Blue Devils retrieve 1st-round victory from jaws of defeat

For the second time in the last two weeks, the scene looked the same. The players on the top-ranked men's soccer team (16-0-3) piled on one another as their opponent sat silently on the field in stunned disappointment.

Duke advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament with a 4-3 overtime victory over 17th-ranked UMBC (19-1-2) yesterday at Koskinen Stadium.

With the score knotted at three in overtime, Trevor Perea took a corner kick from the left side. His first effort fell short, and the Retrievers defense knocked the ball out of bounds.

Perea returned to take a second corner. He would not make the same mistake twice. The ball appeared to be struck too long, but it bent in and hit the far post. The ball ricocheted into the back of the net and pandemonium ensued.

"I had hit the last couple to the near post," Perea said. "Before the second kick, Peter [Gail] told me to hit the far post. I definitely meant to do it. But I don't think I've ever scored on a corner kick before."

As impressive as the game-winning goal was, the remarkable thing was that the Blue Devils even managed to reach overtime. Early in the second half, the Retrievers scored two goals within a 41 second span to take a 3-1 lead.

Suddenly, it seemed as if last year's improbable first-round upset loss at the hands of Jacksonville might repeat itself.

"[The Jacksonville game] crossed my mind," Gail said. "When the third goal went in, I was feeling like, 'Oh my God. What's happening?' but we remained composed and tenacious.

The game did not open in a manner that suggested such a tight finale. The Blue Devils controlled the ball early and netted the game's first goal 16:30 into the game when Kevin Sakuda beat his man on the endline and fed Gail in the middle. Gail hit the ball to Ali Curtis, who flipped it up over the UMBC keeper to put Duke ahead 1-0.

But then the Retrievers took control of the game. Duke went more than 10 minutes without a shot, and UMBC netted a goal to tie the game with 17 minutes remaining.

Ten minutes later, Retriever forward Ty Engram, who had scored the first UMBC goal, drew a foul in the Duke box to set up a penalty kick.

UMBC's penalty kick specialist, defender Andrew Wells, was brought in to face Duke keeper Jeff Haywood. Wells fired the ball at the left side of the Duke net, but Haywood made a diving save to keep the score tied.

"It was a split-second reaction judging on his run," Haywood said. "I was pretty sure he was going to go left, so I left a little bit early. I just tried to get to the corner. Fortunately I got both hands on it."

The Blue Devils did not gain any momentum from Haywood's unexpected save, as the first half ended without incident and the second half opened up disastrously for the Blue Devils.

Just five minutes after the intermission, Engram broke free at midfield for the Retrievers. He took the ball all the way down the field before passing the ball by Haywood to Pat Halter, who put the Retrievers ahead 2-1.

While that goal was harmful, it did not have the impact of the third. UMBC scored again only 41 seconds later when Engram knocked in a deflection.

Down, but not out, the Blue Devils rallied back and provided coach John Rennie with what has to be one of the more memorable victories in his career.

"It was a great win, and a great comeback," Rennie said. "We got great goals to get back and have the opportunity to win. When you are down, you never know how the team is going to react. We kept playing. It was a great effort. This was a confidence builder, and a reminder that no win is going to be easy."

Note: Duke will host No. 11 Santa Clara next weekend at Koskinen Stadium. Santa Clara defeated Stanford on penalty kicks Friday.