The sky was overcast, clouds were pouring heavy rain and the field of battle was in prime condition for combat. No, there was not a filming of Platoon at Koskinen Stadium Sunday, but rather a hard-fought 1-0 overtime victory by the men's soccer team (7-8-1) against a feisty Charlotte (4-9-2) squad. A fatigued Blue Devil team, which extended its winning streak to an impressive five games, sent its' parents home with back-to-back wins this weekend, including a 3-1 win over UNC Greensboro Friday night.
"That's a damn good team [in Charlotte]," head coach John Rennie said after winning his 350th match at Duke. "This is a helluva win. It's our third game in six days. We won all three and we're out of gas. Tremendous heart, tremendous character."
Freshman phenom Chris Loftus, who was recently named to the National Team of the Week, netted the deciding goal Sunday after 94 minutes of intense action. Senior captain Jordan Cila, who has five assists in the past five matches, lined up a corner kick from the right side of the field and motioned toward Loftus, who at 6-foot-5 was half a foot taller than any 49er on the field. The corner kick was sent directly to the head of Loftus, who finished the play from just inside the six-yard box with a well-placed ball between goalkeeper Lucas Mackanos and another Charlotte defender.
"I was trying to set myself on the back post and I pointed to Jordan where I wanted the ball," Loftus said of his game-winning goal. "He saw me and put it up in the air and luckily I was able to get my head on the ball."
Anchoring a defense which allowed nine shots--and, more importantly, zero goals--were junior Matt White and freshmen Danny Miller and Ryan Pascioni. Usual starting defenders Matt Ahumada and Kyle Helton did not play Sunday except for a brief appearance Helton made in overtime at forward.
Both defenders did get playing time in Friday's victory against the UNC Greensboro Spartans, and Ahumada, a sweeper, made his presence felt on the offensive end with an assist to Nigi Adogwa for the game's second goal. Danny Kramer was able to get the Blue Devils on board first with a goal fed by midfielder Blake Camp and Miller, who has contributed to the freshman production on the Duke team.
"I think the support of Matt White and Pascioni made the adjustment easier on the defense," Miller said. "Any game in the rain is going to be a battle. We tried to use Chris Loftus up front as our target. We knew it was going to be a hard-fought game."
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