CARY -- After a an even first half in which the men's soccer team was deadlocked with the Virginia Cavaliers in virtually every statistical category--including the 1-1 score line--the Blue Devils fell apart and out of the first round of the ACC tournament, as they were crushed by the Wahoos 4-1 at the SAS Soccer Complex in Cary.
Facing a corner kick following a quick Virginia attack in the 47th minute, Duke loaded the box with defenders. But after a Jacob LeBlanc lob pinged around the Blue Devil goal for a few seconds, it somehow found the foot of Cavs star Ryan Gibbs who lightly knocked it past Justin Trowbridge and a mass of confused Blue jerseys for the game-winning goal.
"In the second half we weren't as accustomed to taking as much [physical play] and I guess Virginia just capitalized," said sophomore Owoicho Adogwa, who scored Duke's lone goal. "We actually made a mistake because this is the tradition of the ACC: you come out, you play, you expect hard games, you expect to get knocked out. It doesn't matter who comes out and plays, you just want to win."
After fighting the Cavs "elbow for elbow" as Adogwa said in the first half, UVa began to violently outmuscle Duke in the second--drawing five cards by game's end.
Kenny Arena and Matt Oliver were booked in the 67th minute for a tackle that almost resulted in a bench clearing fight near the Duke sideline. Within 10 minutes Ryan Kelley and Kirk Dinnall had also been shown yellows, and in the 82nd minute Sean Feeney was sent-off for pushing back down a Blue Devil who was getting up from a tackle.
Although he denied Duke accusations that Virginia played "dirty," Cavs head coach George GeInovatch admitted Feeney deserved the ejection.
All told, despite playing a physical game and actually out-fouling the Cavs by one after the first 45, Virginia tallied 10 more fouls than Duke in what senior co-captain Donald McIntosh called "by far the dirtiest game of the year we've played in."
"Obviously it was a very difficult game for us," said head coach John Rennie, adding that he thought it "might have been a different game" if the referee had made more calls in the early going.
Virginia picked up a pair of insurance goals thanks to the boot of ACC player of the year Alecko Eskandarian.
Eskandarian netted his first goal in the 53rd minute, chesting down a Gibbs throw-in into the box, spinning by a pair of Blue Devil defenders and floating a shot over Trowbridge and into the top right quadrant of the net.
After the game Rennie admitted that goal was the one that broke Duke's back.
The Blue Devils, who saw many of their best chances in the contest's opening minutes, scored their lone goal in the 36th minute after a Danny Kramer pass found a streaking Adogwa upfield. The Trinidad native then cut through two UVa defenders before sending the ball between the posts and by Cavs netminder David Comfort.
Duke will now have to wait until Monday at 4:30 p.m. to see if its season continues when the NCAA announces its invitations to the College Cup.
"We're at the mercy of the committee as an at-large so we certainly hope to get a bid, but there's no way to predict it," Rennie said. "We'll have to wait with a lot of other teams that are on the bubble and watch and see what happens."
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