The best thing about slumps? They feel awfully good when they go away.
In its sixth ACC game of the season, Duke defeated No. 23 N.C. State 6-2 Friday night at Koskinen Stadium for its first conference win. In a match with six cards handed out a and total of 28 fouls, the Blue Devils scored all six goals with a one-man advantage. Senior Zach Mathers recorded his first career hat trick—the first by a Duke player since 2011—as the floodgates finally opened for an offense that has spent the last month seeking efficiency.
“It’s been coming,” Duke head coach John Kerr said. “We were fortunate to have had the red card and go an extra man up, but our determination, we were going to score tonight, there was no question about that. It was just a question of how many.”
Even in the physical ACC, Friday's match was particularly aggressive, and yet referee David Erbacher seemed to let play go on. Mathers and graduate student Jared Rist of Duke and freshman Tanner Roberts of the Wolfpack fell down and were shaken up in the first half, and things seemed to be reaching a tipping point.
Then, the bubble popped.
In the 24th minute, Mathers fed sophomore Jeremy Ebobisse for a break-away opportunity, and with the ball in the box, senior Reed Norton took down Ebobisse with a shoulder, sending the Bethesda, Md., native to the ground and yielding a Blue Devil penalty kick. Just as importantly, though, Norton was sent off with a red card.
“I think the referee was a little tentative to call some stuff, I didn’t think he did as well as he could have done, but the red card was definitely deserved,” Mathers said. “We’re lucky to have the red card, but I thought it was a well-done play by us to have them get the red card.”
The Blue Devils (6-6-2, 1-4-1 in the ACC) capitalized as Mathers struck the penalty kick into the bottom right corner of the goal—but the Blue Devils were just getting started.
Less than two minutes later, Rist—a lefty, kicking from the far right corner flag—whipped his corner kick over the head of a running Brian White and right onto the head of graduate student Tyler Hilliard, who pounded the ball in from inside the six-yard box. Mathers added to the total eight minutes later when he struck a routine shot from outside the box right to senior goalkeeper Alex McCauley, but McCauley—standing off his line and needing to go on his toes to make the save—muffed the ball and watched it sail behind him for the goal.
The second half began with as much action as the first, with the Blue Devils again the aggressors. In the 50th minute, Mathers played a through ball down the left flank to senior midfielder Ryan Thompson, who took a few touches, found an open look inside the box and hammered a shot across his body, underneath the left leg of a sliding defender and into the side-netting for his first goal of the season.
“Coming off of their defenders, we started a little bit higher, and they didn’t like to follow us into the midfield, and they gave me some space to turn and run at them,” Mathers said. “We knew when we had numbers forward, we would probably still have more [players] back than them, so we could attack at will.”
N.C. State got a goal back less than a minute later when Thompson was called for a handball in the box, awarding the Wolfpack (7-7-3, 1-2-3) a penalty kick, which freshman Julius Duchscherer ripped into the bottom left corner. But in the 52nd minute, off a cross from the right flank, Mathers rifled a shot from inside the six-yard box, possessed the rebound after McCauley made a leaping save and punched in the second-chance effort to complete the hat trick. It was the game’s third goal in as many minutes.
If the game seemed out of reach, neither team played like it. The Wolfpack’s Travis Wannemuehler sent a through ball down the middle of the field in the 68th minute to Clayton Sparks, who hit a one-time touch past an encroaching Mitch Kupstas for the goal. And with just 14 seconds remaining in the match, Hilliard crossed a ball from the left flank to sophomore Macario Hing-Glover, who tapped the ball in before getting taken out from behind by defender Michael Hinkson.
For a team that has continued to outshoot its opponents and yet not win matches, Friday night’s match was long overdue.
“I think the number one thing we take away is confidence,” Mathers said. “Coming into the game we were on the down a little bit. To score six goals against a really impressive team who tied Wake Forest, it’s great for us.”
Duke hosts Elon Tuesday before playing at Pittsburgh Saturday night, with the Blue Devils needing every point they can muster in their remaining four games to boost their chances of sneaking into the postseason.
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