The thrill of victory was twice as sweet for the men's soccer team this weekend.
Sunday afternoon, No. 9 Duke garnered a crucial Atlantic Coast Conference victory against N.C. State. On Monday, the Blue Devils (10-3, 2-2 in the ACC) crushed Averett in a 7-0 blowout.
Sunday's victory, a 3-0 rout in which the Wolfpack (6-4-2, 0-3-2 in the ACC) could only futilely nip at the Blue Devils' heels, was a very significant one for Duke. The contest against State marks the beginning of the last third of the season, a period which is packed with important conference matches and tournaments and should once again culminate in the NCAA tournament.
Not only did the Blue Devils even up their ACC record, they also got back on a winning streak and regained the style of play that they had so often demonstrated earlier in the season.
"This game against State was a sort of starting point, a pivotal game for us to win," junior forward Matt Shattuck said. "We had some trouble in the last few games, so I think State will hopefully give us some momentum going into Wake and Virginia and the rest of our season."
Duke sent the Wolfpack cowering early on in the game, scoring its first two goals during the first nine minutes. At 3:49, Shattuck rocketed a pass from sophomore midfielder Jay Heaps dead-center into the net. Less than five minutes later, on an assist by freshman forward Troy Garner, junior midfielder Steve Maynard drilled the ball home. After the two goals, N.C. State seemed to give up, letting Duke maintain control of the tempo of the match. The Blue Devils notched their third and final goal at 81:37 when Shattuck lofted the ball into the net off a corner kick.
During Sunday's contest, the Blue Devils solved several of the problems that had previously been plaguing them. In its three losses, Duke had failed to both stymie its opponents' opportunities to score and to follow through on its own scoring chances. To prevent the recurrence of such lackluster performances, Duke coach John Rennie experimented with the starting lineup, starting Shattuck up front and freshman Peter Gail on the defensive line. Both Shattuck and Gail stepped up into their new roles admirably.
"Peter Gail and Matt Shattuck were two real keys of the team, one in the back and one up front," Rennie said. "We had two problems a couple weeks ago. One was giving up goals and one was not scoring at all. Peter helped us with not giving up goals, and Matt was an addition to finding a way to score goals."
Frustrated by an inability to score, the Wolfpack began to show their teeth, playing an extremely physical second half. The Blue Devils stepped their play up to the same level of physicality, collecting 14 fouls to State's 20. One of these fouls was sophomore defender Evan Whitfield's fifth yellow card of the season. Whitfield received a one-game suspension and sat out Monday night's contest against Averett.
"State is a very physical team," Shattuck said. "They'll come in hard every time we get the ball. We have to prepare ourselves for that and to match that level of play. I thought we did a great job with that [Sunday]."
In order to replace a match against Indiana that was canceled due to rain, Duke added the game against Averett to its schedule. This contest took place Monday night at Duke Soccer Stadium. Giving several freshmen and other little-used players a chance to start, Duke played its bench and took two players out to continue with only nine men on the field. The Blue Devils still defeated the Cougars (0-13-1) en route to their ninth shutout of the season.
Junior forward Tony Frangella began the scoring run three minutes into the game, launching a pass from sophomore forward Josh Henderson into the net. Within a little over a minute, freshman midfielder Johnny Tyler and sophomore defender Steve Hauptman each found the back of the net. Tyler amassed two more goals and an assist during the first half. Frangella scored another goal, as did Henderson. In addition, senior forward Jeremiah Tao notched three assists, and freshmen Miles Romm and Wes Dowd each collected one.
"It felt pretty good to finally get some points," Frangella said. "We just came out hard so the goals came pretty quick."
The Blue Devils will return to action when they face No. 20 Wake Forest (9-3-1, 2-1-0 in the ACC) in another important ACC match on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. in Duke Soccer Stadium.
"Wake is a quality team, and it would be a mistake to underestimate them," senior co-captain Brian Kelly said.
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