After a number of missed opportunities, Duke and N.C. State were tied 0-0 Sunday in Raleigh. Then, with less than two minutes remaining, the Wolfpack's Aaron King snuck a low shot past Duke goalie to give N.C. State its first ACC victory and all but end the Blue Devils' hope for an ACC title.
RALEIGH — The No. 16 men’s soccer team (12-2, 3-2 in the ACC) suffered its second defeat in three games Sunday afternoon, losing 1-0 at N.C. State (6-5-1, 1-3-1) on a goal with less than two minutes remaining. Wolfpack junior Aaron King took a well-placed feed from Federico Peira and cranked a low screamer past Duke goalkeeper Justin Trowbridge that slipped just inside the left post and sent the fans at cozy Method Road Field into raucous cheers.
The game was well-contested with several missed opportunities by both teams, including a blown chance for the Wolfpack only a minute prior to the goal, but N.C. State finally capitalized when the game seemed destined to end in a scoreless tie.
“I felt like something was going to happen because we were pressing very hard,” King said. “My friend Frederico, he gave me a perfect ball right in front of the goal, and I just had to finish it, left post.
“Being that [Duke] was coming in so highly ranked and playing well, it kind of made us step up,” King continued. “To beat them, we feel really good about it. They’re an awesome team, and we’re just happy with our victory.”
Although the first half was a defensive battle, the Blue Devils put on a lot of pressure after the break, controlling the ball in the Wolfpack end for the majority of the period. Duke’s best chance came in the 76th minute when freshman Paul Dudley corralled a misplayed ball by Wolfpack goalkeeper Jorge Gonzalez. Dudley then fired the ball past Gonzalez, but several defenders redirected it and barely prevented the ball from crossing the goal-line. Another golden chance came 11 minutes earlier, when unguarded junior Danny Kramer took a deflected ball eight yards out and slammed a volley just over the crossbar.
“We just couldn’t put it away,” Kramer said. “In the second half we had a lot of good chances but we couldn’t score, and if you can’t score your not going to win.”
Trowbridge, a senior co-captain, made three saves and prevented several other shots by charging out from the net. Allowing goals in only four games this season, the goalkeeper seemed poise to post another perfect effort, but an all-out dive could not prevent King’s goal from crashing into the net.
“We lost a header in the midfield, we let a defender get in behind us and the kid had a good finish,” Trowbridge said of the goal. “We had a game plan and executed it, but we had one letdown, and they took advantage of it.”
Coming into the game, N.C. State was winless in the ACC with three consecutive conference losses by one goal, two of which came in overtime. The Blue Devils knew that the game was going to be a battle, and the home team used the momentum of a late flurry and a strong crowd to push itself over the top.
“It was a very close game, hard fought, not a lot of chances,” Blue Devil’s head coach John Rennie said. “Their basic approach is to defend, defend, defend, and then take their chances when they can with their speed and that’s how they scored the goal. They took their chance at the end of the game, and that’s what a good team does.”
At the end of the first half, Rennie made several substitutions in an effort to play reserves and keep the starters’ legs fresh. Non-starters who received playing time include Tomek Charowski, Ryan Pascioni, Chris Loftus, Josh Swank and co-captains Matt White and Joe Kelly.
“First of all we have guys on the bench who deserve to play, and we wanted to get them playing time,” Rennie said. “Second of all, you do want to be fresh in the second half of the game, and I thought we played very well in the second half. We had our chances.”
Because the Duke squad is relatively inexperienced on the collegiate level, the team could course after a spectacular opening stretch. Rennie will try to keep his players focused on their next opponent.
“You play good teams every game in the league, and you just pack it up and go on to the next game,” the experienced Rennie said. “The next [ACC] game is going to be tougher than this [one], at Virginia, so this is a real tough stretch in our season, and we’ll just have to fight through it.”
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