Last year, Duke lived a dream, going undefeated both at home and in conference play. But last year's dream has turned into this week's nightmare.
Four days after unranked Radford broke No. 5 Duke's 23-game home winning streak, the Blue Devils suffered their first ACC loss, falling 4-2 against No. 11 North Carolina yesterday at Koskinen Stadium.
"This is how the ACC goes," said Duke forward Ali Curtis, who was held without a point for the first time in seven games. "Everyone remembers last year when we went undefeated in the ACC, but that's really abnormal. It's the toughest conference in the country."
Despite sloppy play in the first half, Duke (5-4, 2-1 in the ACC) held a 1-0 lead at halftime over the Tar Heels (8-2, 2-1) on a goal by forward Jordan Cila. A throw-in by Nii-Amar Amamoo was headed around the penalty area before finding its way to Cila, who beat the Tar Heel goalkeeper one-on-one from the right side.
"I was just in the right place at the right time," said Cila, who scored his seventh goal of the season.
Duke's lead did not last long into the second half. UNC's Eddie Robinson scored just three minutes in from 22 yards out, followed by goals by Chris Carrieri (his conference-leading ninth) and defender David Stokes.
Carrieri's goal was expected, but Robinson's and Stokes' were not. Robinson had two goals in 60 previous games, while Stokes had never scored in college.
"It was a pleasant surprise," UNC coach Elmar Bolowich said. "If the player has the courage and is in the right position to take the shot and he does it, well then that's wonderful."
Duke cut the lead to 3-2 with six minutes left on a Robert Russell blast from 20 yards out with six minutes left, but the Tar Heels iced the game with a two-on-one break with 61 seconds to play. Forward Caleb Norkus faked the pass to his open teammate and beat Duke goalkeeper Jeff Haywood for UNC's fourth goal of the half.
Despite the increased scoring in the second half, Bolowich said his team made only mental changes at the break.
"We didn't make any adjustments at halftime," the coach said. "It was just a call on our team's concentration so that when we did have the opportunities like we did in the first half, we could do more with it."
The players agreed that the difference between this game and last year, when Duke shut out UNC twice by a combined score of 5-0, was finishing opportunities.
"Soccer is a game of chances," Amamoo said. "Last year we came out and finished our chances, and this year they finished more chances. We didn't play better or worse."
Despite the loss, Rennie didn't seem worried.
"This is reality in the ACC," Rennie said. "We all beat each other up. We play six games and if we get three wins and a tie, normally that's what happens. Last year was an aberration. This is what happens and you just have to battle."
Still, questions remained about UNC's prodigious scoring output. Haywood had given up only six goals in eight previous games.
"I really don't know what happened today," Curtis said. "Any time a team scores four goals in the second half, they deserve to win."
"Maybe they were overdue," Rennie joked. "They hadn't scored against us in a long time."
Duke takes a break from conference action for the next two weeks, with home games Friday against Buffalo and the following Wednesday against American.
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