Proch dominant again as Duke men's soccer stays undefeated in San Diego

<p>Daniele Proch buried a shot in the fourth minute to open the scoring for Duke Friday.</p>

Daniele Proch buried a shot in the fourth minute to open the scoring for Duke Friday.

Coming off a pair of victories in the John Rennie Nike Invitational last weekend, the Blue Devils stayed undefeated while playing out West.

No. 2 Duke maintained its perfect start to the season after easily dispatching San Diego 4-1 Friday night. Despite a long road trip and an 11:30 p.m eastern-time kickoff at Torero Stadium, the Blue Devils looked sharp from the beginning as they jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. 

Duke (3-0-0) got off to a quick start, scoring twice in the first six minutes. The Blue Devils’ offense has been rolling of late, netting at least three goals in each of their wins. Against San Diego (0-2-1), junior Daniele Proch did the most damage once again, scoring two goals to push his season total to five. 

Proch struck first for the Blue Devils less than four minutes into the match. The Riva Del Garda, Italy, native dribbled through the midfield and blasted a shot from 20 yards out into the back of the net. Less than two minutes later, junior midfielder Max Moser burst through the right side of the Toreros’ defense and scored his first goal of the season to give Duke a quick 2-0 lead. 

In the 23rd minute, Proch struck again, heading in a cross from freshman Issa Rayyan to increase the lead to three. With the goal, Proch matched his season total from all of last season and kept his name among the leading goal-scorers in the nation. 

In the second half, the Blue Devils kept up their attack and struck paydirt in the 72nd minute. After a cross into the box, the ball bounced around and graduate transfer Kevin Feucht took advantage of the chaos to net his second goal of the season. 

However, 39 seconds later, the Toreros managed to pierce the Duke defense and score their first goal of the night. Freshman Till Stockmann sent a low cross into the box that sophomore Aidan Marmion finished with a hard strike past goalkeeper Will Pulisic.

Despite generating eight shots in the second half, Duke only produced the one goal. That was a departure from the hyper-efficient first half that saw the Blue Devils score three goals on just five shots. In total, Duke held a 13-9 advantage in shots including an 8-4 advantage in shots on goal. Pulisic ended the match with three saves and earned the win, while San Diego keeper Connor Hountalas finished the match with four stops of his own. 

Following Friday’s victory, Duke has more than a week to prepare for its ACC opener on the road at No. 9 Louisville. Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m Sept. 9.

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