Saturday afternoon at Wallace Wade Stadium could have been compared to a Civil War confrontation -- an Army from the north invades an opponent's home turf, hoping to win the battle.
Yet this time, history didn't repeat itself as the team from the South prevailed.
The Duke football team captured its first win of the season with a 42-21 victory over the Cadets of Army. Head coach Barry Wilson was relieved at finally capturing that elusive first win, noting that the victory should boost confidence for the upcoming weeks.
"It feels good. It's been too long," Wilson said. "I'm really happy for the kids."
The victory continued Duke's home dominance against non-conference opponents, stretching its home winning streak against non-ACC teams to 17 games.
The game started ominously for the home team as Army quickly drove the length of the field for a TD run by Akili King.
Yet despite being down early, Duke answered back with a quick drive of its own. Quarterback Spence Fischer engineered a drive that culminated in Stanley Dorsey's second touchdown of the year to tie the game at 7-7.
"[Scoring the first touchdown] was very important," Wilson said. "It was that psychological momentum type thing, and obviously our football team has had some problems with what you might say the psychological aspect of the game."
Fischer's accuracy during the first drive was a preview of his overall performance. The junior was 29-of-36 for 357 yards with three TDs and one interception.
Those numbers were career highs for Fischer and, combined with his 333 yards through the air last weekend against Rutgers, made him the first Duke quarterback since Dave Brown in 1989 to have back-to-back 300-yard performances.
After forcing Army to punt on its next possession, Duke drove down the field again, but settled for a 31-yard Tom Cochran field goal and a 10-7 lead.
That three-point lead lasted through the first quarter, but was quickly erased by an Army drive that led to another King touchdown, giving Army a four-point advantage.
Another Duke drive marched down the field, but it again stalled. One more Cochran kick split the uprights, and the Blue Devils went into the locker room trailing 14-13.
In the second half, the Duke offense continued where it had left off in the first. Using a combination of short passes and a strong running game, Duke took the ball to the Army 9, where Fischer threw a pass to tight end Dan Clark for the touchdown.
Up by five, Wilson gambled and went for the two-point conversion. The first attempt was negated by an Army pass interference penalty, allowing Duke to have its second try from the 1-yard line, which it converted.
But Army charged back and tied the score on King's third TD of the day just four minutes later.
With the score tied, Duke finally took control of the game. The Blue Devils started the last drive of the third quarter on their own 22-yard line with 3:13 left in the quarter, and moved the to the Army 38 in a little over two minutes. From there came what probably was the turning point of the game.
Wilson called a fake punt on a fourth-and-6, and freshman punter John Krueger completed a 13-yard pass to David Lowman to keep the drive and Duke's momentum alive.
Tijan Redmon scored over the top a few plays later to put Duke ahead for good.
"I think that the fake punt was a huge play," Army head coach Bob Sutton said. "It allowed them to get a touchdown to go ahead there."
Once the offense got the lead in the fourth quarter, it was taps for Army.
"After three quarters, our defense finally figured out what they were doing," Dorsey said.
After Duke forced Army to punt from the back of their end zone, Duke put the game away. Senior Brad Breedlove fielded the punt at the Army 43, broke left and cruised for a game-breaking score.
"We went with a wall left and when I caught the ball I had 10 yards to work with," Breedlove said. "I broke off to the left and I made a quick inside cut, and the blocking was great. All I had to do was take it in."
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