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Louisville knocks Duke men's soccer out of ACC championship

<p>Senior midfielder Zach Mathers notched Duke’s lone goal to bring the Blue Devils within one, but a second goal was not forthcoming.</p>

Senior midfielder Zach Mathers notched Duke’s lone goal to bring the Blue Devils within one, but a second goal was not forthcoming.

It was a hard-fought 90 minutes, but in the end it was just 47 seconds that cost the Blue Devils the game.

Louisville goals by Tim Kubel and Tate Schmitt within a minute early in the first half were enough to give the Cardinals a 2-1 victory against Duke and knock the Blue Devils out of the ACC championship Wednesday night at Koskinen Stadium. A second-half goal by senior Zach Mathers got Duke back into the game, but the Blue Devils could not find an elusive second goal despite a flurry of goal-scoring opportunities.

“I thought it was a tale of two halves,” Mathers said. “We started out slow and we gave them two goals and dug ourselves [a deep hole]. I thought we did really well in the second half. Unfortunately that second goal just didn’t come, but I thought the effort from the guys was great. Sometimes it just doesn’t happen.”

It looked like a pretty even start to the game until the 17th minute when Cardinal midfielder Daniel Johnson burst through the midfield and was fouled by Duke defender Markus Fjørtoft. Kubel then stepped up to take the ensuing free kick from about 25 yards out and struck it over the Blue Devil wall, bouncing two yards before the goal and then past the outstretched gloves of Blue Devil goalkeeper Mitch Kupstas into the bottom right corner of the net.

The Blue Devils (10-7-2) lost focus after going down, as a seemingly harmless downfield kick by Louisville goalkeeper Theo Jamilloux ended up producing a second Cardinal goal just 47 seconds later.

The Jamilloux kick reached the head of Louisville midfielder Ben Strong, who then flicked the ball forward to an onrushing and unmarked Schmitt. The freshman let the ball take a couple of bounces before firing a venomous left-footed blast past a helpless Kupstas to double the Cardinals' lead.

“I’m not really sure what happened on those goals,” Mathers said. “It just seemed like we were a little flat and not ready for them.”

To add injury to insult, Blue Devil midfielder Brody Huitema had to be subbed off less than a minute later after sustaining an ankle injury due to a hard foul by Cardinal defender Michael DeGraffenreidt.

The injury was a big blow to the Blue Devils, as they were already a right-midfielder light. Sophomore Macario Hing-Glover sustained an injury in the first four minutes against Pittsburgh Oct. 24 and was not available.

“[Huitema's] been doing really well for us lately and he’s always a goal threat,” Duke head coach John Kerr said. “To lose him early in the first half was a bit devastating for us because he is a big weapon and he can cause problems.”

Duke looked a completely different side after halftime and created more scoring chances as the Cardinals (7-8-3) were happy to drop a little deeper and give Duke more room in the midfield.

The Blue Devils nearly found themselves back in the game two minutes into the period. A Ryan Thompson cross was punched away by Jamilloux and fell to sophomore Jeremy Ebobisse, whose shot from the top of the box was cleared off the line by DeGraffenreidt.

Duke had to wait until the 57th minute to get itself on the board, as Mathers fired home from the top of the box after a cleared Brian White cross found his feet. The strike was Mathers’ eighth of the season.

The Blue Devils continued to press hard for that second goal, outshooting the Cardinals 15-2 in the second half.

Still, even after putting on an extra striker in Cameron Moseley for the last nine minutes, Duke just could not find the back of the net to keep its ACC championship alive.

“To be fair to our guys, we were the first to every loose ball in the second half and had a couple chances to score to get the momentum early in the second half, which we didn’t,"  Kerr said. "We finally got a good goal back with [Mathers] and then they did well defensively and they got men behind the ball and we weren’t able to get that elusive second goal.”

The loss snaps a five-game winning streak for the Blue Devils and ends their hopes for a deep run in the ACC championship.

The defeat also hurts Duke’s chances of making the NCAA championship for the first time since 2011. The Blue Devils came into the game ranked 39th in RPI—a key metric used in determining NCAA selections—and right on the bubble of making into the tournament, but will likely drop a couple spots after Wednesday's loss.

“We’re hoping the soccer gods are kind to us in a couple weeks when they make the decisions,” Kerr said. “We’ve done enough, we feel, to have a shot at the NCAAs and we just have to see how the other results fall. Hopefully they fall in our favor.”

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