It was a magical end to a storybook regular season Saturday, as seniors Troy Garner and Peter Gail contributed to all three goals and led the men's soccer team to a 3-2 comeback victory over N.C. State on Senior Day at Koskinen Stadium.
After the Wolfpack scored twice in the first 10 minutes of the game, Gail put Duke on the board midway through the first half. Robert Russell added a goal that Garner assisted on to tie it 2-2 early in the second half.
Garner finally clinched the game, an undefeated regular season and most importantly a bye in the first round of next weekend's ACC tournament by beating two defenders to the ball and trickling a shot past Wolfpack goalkeeper Mitchell Watson 10 minutes into the first sudden-death overtime period.
"This is the best feeling I've had in a while," said Garner, who recorded his 33rd career goal and 23rd career assist as a Blue Devil.
After giving up only seven goals in 15 games this season (and only one in ACC play), Duke (13-0-3, 4-0-2 in the ACC) gave up two quick ones to the Wolfpack (7-6-3, 1-4-1), the second off a penalty shot by N.C. State's leading scorer, Shakur Asad.
Only a strong finish by Gail off a cross from freshman Trevor Perea kept the half from being a total disappointment for Duke. The goal was the third of the season and 15th at Duke for Gail, one of only three players
"We played very poorly in the beginning of the game," Duke coach John Rennie said, "and N.C. State took advantage of it. I give them a lot of credit for going forward and scoring two. They deserved to be ahead 2-0. They did exactly what they had to do."
Duke responded quickly after halftime, getting five shots on goal in the first 10 minutes of play. Seven minutes in, Garner was able to play the ball back to a streaking Russell, who appeared to be falling down as he scored on a bullet from just outside the box.
"I told the team at halftime," Rennie said, "there's a game or two every year... where either you don't play well or things don't go your way and you're down, and you have to find a way to come back, and this was going to be one of those days. And if we did come back, this could be one of the best things that could happen to us."
Duke outshot the Wolfpack 14-4 after halftime, but was unable to realize Rennie's hopes until Garner finally put the game away in overtime.
"It was a good game for us," Garner said. "I think it's important for us to have to get through some adversity, and fight and fight and fight, because we're going to have to do that in the ACC tournament.
"It's the toughest conference in the country, and for us to win the tournament we might have to be in a hole again, and we know now we can climb out."
Even though the win marked Duke's first undefeated regular season since the Final Four-bound team of 1982, both Rennie and his players said that the record was not as important as just winning the ACC.
"The important thing is getting that bye in the ACC tournament," defender Nii-Amar Amamoo said. The winner of the regular season title goes straight into the second round, and avoids having to play three games in four days in order to win and gain an automatic birth into the NCAA tournament.
Although the Blue Devils might have preferred not to have come out flat against the Wolfpack, this slow start did force Duke to experience a different situation from what it was used to-playing from behind. Duke had not trailed in a game since a 2-1 overtime win against Connecticut Sept. 11.
"You forget what's it like to have that fear of being behind," said Rennie, who was more than pleased with how his team responded. "This game was for the championship of the ACC regular season, and those championships are never easy. [N.C. State] made it very hard for us, and we did a great job coming back."
Fittingly for Senior Day, it was the two seniors who led the comeback charge.
Note: The Blue Devils will face either North Carolina or Clemson at 8 p.m. Friday in the semifinals of the ACC tournament in Winston-Salem.
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