All the ingredients were there for an emotionally inspired match: a sizable home crowd, senior night and a pre-game ceremony honoring longtime head coach John Rennie.
But Duke came out noticeably flat, and that poor start cost the No. 17 Blue Devils (7-5-0, 2-3 in the ACC), as they were manhandled 3-0 by No. 2 Wake Forest (11-0-2, 4-0-1) Friday night in Koskinen Stadium.
"We probably just got caught up in the ceremony that was going on and forgot that we had to play a game," senior defender Tim Jepson said. "We can't blame anybody but ourselves."
Less than eight minutes into the game, Wake Forest midfielder Michael Lahoud's long lob pass hit forward Cody Arnoux, battling Jepson in a one-on-one chase. The ball bounced inside the box, and Duke goalie Justin Papadakis, hesitant in challenging the charge, could not stop Arnoux from tipping the ball past him for Wake Forest's first goal.
"We lost the game in the first 15 minutes," Papadakis said. "Playing against a team that's as strong as Wake Forest, you can't afford to give up those first 15 minutes. I think the crowd, our parents on senior night-everything was coming together to be a great night, and we have to play the full 90 minutes."
The Demon Deacons continued to pressure Duke's defense in the first half, maintaining possession and moving the ball fluidly to keep it away from the normally dominant Blue Devil offense. In the 26th minute, Wake Forest struck for the second time, again on a goal that took advantage of timid defensive play.
Midfielder Jamie Franks passed to forward Marcus Tracy at the top of the box, where Tracy found himself covered by at least two Duke defenders. Tracy sidestepped the Blue Devils into a clear shooting lane, however, and nailed a shot into the bottom- right corner of the net.
"It was just poor defense, just being lazy," Jepson said. "It's the little things-the little things that you've got to take care of because if you don't, they're going to score every time. We've got to communicate, we've got to watch each other, we have to stay tight, and we weren't doing that at all."
Wake Forest continued its first half onslaught by weaving through the Duke squad with impeccable passing. Arnoux whizzed by defenders and danced around the box untouched before hitting Lahoud right in front of the net for the Demon Deacons' third score.
In the second period, the Blue Devils started stronger, halting the Wake Forest attack to some degree by playing tighter defense and keeping possession.
But it wasn't enough.
"In the first 20 minutes of that second half, we had what we wanted," said Rennie, who was honored for his 29 years at the helm before the game. "We had the ball, and we had chances, and didn't get that one goal we talked about at halftime. We put ourselves in such a big hole in the first half that it was an almost impossible situation against a team this good."
Later in the contest, Duke's frustration in its inability to score became apparent. Holding the ball in the box late in the second half, junior forward Mike Grella hit the ground after being surrounded by Demon Deacon defenders. When the referee did not call a foul, Grella responded by kicking the shin of a Wake Forest defender, bringing him down to the turf.
In the resulting swarm of Demon Deacons around Grella, the official flashed a red card and the forward was ejected from the game.
The games do not get any easier for Duke, as it prepares to take on No. 5 Virginia Tech at home Tuesday. But the Blue Devils insist that despite their losses, they will be prepared for the next match.
"We'll bounce back from this," Jepson said. "We're not throwing in the towel at all. We've hit a rough patch right now, and we've got to dig deep to get back in it and get ourselves back in good position."
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