Kelly Cobb and the Blue Devils wasted no time Thursday night finishing off their final nonconference opponent of the season, College of Charleston.
Less than five minutes into the contest, Cobb took a feed from Mollie Pathman inside the box and blasted a shot across the face of the goal and into the back of the net, giving Duke a 1-0 lead. From there, the No. 5 Blue Devils (8-1) maintained full control of the game, beating the Cougars (4-4) 3-0.
Solidifying her role as the team’s most dangerous offensive threat, Cobb’s score marked her team-high sixth goal of the season.
“Kelly has that knack to just score right when she gets in,” sophomore defender Kim DeCesare said.
The early goal served to inspire the rest of the team to play aggresively. Sophomore defender Natasha Anasi followed Cobb’s lead, scoring her first goal of the season only six minutes later. Anasi took back-to-back header attempts off corner kicks and found the net on the second, assisted by midfielder Gilda Doria.
“If we’re able to score early,” Anasi said, “it really sets the tone for the rest of the game.”
Adding to the offensive attack, which mustered an impressive 32 shots, DeCesare scored her first goal of the season off a rebound with 9:21 left in the first half.
“We’re much better when we play collectively, and I thought we played collectively in the first half,” head coach Robbie Church said. “[We] moved the ball well, moved off the ball well, and played fairly quick.”
The first-half offensive firepower only tells part of the story, though. The Duke back line, anchored by Anasi, held the Cougars to just two shots for the entire game, neither of which challenged Blue Devil goalkeeper Tara Campbell.
In addition, Church took advantage of Duke’s large lead to give his substitutes opportunities to contribute. Ten players came off the bench during the first half and contributed to the Blue Devils’ dominance. Furthermore, a total of twelve reserves logged twenty five or more minutes for the game, gaining valuable experience.
“[The substitutes] played collectively and moved the ball well,” Church said. “They stayed within the game plan that we wanted to do. They attacked the spaces we wanted to.”
With the game in control, however, Duke did not come out in the second half with the same crisp play that distinguished their early effort.
“I wasn’t as happy in the second half, especially for the first group that played,” Church said. “I thought we didn’t have the same movement…. We thought we played a little bit too much individually.”
Still, the Blue Devils came away from their nonconference finale with great momentum and plenty to be excited about.
“We’re 8-1,” Church said. “It’s another win, another shutout. You’ve got to be extremely happy with that.”
The team now looks to bring this momentum into the ACC opener against third-ranked Florida State on Sunday.
“Our goal is to win the game and take them away with a shutout,” DeCesare said. “They’re the only team that’s higher than us in the ACC right now, so we’re looking forward to a big win.”
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