Head coach John Rennie gazed out on the rain-soaked field Friday night at Klockner Stadium for the final time.
"Wow. That was unbelievable," the retiring coach said.
Heading into its match against No. 10 Virginia, Duke had not won a game in nearly a month.
But the Blue Devils finally managed to secure that elusive victory, defeating the Cavaliers (9-4-2, 1-3-2 in the ACC) with a stirring 2-1 comeback win in double-overtime.
After an overtime period where both teams made continuous offensive runs into their opponent's territory, Mike Grella punctuated Duke's comeback with a chip shot into the net off a Zach Pope serve. Earlier in the period, Virginia had a chance go off the crossbar early in the second overtime while Grella had just missed a shot wide left.
He didn't miss his second chance, as the Blue Devils' notched their first win since Sept. 28. Five of Grella's team-leading eight goals this year have been game-winning scores.
"To tie it with two minutes left in regulation and win two minutes before the overtime expires, really it's the ideal combination of a win," Rennie said. "[It's] a great win, a win in the conference, a win for our confidence-it's just an ideal development."
Plagued with injuries to senior starters all year long and faced with a difficult schedule over the last four weeks, which included four conference opponents ranked in the top 10, No. 24 Duke (8-5-1, 3-3-1) has been dealt a fair share of adversity.
And that adversity didn't just disappear Friday.
As time dwindled away late in the second half, the Blue Devils were down 1-0, again facing hardship with their winless streak threatening to stretch to five. The Cavaliers had scored soon after halftime, following a defensively dominated first period for both squads. But Duke kept Virginia at bay and stayed in the game.
Late in the match, the Cavaliers had drawn into a compact defense to protect their single-goal advantage, making it difficult for the Blue Devils to create any offensive opportunities. Duke even inserted senior Paul Dudley as a third forward to try to get the tying goal late.
"We had been putting a lot of pressure particularly in the last fifteen minutes of regulation on Virginia, and we had gotten a lot of chances," Rennie said. "But they were all backed into their penalty area with pretty much everyone defending, so you weren't going to [score] on the ground."
So the Blue Devils did it through the air.
With less than two minutes left, freshman Cole Grossman lobbed a nice cross into the Cavalier box to forward Joshua Medcalf. Medcalf took advantage of the chance, heading the ball into the net for the game-tying goal, his fifth score of the season.
Duke showed resiliency and toughness on defense throughout the game, enjoying the long-awaited resurgence of senior Tim Jepson, who has been plagued by injuries for nearly the entire 2007 campaign.
"Against Virginia Tech [Tuesday], we had a great result against a team ranked fourth and this gives us a top-10 team that we have a win with," Rennie said. "[This win is] a combination of players getting healthy and deserving to win."
The Blue Devils continued the momentum Sunday night with a home 3-0 shutout of Cleveland State (3-12-2). Midfielder Michael Videira scored six minutes into the contest, and Grella and Medcalf tallied goals later to put the game out of reach.
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