It wasn’t the victory they were hoping for, but for now the Blue Devils still remain undefeated.
Duke opened up its regular season with a 1-1 draw against Loyola Marymount Friday night at Koskinen Stadium as part of the John Rennie/Nike Invitational. The Blue Devils quickly found themselves trailing the Lions after giving up a goal in the fifth minute, but were able to claw their way back with a strong second-half performance and earn a point in the standings against a quality Loyola Marymount squad.
“That Loyola Marymount team lost in the [first] round of the playoffs to Stanford in penalties, so they’re a solid team—a lot of seniors, a lot of experience,” head coach John Kerr said. “We’re going to learn from it and keep our progress moving forward.”
Duke (0-0-1) opened the match with a starting lineup that featured five freshmen, and the inexperience showed in the opening minutes. The Lions (0-0-1) took advantage of an early slip-up by the Blue Devil defense, as senior midfielder Sebastian De Rada found a wide-open Adrien Perez in front of the net less than five minutes into the game. Perez—who led the team with 11 goals scored as a freshman last year—slid the ball past Duke goalkeeper Joe Ohaus for his first goal of the season and put Loyola Marymount up 1-0.
Ohaus—a true freshman—played all 110 minutes in goal and recorded four saves, including a key one near the end of the first half that kept the Blue Devil’s deficit at 1. In his first real collegiate game, Kerr was very impressed with how the freshman handled himself.
“[Ohaus] played solid,” Kerr said. “Couldn’t do anything about the goal, he made an awesome stop right before halftime. That was crucial because if they go up 2-0 right before halftime, then that changes everything, so he kept us in the game and I thought he did a great job.”
Duke settled in and found its groove after halftime, looking much more like the team that rolled to victories in each of its three preseason games. The Blue Devils evened the score in the 49th minute, with freshman forward Jeremy Ebobisse knocking in the equalizer. Fellow freshman Cameron Moseley headed a long throw-in from senior Nick Palodichuk, which Ebobisse got to and converted into the first goal of his career.
“We knew that Cameron would be posting up around the near post, and someone would have to fall in behind him and just get whatever they could,” Ebobisse said. “Normally, that’s someone else but I just wanted that ball, so I got in the right area and I was lucky enough to get it in the right area, and redirect it in goal.”
Duke continued its strong play in the rest of the second half and the two 15-minute overtime periods, but was unable to put the ball in the net despite outshooting the Lions 7-4 after the first half. Moseley nearly put the Blue Devils ahead just minutes after Ebobisse’s goal, but the shot went wide of the post in what would prove to be Duke’s last real scoring chance.
The Blue Devils will return to the field Sunday afternoon in search of their first win of the season, when they take on Stetson at 2:30 p.m. at Koskinen Stadium. Stetson picked up a victory in its first game action earlier in the evening, prevailing against Elon by a slim 3-2 margin. Kerr knows that in order to emerge victorious, his team will have to play aggressively like they did in the second half against Loyola Marymount and be sharp from the opening whistle.
“I thought we did a better job of [attacking] and upped the tempo in the second half,” Kerr said. “We have to start off like that Sundayagainst Stetson. They’re coming off a really good result. They beat a good team in Elon, and they’re impressive, so we have our work cut out for us.”
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