Fresh off a 10-0 rout of Emory & Henry Wednesday night, the men’s soccer team knows they can score. And although the competition will stiffen slightly, the Blue Devils (1-0) expect to cruise over a pair of opponents in the adidas Wolfpack Classic.
“After [Wednesday’s game] and the two preseason games, we’re definitely confident,” sophomore Chris Loftus said. “We feel we’re playing well. Practices are good and everybody’s in high spirits. So, we’re going in to win both games and we don’t want settle for anything less.”
Saturday and Sunday, the Blue Devils will take on Temple University and St. Francis College, respectively, at 7 p.m. both days in Koskinen Stadium.
The stronger of the two teams, Temple opens its regular season Saturday, after a pair of preseason wins. The Owls return many key players this season. Tony Donnatelli, Joe Brocker and goalie Patrick Hannigan were named to the preseason Atlantic-10 All-Conference team.
Hannigan enters his senior season as the reigning Atlantic-10 Defensive Player of the Year. Tying a school record, he posted nine shut-outs last season and led the Atlantic-10 with a .86 goals against average.
Also returning for the Owls are Matt Maher and Nate Webb, who led the team in scoring last season. In the first exhibition match of the preseason, Maher and Webb netted two goals each for Temple in the 6-0 victory.
A handful of talented freshmen have added skill to the squad. Matt McClain was the only scorer in the Owls’ preseason win over Villanova.
“Temple has one of its best teams in years,” Duke’s head coach John Rennie said of his alma mater. “They’re a legitimate, good team picked second in their conference. But we’re ready for that. We’ve had a good preseason and [Wednesday night] was as good as you could hope for.”
Sunday night, the Blue Devils will take on St. Francis College of New York, the small college of big dreams. The Division I Terriers shut out Fordham University 2-0 and tied New Jersey’s Mercer County Community College 2-2 in its preseason exhibition matches. However, St. Francis has yet to prove much on a larger arena.
Although Temple and St. Francis will be relatively strong opponents, they will not compare to the competition Duke faced in the preseason against high-ranked opponents Virginia Commonwealth and Connecticut. Led by the experience of veterans like Blake Camp, Nigi Adogwa and Loftus, the Blue Devils hope to carry the positive momentum they have gathered into the games this weekend.
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