The No. 9 Blue Devils scored three goals in the last 15 minutes of play Friday to capture a thrilling road victory over fifth-ranked Wake Forest.
In front of the largest regular-season crowd in Spry Stadium history, Duke (5-0, 1-0 in the ACC) came from behind twice in the second half to open its conference schedule with a 4-3 win over the Demon Deacons (4-1, 0-1).
"There were so many shifts and lead changes that at the end I just thought that it was a basketball game--whoever has the ball last is going to score," head coach John Rennie said. "Fortunately for us, the game ended when it did. Had it gone on another few minutes, another goal could have been scored."
In the 83rd minute, senior Chris Loftus found sophomore Mike Grella, who slammed the ball off the cross-bar and into the goal from 18 yards out for his fourth game-winning goal of the season.
"He was a freshman last year, and there was an adjustment to be made," said Rennie of Grella. "He's made the full adjustment now to the college game. He's doing what we always knew he could do-not just playing well, but scoring goals."
Down 2-1 at the half, the Blue Devils opened the second period slowly, taking 30 minutes to get on the board.
Grella, ranked ninth nationally with 2.5 points per game, received a pass from junior Joe Germanese. The sophomore chipped the ball over the head of the charging Wake Forest goalie from 12 yards out to tie the game at two apiece.
"It was the first time we'd been down at the half, so everybody was kind of shocked," said Germanese, who contributed two assists to the Blue Devil effort. "We showed good character and came from behind twice."
Just three minutes after Grella's first goal, the Demon Deacons took the lead again on a penalty kick by Ryan Solle after Lyle Adams got taken down inside the box.
"These conference games can take on a life of their own, and this game did just that," Rennie said. "It was just an unbelievable game."
Duke evened the score at three at the 80:48 mark, when Zack Pope launched a corner kick in front of the Wake Forest goal to junior Michael Videira, who finished with a header to the back of the net. The goal marked Pope's fifth assist of the season and Videira's fourth score on the year. Grella's game-winning goal followed less than three minutes later.
Grella, who leads the team in scoring with six goals on the season, had five shots, including four on goal.
The Demon Deacons came close to tying the game again in the 88th minute, when forward Wells Thompson slammed a ball off the post, but the ball ricocheted away, allowing the Blue Devils to claim victory.
In the first half, Duke's Spencer Wadsworth opened the scoring off a pass from Germanese a little over 21 minutes into the game, but the Blue Devil's were held scoreless the rest of the period as Wake notched two goals.
"At halftime we were just like, we need to take it up to another level," Germanese said. "We haven't seen a team like this, so we have to respond. We were all over them the second half, so it was good to rebound after a probably below-average first half."
Duke takes on another ACC opponent Tuesday when it faces Virginia Tech at 7 p.m. at Koskinen Stadium.
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