After three consecutive one-goal losses, including two in overtime, Duke rebounded in a big way against Clemson Friday night.
Behind junior Andrew Wenger, who registered his first career hat trick, the Blue Devils (2-4, 1-1 in the ACC) demolished the Tigers (1-3, 0-2) by a count of 5-2.
“We’ve been unlucky in the past few games with our finishing,” head coach John Kerr said. “But we’ve been working on... getting into those areas of the field and being more economical than we have been and it really paid off tonight. We could’ve scored more goals than that.”
Wenger burst onto the score sheet first with a goal in the eighth minute. Senior Joseph Pak lofted the ball right past Clemson’s back four to Wenger, who, without breaking stride, put the ball past Tiger goalkeeper Cody Mizell.
Clemson forward Andrew Savage responded with an equalizer from inside the 18-yard box four minutes later.
After about 20 minutes of back-and-forth play, Jonathan Aguirre forced a turnover deep in Clemson’s third, and quickly found Wenger. The junior crossed it to wide-open sophomore Lewis McLeod, who netted Duke’s second goal.
After starting the second half with a 2-1 lead, the Blue Devils quickly put the game out of reach with two more goals. A more efficient and energized Duke attack outshot Clemson 10-3 in the period, and 19-7 in the game. In the 57th minute, Christopher Tweed-Kent drew a foul just outside the box, and freshman Nick Palodichuk nailed the free kick into the right side of the net to put the Blue Devils up 3-1.
Just six minutes later, Palodichuk found Wenger, who one-timed the ball into the upper-right corner to make it 4-1.
Savage exploited a Duke defensive miscue to record his second goal ten minutes later, but Wenger completed his hat trick in the 79th minute off another Palodichuk assist to keep the Blue Devils up by three.
“We noticed that the Clemson back four was weak and slow, so we played a little more direct,” Wenger said. “Palodichuk, Chris Tweed-Kent and I were able to get behind them and create a bunch of chances. To be honest we should’ve had a few more.”
Beyond the score sheet, the team benefited from key contributions from seniors Tweed-Kent and Joe Pak who changed positions to fill holes caused by injuries, according to Kerr.
“We had some real tremendous performances tonight individually and collectively,” Kerr said. “It was great to see some guys really contribute that hadn’t had the headlines.”
Both Kerr and Wenger viewed Friday’s victory as a step in the right direction for a team Kerr believes could be dangerous going forward.
“I think the team is much better,” Wenger said. “We’ve played well at times over the last couple of games and we finally pulled together a full game and were victorious.”
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