Coming off a thrilling 3-2 double overtime win Monday night, Duke will hit the road looking to build momentum and capture its first ACC win of the year.
The Blue Devils will play No. 7 Notre Dame at noon Saturday at Alumni Stadium in South Bend, Ind. After besting No. 23 Hofstra on Brian White's golden goal Monday, Duke had the rest of the week to recover and prepare for a dangerous Fighting Irish squad.
After going winless in six tries heading into Monday night, Duke pulled off a crucial win after playing in two extra periods. The victory could not have come at a better time.
“[Beating Hofstra] gives us a lot of confidence,” Duke head coach John Kerr said. “It was a strange game because we dominated the game from the get-go. We should have been up a couple of goals by halftime. We were trying to force our superiority in the second half and gave up two sloppy goals, which put us in a hole. But we drew on the confidence from playing well in the first half, and we knew that if we kept going we would create chances."
A long winless drought can shake any team’s poise, but confidence levels are up after the gutsy performance in the comeback win. The Blue Devils (5-4-2, 0-3-1 in the ACC) gave up two goals in the second half and had to rally quickly just to stay in the game. But Duke kept its composure and went to work down 2-0 to force extra time.
“It’s a great turning point in our season,” sophomore defender Markus Fjørtoft said. “What’s been frustrating is that we’ve played well against very good opposition, but we haven’t really gotten the results. And we played really well against Hofstra and had a fantastic first half. Then we get two absurd goals against us. What I’m proud of is that the team understood that the game was not over. We understood that we could still win. And when we did, it just shows great character.”
Led by sophomore Jon Gallagher’s seven goals, the Fighting Irish (7-2-3, 2-1-1) have looked very impressive in and out of conference play. Notre Dame hosted Michigan Wednesday night and tied, leaving them at 3-0-2* in their last five contests.
The Fighting Irish will certainly test the Blue Devils, but Duke is looking forward to Saturday's match with ambitions of pulling off the upset.
“Historically, they’re always a tough team to play, especially in their home stadium,” Kerr said. “They played Marquette and also played a tough game against N.C. State where they drew and didn’t play their best. So they’re human as well, and we feel that we can get in there and give them a game. We have a game plan in our heads that we are going to work through and try to exploit some of their weaknesses, while we make sure we’re covering up some of our weaknesses. We’re going to play to our strengths."
The Blue Devils will go into South Bend with high spirits, along with a driven focus. A win against the Fighting Irish would give Duke a chance to prove itself as a threat in the ACC. Kerr's squad currently sits tied for fourth place with Virginia Tech in the ACC Coastal Division standings with one point, looking up at second-place Notre Dame, which has seven.
“We know we have to have a good defensive performance,” Fjørtoft said. “We’ve let in too many goals. Soccer is so unpredictable that it’s really just down to these lapses in concentration. So it’s about just keeping that concentration up, especially for our back four in terms of keeping the line straight and keeping our discipline up. We’ve been doing some great stuff now, and we’re continuing to work on it.”
The Blue Devils will return from Notre Dame for a three-game homestand featuring matches against Holy Cross, N.C. State and Elon.
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