Apparently, the seniors on the men's soccer team may never beat Maryland.
An overtime header by Pierre Venditti in the 95th minute yesterday afternoon lifted Maryland over the top-ranked Blue Devils (8-1, 1-1), handing Duke its first loss of the season. The Terrapins (6-2, 2-1) overcame a 2-0 Blue Devil lead to win 3-2 in College Park. It was the sixth-consecutive loss for Duke against Maryland and could cause the Blue Devils to lose the No. 1 ranking they attained last week.
Duke actually took control of the game from the outset. Troy Garner opened the scoring with a blast from the left side in the 17th minute. The shot came off of a pass from Jay Heaps, and the Blue Devils held this 1-0 advantage through halftime.
Twenty minutes into the second half, Garner again found the back of the net, this time on a five-yard shot off of an assist from Peter Gail. It was Garner's third goal of the season and everything was going right for Duke.
"We were knocking the ball around well," Garner said. "We were playing good defense and still looking for more goals."
Unfortunately, for the Blue Devils, the momentum ended there. With a two-goal lead, Duke lost its hold on the Terps.
"After we scored that second goal, we just kind of stopped," Garner said. "We have to have that killer instinct and we didn't. It's like we lost our focus, and we can't do that if we're going to be a good team."
Maryland, meanwhile, regained its focus and responded with a pair of goals over the next 12 minutes. Jason Cropley scored off of an assist from Taylor Twellman in the 66th minute and returned the favor 10 minutes later as he assisted Twellman on the equalizer.
Maryland broke the deadlock five minutes into the sudden-death overtime period, as Jason Sardis found senior Pierre Venditti open for a header at the corner of the goal box.
The three goals given up by Duke goalkeeper Atli Knuttson were two more than he had given up all season.
"It's a learning experience for the team," Garner said. "We'll bounce back from it. It's only our first loss of the year so we'll be alright."
Duke returns to action Thursday at home against Radford at 7 p.m.
Joel Israel contributed to this story.
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