For 89 minutes, unranked Stony Brook played even with the fourth-best team in the nation.
But in the 90th minute, the Blue Devils showed who the best team really was.
With the score knotted at one, striker Mike Grella found Blake Camp deep inside the Seawolves' box. Camp took the pass and laced a nine-yard shot past Stony Brook goalkeeper John Moschella to give Duke a 2-1 lead with 57 seconds left. Camp's goal, his second of the game, nudged the Blue Devils (10-3-1) past a Seawolves (9-4-3) squad that outhustled and outmuscled Duke for most of the game.
"They're definitely one of those teams that if you let them stick around they can beat anybody," said Camp, who now has seven goals on the season. "We were honestly pretty lucky to come out with a win."
The Blue Devils were repeatedly denied on offense in the first half but had little to fear from an anemic Stony Brook attack that managed only two shots in the period. The Seawolves seemed more concerned with halting Duke's offense than sparking their own and sat back on the ball for most of the first half.
Despite taking 11 shots, four of which were on goal, the Blue Devils went into the locker room empty-handed at halftime with the scored tied at zero.
"We had sorted them out and we were getting opportunities, we just hadn't finished anything," Rennie said. "So it was just keep plugging away, keeping doing what we're doing and the goals will come."
Duke finally managed to break through the Seawolves' defense early in the second half. Darrius Barnes lofted a pass to the far side of the box where Tomek Charowski immediately headed the ball to Camp, who headed the ball into the back of the net for his first goal of the game.
Stony Brook wouldn't go quietly, however, and got on the board in the 64th minute when defender Rob Fucci headed in a goal off of a Douglas Narvaez corner kick to tie the game.
"It was a more physical game than you want two days before we play Carolina," Rennie said. "[Stony Brook] is a good team, they're proud of themselves and they fought very, very hard."
Rennie said that he was proud of the way his team battled and held tough against the physical Seawolves.
"I thought we showed a lot of courage there at the end," Rennie said. "I think Blake almost willed that goal."
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