On a chilly Tuesday night, No. 15 Duke held on for a 2-1 victory over Elon despite uncharacteristically sloppy play.
The Blue Devils (6-2-0) managed to pull out the win over the weaker Phoenix (3-4-1) at Koskinen Stadium by relying more on talent than teamwork to seal the deal.
After a loss Friday to Boston College, the Blue Devils came out aggressively when sophomore Ryan Ruffing scored in the sixth minute of play. Yet Duke began to look lethargic soon after.
Play became much more touch-and-go for the Blue Devils, and the team had difficulty holding onto the ball. Long passes quickly became the norm and led to many transition opportunities for the Phoenix. Fortunately for Duke, Elon was unable to capitalize.
In the first half, Elon outplayed Duke, stringing passes together on offense better than the Blue Devils. The Phoenix squandered a trio of great scoring chances, two due to offsides calls and one after a great save by Blue Devil goalkeeper James Belshaw. But going into halftime, the sixth-minute goal remained the difference.
Following the trend of the first session, Duke came out firing after the break, scoring a header in the 50th minute. A great cross by sophomore Daniel Tweed-Kent set up freshman Ryan Finley to give the Blue Devils a 2-0 lead, which they maintained until the final seconds of play. A lazy defensive stand in the waning moments allowed Elon senior Steven Kinney to ruin the shutout with only two ticks left on the clock.
Yet the story for Duke was its lack of control of the game. As time wore on in each half, Elon began to take more and more possession, connecting passes better than the Blue Devils and launching stronger attacks.
“We had some chances that we created...but we were very fortunate that they didn’t convert any of their chances because they created many, many chances to score,” head coach John Kerr said. “We were very fortunate not to give up any goals early. Our lackluster play kind of put us under pressure and Elon played a great game tonight.... They deserved a better result.”
The highlight of the evening for the Blue Devils was the play of Belshaw, who made six saves, including a great stop with 13 minutes left in the game to keep Elon off the board.
“He made that wonderful save that he tipped over the back post.... If they score that one with the amount of time left, our lives would have been very troubling.” Kerr said.
Heading into Friday night’s contest against No. 3 Maryland, this game may send up some red flags for the Blue Devils. They will need to tighten up their defense, move the ball better and keep a high level of play for the entire 90 minutes in order to earn a victory against the Terrapins.
However, Belshaw remains confident that Friday will bring a better performance from his team.
“We’re going to have to regroup, get ourselves together,” Belshaw said. “We’ve played well all season and we seem to do well in the ACC games on a Friday. We seem to rise to the occasion, so I think as long as we gather ourselves together, sort ourselves out, put in a couple days of hard practice, then we’ll be fine for Friday.”
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