.

In the 64th minute, Moser provided a line-drive corner kick to the near post, and the 6-foot-4 Moseley rose above the Tar Heel defense. Moseley headed it home into the far-side netting for just the seventh goal allowed by North Carolina goalkeeper James Pyle all season.

“A lot of it was about heart, not just about tactics," Manley said. "It was really about who wanted it more.”

But the Duke lead would not last long. Six minutes later, Tar Heel midfielder Jeremy Kelly and forward Nils Bruening combined for a play similar to that of the Blue Devils' goal—Kelly's long cross found the head of Bruening at the back post and the Hamburg, Germany, native hammered it past Duke goalkeeper Robert Moewes to knot the game at one apiece.

Once again, Moewes was on his game, racking up six saves to give the Blue Devils a chance to earn a much-needed win or a draw. 

But as has been the case most of the season, Duke's offense was unable to turn a sterling performance from the graduate transfer into a positive result against one of the best teams in the nation—a potential confidence-booster in front of a near-capacity crowd.

"I have no complaints about the players," Kerr said. "They played their tails off, they created some great opportunities, they played hard defense. We just need a little luck and our goal is to try to get ourselves in a better position for the ACC tournament and to get ready for that."

At the final whistle, Moser, Fjortoft and fellow defenders CC Uche and Kevon Black lay on the turf, exhausted and disappointed that they were unable to come away with at least a tie. 

But with Campbell visiting Tuesday and just four more games before the ACC tournament next month, Duke has no time to rest.

"It’s part of the game—you win some, you lose some," Manley said. "You’ve just got to keep on pushing forward and getting better."


Mitchell Gladstone | Sports Managing Editor

Twitter: @mpgladstone13

A junior from just outside Philadelphia, Mitchell is probably reminding you how the Eagles won the Super Bowl this year and that the Phillies are definitely on the rebound. Outside of The Chronicle, he majors in Economics, minors in Statistics and is working toward the PJMS certificate, in addition to playing trombone in the Duke University Marching Band. And if you're getting him a sandwich with beef and cheese outside the state of Pennsylvania, you best not call it a "Philly cheesesteak." 

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