Senior night was a thing of beauty for the men's soccer team, as the Blue Devils defeated the reputable South Florida Bulls 5-2. Co-captains Matt Ahumada and Jordan Cila, and seniors Justin Bodiya, Paul Dungel, and Danny Wymer have all played their final games at Koskinen Stadium. Coach John Rennie could not have been more pleased with the result.
"It was obviously a great senior night," Rennie said. "You really want the seniors to go out on a positive note, with a winning effort. Fortunately it turned out the way you'd want to write it: with early goals, everybody playing, and Paul Dungel scoring a goal."
The goal was the first of Dungel's career, and it came during the 80th minute when a South Florida defender fouled fellow senior Danny Wymer, who elected to give up the penalty shot to Dungel.
"I was so happy for (Paul)," Cila said. "It was nice of Danny to let him take the penalty shot, because it was Danny's senior night also, so you've got to give Danny a lot of credit."
Cila got Duke on the board in the 15th minute of the first half by stealing the ball at midfield and passing off to junior Nigi Adogwa. Adogwa proceeded to score the first of his two goals by rifling a shot from over thirty yards out into the left corner of the goal. The Bulls answered just three minutes later as Blue Devils goalkeeper Justin Trowbridge got caught out of position and South Florida midfielder Aaron Paroulek tapped in an easy volley.
Duke forward Chris Loftus put in a volley of his own from Bodiya and Blake Camp to put the Blue Devils back in front 2-1 at the 28 minute mark. Adogwa followed only three minutes later with his second goal of the evening, assisted by freshman Kyle Helton to make the score 3-1. It was Helton who delivered the play of the game in the waning seconds of the first half, dribbling across the entire box and using his left foot to float the ball into the upper left 90, giving the Devils a three goal lead.
"I was fortunate to get a ball to slide across the front," Helton said. "I was looking for the good shot and I just kept going across the top of the box and I never really found one. I was gonna cross it, but I decided to pull it back and see if I could catch the keeper backpost."
The second half was much less dramatic, as Dungel's successful penalty shot was immediately followed by a Bulls goal via penalty shot to make the final score 5-2.
With the team looking back on a tumultuous season and ahead to the ACC Tournament, Cila best reflected the team's attitude. "I'm glad we got to finish the regular season on a high note, and hopefully we'll play a few more games before my career is over here."
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