With just one second left on the clock, No. 4 Duke trailed unranked UNC-Wilmington, 1-0.
The Blue Devils' Zach Pope set up the ball in the left corner of the field to take a free kick after the Seahawks' Chris Murray received a yellow card. The Duke junior midfielder lofted the ball into the box, where every member of both teams-including Blue Devil goalie Justin Papadakis-stood poised and waiting.
As the ball dropped into the crowd, it was knocked back and forth. Duke finally put the ball in the back of the net, but the final whistle had blown and it was too late. The Blue Devils (6-1-1) fell to UNC-W (5-1-1), ending their undefeated run with a game in which Duke's offense could not convert on its opportunities.
"You can't win if you don't score goals," Duke head coach John Rennie said. "It's as simple as that."
The game remained scoreless for the entire first half, with the Blue Devils and Seahawks battling back and forth in the midfield. UNC-W had five shots in the first period to Duke's seven, but neither team was able to finish. The matchup remained even on the defensive side, as each goalkeeper, Papadakis and the Seahawks' Brad Knighton, recorded two saves.
Fifteen minutes into the second half, the stalemate was broken when UNC-W's Cameron Turney took the ball down Duke's right sideline into the corner and knocked a low cross into the Blue Devils' box. Papadakis dove for the skidding ball but missed, and it skipped right to the Seahawks' Will Friesinger, who slammed the ball up and into the net off the crossbar.
"Just one unlucky chance ended up being their goal," junior Michael Videira said. "On the attacking end, we just needed to get guys in the box more. It was just unlucky we didn't get the goals. Two goals today and it wouldn't have been a problem."
Duke started the second half well, out-shooting UNC-W, 15-5, in the period. Still, the Blue Devils could not finish their opportunities.
Just before the Seahawks' goal, sophomore Mike Grella, who led the team with seven shots-three on net-had a chance to score. With 33 minutes left to play, the forward flicked a pass to junior Joe Germanese in the right corner of the UNC-W defensive end. Germanese took the ball into the corner past his defender before returning it to Grella right in front of the net, but the shot soared high.
"Grella had a great chance right in front of goal, and he hit it over, and they came down on us," Rennie said. "We made a mistake on that play, and they punished us for it and got a goal."
Duke had eight corner kicks to the Seahawks' two, and overall the team outshot UNC-W 22-10. But the Blue Devils were unable to put the ball in the back of the net when it mattered.
"We were more unlucky than anything else. The effort was there, we were just unlucky," Grella said. "Teams kind of have a target on us, but we shouldn't lose games like this."
As the clock wound down, Rennie substituted Chris Loftus and Paul Dudley for Spencer Wadsworth and Graham Dugoni. Dudley had two shots and Loftus had one, but neither was able to convert.
Going into Tuesday's game, Duke was undefeated in its past 27 contests against unranked opponents, a streak dating back to Oct. 5, 2003, but the Blue Devils were unable to push a goal across against the Seahawks' defense.
"At the end, you know they're going to pack it in all the way back," Rennie said of the Seahawks' defensive strategy. "We got all the chances we needed, all the chances we wanted. We just didn't get one in."
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