It was a disappointing weekend for the Duke men's soccer team. Not only did the team lose two hard-fought, one-goal games at home, but it also might have lost the heart of its defense for the rest of the season.
As hosts of the Big Four Tournament this weekend, the Blue Devils welcomed Charlotte, N.C. State, and UNC-Greensboro to Koskinen Stadium. Friday night, Duke squared off against UNC-G, and fell 2-1 in the second overtime. In a game marred by fouls, yellow and red cards, and a controversial penalty shot, Duke was unable to capitalize on a number of scoring chances and suffered its sixth defeat in an overtime game.
Sunday afternoon, the Blue Devils (7-8) were shut out 1-0 by the Charlotte 49ers (7-6-2), who won the tournament championship. The match was almost a carbon copy of Duke's game against the Spartans; there were 41 combined fouls, three yellow cards, and another controversial penalty kick, which turned out to be the game-winning goal.
In the 19th minute, Charlotte junior forward Juan Munoz-Airey was taken down by a challenge from Duke sophomore defender Matt Ahumada inside the corner of the box along the end line. Despite committing what seemed like a harmless move, Ahumada was assessed a foul, and the 49ers were awarded a penalty shot.
Charlotte junior midfielder Chris Wargin took the penalty kick, and slid his shot just past the outstretched left arm of Duke goalkeeper Scott Maslin into the corner of the Duke goal.
"First of all, that call was absolutely one of the worst calls I have ever seen," Maslin said. "[Second], I knew [Wargin] would go to my left and he hit a really good shot. I think my fingers might have tipped it, but you still have to take your hat off to him--he made a good shot."
Although the Blue Devils were called for a foul inside the box, the defense stood its ground for most of the game and turned in another solid performance. While the 49ers were able to make some runs into the Duke defense, Charlotte only recorded seven shots, requiring no saves from Maslin.
On the other hand, Duke's offense sustaining a relentless attack throughout the entire game. Despite not being able to score a goal, the Blue Devils recorded 20 shots, forcing Charlotte's sophomore goalkeeper Lucas Mackanos to make 10 saves. The 49ers gave up a number of runs to the Blue Devils, but they always seemed to come up with a solution to Duke's offense, whether through blocked shots or by crowding their box.
Duke's chances nevertheless came often. In the 32nd minute, senior captain Kevin Sakuda controlled the ball on the right wing about 16 yards away from the Charlotte goal and then fired a low, driving shot that almost fooled Mackanos. However, the keeper had just enough time to recover by diving to his right to stop the ball.
In the 58th minute, the Blue Devils had another great scoring chance when Mackanos was forced to dive in his box to stop a Duke shot. Senior midfielder Noah Lewkowitz then followed up the shot by firing the rebound at the goal. However, the shot wound up going right into Mackanos, who was sprawling on the ground out of position.
In a last flurry to score an equalizer, the Blue Devils had three legitimate scoring chances in the final three minutes of the game, capped off by a Lewkowitz header, off of a great cross from sophomore Paul Dungel that went just wide of the Charlotte goal with only 25 seconds left. Duke again came up empty in the goal department, suffering its eighth one-goal loss of the season.
"We had a tremendous effort out there with plenty of good scoring chances," Duke coach John Rennie said. "Unfortunately, things just are not going our way right now. Soccer is a very cruel game in which a goal is worth a fortune, and we just couldn't get the goals."
As if the losses were not enough to deal with, two of Duke's key defenders left the game with severe injuries. Junior Andy Borman suffered a hamstring injury while Matt Ahumada left with a knee problem.
"I would not be optimistic that they would be back soon," said Rennie.
Wednesday night, the Blue Devils close out their home 2001 schedule by facing Appalachian State.
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