For this year's NCAA tournament, men's soccer head coach John Rennie is pulling out all the stops. For the first time in his coaching career, Rennie housed his players in a hotel--for Sunday's first-round home game with North Carolina-Greensboro.
When asked whether the ploy was successful, Rennie answered rhetorically, "What was the score?" It was a 3-0 win for No. 11 Duke--and it could easily have been worse for Greensboro.
The Blue Devil players strongly approved of Rennie's decision.
"You're in an environment that makes you focus," sophomore striker Matt Shattuck said. "We came into the game more focused than in the past. It's difficult to get sleep on a Saturday night in the dorm."
Duke's heightened concentration was not lost on the Spartans (12-5-3).
"They had much more composure than we did," UNC-G head coach Michael Parker said. "They out-and-out beat us."
This intensity was not immediately evident, however, as Duke struggled to get its passing game going in the first half. In fact, the Blue Devils' leading scorer, junior Brian Kelly, was benched midway through the half because he was not in the flow of the game, according to Rennie.
Duke (13-6-1) shook off the cobwebs and got the scoring started at the 15:55 mark. Sophomore midfielder Steve Maynard put a long throw-in into the middle of the penalty box, where freshman Jay Heaps and a UNC-G defender banged heads challenging for possession. The ball came right to sophomore forward Andy Kwon, who had an easy finish from close range.
"I was a little disappointed at Duke's first goal," Parker said. "It was a bit of a defensive mistake, but give Duke credit."
On the header, a deep cut opened above Heaps' left eye. Heaps returned to the game minutes later with a mummy-like bandage around his head. Although Heaps said he was not in any noticeable pain, he received stitches after the game to close the wound.
But Heaps continued to go up for head balls, often winning them over taller players. He won over at least one admirer with his play.
"The difference in the game was Heaps," Parker said. "He absolutely stood out among the 22 players on the field. He's obviously a technically good player. But that desire, combined with his technical skill, makes him such a competitor."
The loss of three Duke starters--junior midfielder Kevin Stein, sophomore fullback Adam Mastrelli and freshman striker Josh Henderson--to injury was evident throughout the game as Duke had trouble putting away chances in the box. It was only toward the end of the game, when UNC-G was clearly exhausted and was desperately pushing forward trying to tie the score, that Duke scored its final two goals to seal the win.
"They [were] real strong in the air and on restarts," Rennie said of the Spartans. "Our only problem was not scoring enough goals early."
Rennie acknowledged that Mastrelli and Henderson could have played in an absolute emergency, and that all three banged-up Blue Devils should be healthy for next weekend's second-round match against the No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament, South Carolina.
Midway through the second half, Duke's frustration at being unable to find the net came to a head, as twice in a span of under six minutes the Blue Devils hit the crossbar, once on a Heaps header and once on a long shot from junior midfielder Mike Dunne.
But the Blue Devils need not have worried on this day, as the Spartans finally collapsed under Duke's heavy pressure. At the 76th minute, Shattuck found Kelly wide open as a result of a UNC-G defensive gaffe. Kelly had an easy finish past Spartan goalkeeper Trey Wilson for his 13th goal of the year.
Then, as time wound down, the Spartans pulled Wilson far out of the net in order to press forward for a quick score. But Duke caught UNC-G on a swift counterattack, and reserve junior forward Jeremiah Tao added an insurance score with under two minutes on assists from Shattuck and Heaps.
The Blue Devils feel that if they can reproduce this type of effort, and if their walking wounded can recover by the weekend, they will have a good chance of defeating the Gamecocks.
"It comes down to just trying to get the win," Heaps said. "It was a total team effort. We've got to start to put it together in the offensive third, but defensively, we played well."
"This team does well when [it gets] the ball," Rennie said. "The team knows that if it works hard to get the ball, it can do good things with it.
"We've played well on the road. We've got as good a chance [against South Carolina] as anybody."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.