The men's soccer team opened its 1999 schedule last night by knocking out the Monmouth Hawks 4-1 at newly renamed Koskinen Stadium.
Duke started slowly but finished in style, using four second-half goals to put away the short-handed Hawks, who played the final 37 minutes with 10 men.
Monmouth scored its only goal on one of only two shots in the first half. With 20 minutes remaining in the half, forward Craig Lindquist knocked in a cross from midfielder Rob Cavanaugh. Meanwhile, despite 13 shots on goal, the Blue Devils were held scoreless by Monmouth goalkeeper Christian Zentner.
"Soccer can be a strange game," Duke coach John Rennie said. "We were playing very well. They only got one chance in the half and it went in; we had thirteen. Eventually, our shots were going to go in."
Rennie's beliefs proved correct early in the second half. Three minutes after the break, 5-foot-3 Trevor Perea received the ball at the top of the penalty box, faked out three defenders and hammered the ball into the left side of the net.
The freshman midfielder described the play as if it were fairly routine.
"I just
While that goal may have been the highlight of the night for Perea, it was not an isolated achievement. The freshman controlled the midfield for much of the game and earned high praise from his coach.
"I knew how good he was," Rennie said. "I have been watching him for two years; he is a brilliant player.
"You never know how quickly players are going to make the adjustment to this level, but he is that good."
Shortly after Perea's goal, things took an even sharper turn in Duke's favor. Monmouth's Maciej Bodyziak fouled Duke's Ali Curtis hard on a breakaway, drawing a red card and an ejection in the 53rd minute.
Duke capitalized on the man advantage just minutes later when junior Stephen Pate found the foot of Robert Russell with a corner kick to the far post, and Russell put the ball into the back of the net.
The game was over for all intents and purposes when senior Troy Garner, Duke's active leading scorer, found the goal with just over 10 minutes left to play on an assist from Curtis. It was Garner's 25th career goal.
The finishing touch for the Blue Devils came on a blast to the upper right-hand corner by freshman midfielder Adam Guren with just over a minute to play.
In a four-goal performance, the accolades naturally tend to go to the offense, but last night much of the credit could be given to the brilliant play of the Nii-Amar Amamoo-led Duke defense.
The Blue Devils did not allow a single shot in the second half and rarely let the Hawks within 20 yards of the net.
Amamoo was pleased by the performance of the Blue Devil defense.
"I thought it was a good first game," he said. "They came out with a good game plan, but we were prepared, and we buckled down and stopped them."
After the game, Rennie had the opportunity to assess his relatively young team for the first time in competition. He was optimistic about the season.
"This is not the team we had last year," he said. "We lost some key players. But, that team had six months to get ready for us. They scored first, and we just hung in there and eventually wore them down. I am happy with where we are right now."
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