The ball looped in over the defense and bounced on the six. A swarm of Blue Devils charged across the goal mouth, freezing Clemson goalie Doug Warren, who was expecting a redirection to his right. Instead, nobody made contact and the ball bounced over the left shoulder of the stunned and out-of-position goalie and into the upper corner of the goal.
Trevor Perea's goal on a 35-yard direct kick with eight minutes remaining in the second overtime lifted Duke (3-1-1, 1-0 in the ACC) to a stunning 2-1 victory over No. 2 Clemson (2-1-1, 0-1) in Koskinen Stadium Saturday night.
"We worked every day this week on free kicks, because we get fouled a lot," head coach John Rennie said. "Trevor is capable of hitting that kind of serve. He hit the right kind of serveâ??it's over the defense, it's a problem for the keeper, maybe they head it out for a corner [or] maybe we get a shot. This one went all the way through."
Afterward, the rain fell down on the celebrating Blue Devils, washing away some of the painful and frustrating memories of last year's losing season.
"Last year's game [a 4-0 defeat at Clemson] rested in all our heads really big time," senior co-captain Donald McIntosh said. "They kind of embarrassed us last year. And we wanted to come out and get them back.... This puts last season behind usâ??all the overtime losses last year. We're just ready to go."
Rennie agreed.
"We deserved to win, but beating the number two team in the country... it's exactly what we needed," he said.
The Blue Devils, who outshot Clemson 15-10, opened the game by challenging the Tigers and getting a handful of early shots. Duke had a few good scoring opportunities before the 42nd minute, when Perea brought the ball up the left side of the box and crossed the ball to Jordan Cila, who was charging in on the six. Cila's shot was deflected, ricocheted off the post and was cleared. But the clear went straight to McIntosh, who blasted a shot from 30 yards out that next made contact with the upper left corner of the net.
After taking the 1-0 lead just before halftime, Duke did not retreat into a defensive formation. The tenor of the game did not change, as the Blue Devils continued to challenge and, at times, dominate in the midfield. When Clemson attacked the Duke goal, Matt Ahumada or one of Duke's other defenders usually came up with a well-timed tackle.
"It wasn't one of those games where they were the better team and we were just packing it in and trying to get the breakaway goal," McIntosh said. "We wanted to come out here and play. We didn't want to sit back."
Midway through the second half, Owoicho Adogwa got the ball on a breakaway before being tackled by Warren, but managed to slip the ball past the keeper. The shot had such low velocity, however, that a Clemson defender was able to race back and save the ball on the goal line.
Clemson finally got on the scoreboard in the 71st minute when Paul Souders launched a free kick into the box from the front of the Tigers' bench, Ricky Lewis flicked it across the goal with a header and Kenneth Cutler buried it in the goal.
During the next twenty minutes of frenetic soccer, both teams had good scoring opportunities, but Warren and Duke keeper Justin Trowbridge had key saves.
Duke dominated both overtimes and nearly scored with six minutes left in the first when Perea took the ball with his back to the goal at the edge of the penalty area, turned and fired a shot off the post. In the next overtime, Perea was able to sneak in the game winner.
"We feel like we've played better than every team we've played against this season," Perea said. "Last week, losing to South Carolina, we didn't feel that was a scoreline that represented the way the game should have gone.... This was a fair scoreline. We played even with them and we had better scoring chances. I think we earned some respect here."
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