CHAPEL HILL -- It is a simple fact that holds true for success in any sport: To win, the fundamentals must be solid.
The basics were seemingly nonexistent for the men's soccer team Saturday night, as the squad's season came to an abrupt end with a 3-2 loss to North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Sloppy trapping, careless passing, and untimely fouls marred the first half of Saturday night's match for the Blue Devils, as the Tar Heels took advantage of Duke miscues to pressure goalkeeper Garth Lagerwey incessantly.
Without the services of starting midfielder Brian Kelly, Duke's lack of caution was all the more costly.
And for the Blue Devils, witnessing Carolina's Gregg Berhalter play the game of his life didn't help matters either. The Tar Heel fullback had a hand in all three North Carolina scores, with two goals and an assist on the evening.
"[He] hit two beautiful shots," Duke head coach John Rennie said.
The omens appeared gloomy for the Blue Devils right from the opening whistle. Carolina suffocated Duke's defense in the early going, as it converted errant Duke traps and passes into breakaways. And with Duke committing silly infractions near its goal box, Carolina was given ample chances to score, and just 13 minutes into the match, it did just that.
From about 25 yards out, the Tar Heels set up and perfectly executed a play off of a free kick. Freshman sensation Temoc Suarez tapped the ball to Kerry Zavagnin, who stopped the ball for Berhalter.
Just as the Duke wall began its charge, Berhalter wound up and hammered an unpreventable lefty shot past Lagerwey into the side netting to give North Carolina a 1-0 lead.
After falling behind, Duke began to step up its intensity offensively. Galvanized by numerous key saves by Lagerwey, the Blue Devils put significant heat on Tar Heel goalie Dimitry Drouin for the rest of the half.
The second stanza also started sluggishly for the Blue Devils. The team did not record a second-half shot until 22 minutes had elapsed. During that dry spell, two more bad breaks wounded Duke.
First, Berhalter notched his second goal on a play nearly identical to the one which resulted in his first score. At the 53:34 mark, he fired a direct kick that again evaded the Duke wall of defenders. Suddenly the ball veered off its path, broke downward, and spiraled into the net about six inches inside the left post to put UNC up by two.
Then, about 10 minutes later, the Blue Devils' comeback attempt was dealt a vicious blow as junior Richie Dunn dropped to the Fetzer Field grass with a game-ending injury. Dunn, one of the few bright spots in the Duke lineup, had spilled his guts with all-out hustle through the entire game, and the Blue Devils sorely missed his offensive spark.
But at long last, Duke shaved the gap to a single goal. At the 67th minute, freshman Kevin Stein, in only his sixth start of the season, crossed a ball through the goal box to Jason Kreis, who headed it home to trim the lead to 2-1. It was Kreis' team-leading 13th goal on the season.
Just as the Duke faithful became roused up, North Carolina quickly silenced the Blue Devil fans. In the midst of Duke's jubilation, the squad took its mind off of defense and allowed North Carolina to push the lead back up to two. Only a minute after the Duke goal, Berhalter sent a long lead pass to Todd Haskins, who tapped a through ball to the usually bench-entrenched Greg Caiola. Caiola spun around and fired a point-blank shot past a defenseless Lagerwey to make the score 3-1.
"You're always vulnerable after you score," Rennie said. "You spend so much energy trying to catch up, you get a goal, and have another letdown."
Realizing their 1993 campaign would be over barring a minor miracle, the Blue Devils began to dominate on the offensive end. During their onslaught, they coughed up a golden opportunity when, on a header in the box, T.D. Rolf had Drouin completely wrong-footed and out of position. Rolf just needed to head the ball behind Drouin, but it glanced off his head and rolled harmlessly over the end line.
But Duke was far from throwing in the towel. With under seven minutes to go, the Kreis-Stein connection clicked again. This time, Kreis chipped a free kick goalward, which Stein nodded home for his second goal of the season to make it a 3-2 contest.
In the last minutes of regulation, the Blue Devils almost pull off a superhuman comeback. They pounded Drouin from every angle, and just as it seemed as though Duke was going to tie the score, the clock read 00:00.
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