In her last afternoon in Koskinen, senior Kayla McCoy made all the difference.
With just six minutes left to play, Delaney Graham ran the ball down the sidelines on a counterattack off an Eagle miscue and fed to Tess Boade.
Boade crossed to a wide open McCoy, who just had a defender and the Boston College keeper between her and the back of the net. The Lincolnwood, Ill., native dribbled to the side to shake her defender and launched a beautiful slider past Eagle netminder Alexis Bryant to bury the ball in the bottom corner of the net.
No. 10 Duke shook off No. 11 Boston College 2-1 Saturday on the Blue Devils’ Senior Night. For the third straight match, Duke rallied through early deficits to claw out a win with McCoy's goal being the clincher yet again. This is the fourth consecutive meeting with the Eagles where the Blue Devils have come out on top.
"Kayla McCoy has been a lot of things in the last four years, and what an appropriate Senior Day for her," Duke head coach Robbie Church said. "When you see her get the ball, come from the left inside, you know that’s going to be a goal. You see it time and time and time again. She has separation, she was able to strike the ball hard and low. She’s a great finisher. She has had a wonderful career but she has also had a wonderful year for us, and she wants more."
Unfortunately for Duke, the Eagles were the first to strike. Boston College rocketed down the field and set a lane up for junior Olivia Vaughn. Although the Blue Devils peeled two defenders on the Eagle forward, a misplaced header from Chelsea Burns left Vaughn in control of the ball, and Taylor Mitchell was just short of stopping the run. Vaughn chipped high and Brooke Heinsohn mistimed her jump to put Boston College on top early in the first period.
The Blue Devils responded in turn with a renewed aggression, but each drive came up short.
Duke committed to a full press on the Boston College defense, and Kayla McCoy put herself right under the ball in the Eagles’ box. However, back-to-back header attempts from McCoy were deflected, leaving the Blue Devils empty handed.
The home team had another wide-open opportunity when a feed to Taylor Racioppi arched over Bryant, but Racioppi mistimed her kick, letting the ball sail high of an undefended net.
For the next 20 minutes, Duke didn’t have an answer to Boston College’s suffocating defense. That is, until freshman Mackenzie Pluck took to the field.
Just two minutes after being subbed in for Racioppi, Pluck made her presence known with a deep run up the field. Singlehandedly weaving through the Eagles’ defenders, the North Wales, Pa., native found the weak side under the Boston College defense and shot a rocket right through Bryant, leveling the scoreboard.
"It’s super exciting," McCoy said. "I couldn’t ask for much more on my senior day. It was a big game and we made it a little bit hard on ourselves at times but we were really fortunate to come out with the win. The team stepped up big time and they made it very clear they wanted to play for the seniors today, and you could see that."
For the rest of the half, Duke controlled the motion of the ball, outshooting the Eagles 8-3 and preventing Boston College from notching a shot for 25 minutes of play.
But right out of the locker room, the Eagles came out screaming.
A miscue from Duke set up a fowl right at the head of the Blue Devils’ box, with leading scorer Sam Coffey setting up for the strike. However, the Blue Devils were bailed out by a leaping save from Heinsohn to stave off the threat.
However, Duke’s defense could not rest for long. In the ensuing scramble after the foul shot, Vaughn had another opportunity with a misplaced pass from the Blue Devils’ defenders. But, the junior forward shot just high, nicking the crossbar and sailing back into Duke possession.
"Give Boston College credit because we were really playing around them at the end of the first half in possession, and they adjusted and were able to play, but we didn’t come out well enough," Church said. "We started missing the tackle and a double was missed here. After we play on Thursday, we’ve only earned an NCAA game, but you’ve got to earn those games afterwards. We didn’t come out of the locker room well there and we have to do a ton of work on that."
McCoy’s goal was her 14th game winner as a Blue Devil, good for number three in history. However, if Duke wants to keep its run of wins, the Blue Devils will need to avoid taking early deficits.
Duke will conclude conference play Thursday on the road against Notre Dame.
"We were good at times, our ball movement, the angles we played," Church said. "We weren’t as patient as we needed to be, you’ve got to be patient through it. It was a good Boston College team, a top-25 team. That was a big [win] for national seeding, big for the ACC. That puts us in outright second. Of course, first is what we shoot for, but I’m still very very proud of them, we’ve just got a lot of work to do. It was patchy, and its got to be a higher level of soccer. We have that in us."
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