The men’s soccer team held off No. 9 Wake Forest in a highly-physical match Friday night 3-2, avoiding a three-game skid and securing the fourth seed in the ACC Tournament.
On Senior Night, the Blue Devils (14-4, 4-3 in the ACC) struck first and scored all of their goals in the first half. The Demon Deacons (12-4-1, 5-2) pressured Duke in the second period by keeping most of their men on the attack. Although the Blue Devils allowed the ACC regular season champions to score twice in the final 20 minutes, they snapped the Demon Deacons’ nine-game winning streak.
Duke finished with a winning conference record for the first time since 2000 and will face North Carolina in the opening round of the ACC Tournament Wednesday in Cary.
After failing to score in a game and a half, Duke quickly took an early 1-0 lead. On the first possession, Nigi Adogwa waited for an open man to emerge and found Spencer Wadsworth, who headed in the goal a mere 33 seconds into the contest.
Less than 10 minutes later, Wadsworth and Adogwa struck again when Duke sent a barrage of shots at the Wake Forest net. Wadsworth, who was named to the ACC All-Freshman team along with Michael Videira, shot the ball at Wake Forest keeper Brian Edwards. On the rebound, Adogwa took another shot, but Edwards denied it again. On the subsequent rebound, Wadsworth found the ball and scored his second goal of the game and seventh of the season to push the Blue Devils ahead by two.
For what would be the game winner, Blake Camp received a pass from Wadsworth around the 18-yard line and without hesitation fired a shot past Edwards. Down 3-0, the Demon Deacons began to press and the game became a more physical match.
“We surprised them scoring three early goals,” head coach John Rennie said. “I think they got frustrated early on and started whacking people, which is normal because they’re not used to being down three goals.”
The referees called 38 foul and ejected Wake Forest’s Stephen Keel for an intentional slide-tackle of Josh Swank in the 37th minute. Down a man and three goals, the Demon Deacons went on the offensive and mounted a second-half comeback that came up just short.
“It was a conscious effort on Wake’s part to throw everybody forward,” Rennie said. “They took tremendous risks, and we should’ve punished them for it and scored the fourth goal and the fifth goal. And when you don’t do that, they’re going to get chances too.”
The home team had a number of opportunities to capitalize on a sparse Demon Deacon defense, but Edwards’ saves and Duke’s misfired shots kept the team from scoring again. Wake Forest, on the other hand, took advantage of its extra manpower near the goal, scoring in the 71st minute and again with only four-and-a-half minutes remaining. Then, with 2:11 left in the game, the Demon Deacons had their last chance to level the score but were called for offside. Senior keeper Justin Trowbridge fended off the late surge in his final regular season home game.
As the clock wound down, Adogwa got a breakaway and a chance, perhaps, for a perfect ending to his last regular-season home game, but Edwards blocked the shot.
Senior Night, traditionally the last home game of the season, conjured many emotions, especially for those graduating. Adogwa capped off his career appropriately with two assists and a handful of close calls.
“I can’t really explain the emotion,” Adogwa said. “It’s like loving a girl you don’t trust—it’s terrible pain. Few things in life are inevitable, and change is one of them. It’s my turn to leave. With these new players like Spencer and Videira, it’s just passing the torch.”
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