Davidson Falls Just Short in Upset Bid vs. No. 17 Duke, 2-0

Wednesday, October 31

Davidson, N.C.

7:00

Davidson College Athletics

4-11-1

No. 17 Duke

10-5-1

Team	1	2	Final F
DUKE	0	2	2
Davidson	0	0	0

Davidson Falls Just Short in Upset Bid vs. No. 17 Duke, 2-0

10/31/2007 9:14:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

Joey Beeler -- Assistant SID

DAVIDSON, N.C. — The Davidson men's soccer team battled until the end, but fell just short in their upset bid of No. 17 Duke when the Blue Devils hit two late second-half goals on their way to a 2-0 win over the Wildcats on Wednesday night at Alumni Stadium in front of a festive Halloween crowd. Davidson saw its four-game unbeaten streak come to an end, falling to 4-11-1 overall, while Duke ran its 2007 season mark to 10-5-1.

“We lost to a very talented and athletic Duke team, who had most of the possession and scoring opportunities as they came at us in waves,” said head coach Matt Spear. “But, we persevered to keep it close and Matt McElroy made some critical saves to keep us in the game for awhile.”

McElroy did the best he could to keep the 17th ranked team in the nation scoreless for the majority of the game, coming up 11 saves on the night. Two of his bigger saves came in the 7th and 24th minutes when he blocked a direct shot infront of the goal and then later dove to his right to stop a post shot.

Duke though, finally broke through in the 74th minute when it worked the ball down the near side of the field to the 18-yard box. From there, Joe Germanese sent a long and high cross to the far side of the box where a wide open Zach Pope took the ball in the air and headed it into the top corner for his first strike of the season and the game-winner.

Ten minutes later, Davidson nearly tied it up off a free kick just outside the 18-yard box. After drawing a foul, sophomore Charlie Reiter lined up for the kick and just missed by inches in knotting things up when his shot hit off the crossbar and came straight down. The Wildcats raced to the loose ball, but Duke's defense tracked it down and cleared it, halting any second chance efforts for Davidson.

Davidson would get off three more shots and put pressure on the Duke defense in the late stages of the second half, but just could never punch one in.

“We had some excellent scoring chances late in the game to send it into overtime, and even a chance to steal the win, but just were never able to get set long enough before Duke's defense came up with a stop,” said Spear.

Spencer Wadsworth of Duke tacked on an insurance goal at the 88:13 mark when he slipped by two Wildcat defenders on the near side of the 18-yard box and drove in, kicking one to the far post past a diving McElroy for his second score of the season. The play was set up by Graham Dugoni, who sent a long pass that went behind the Wildcat defense, and Wadsworth used a quick move to avoid one defender and set up the one-on-one matchup with the goalie.

Duke outshot Davidson, 26-5, while also earning eight corner kicks to the Wildcats two.

Justin Papadakis finished with two saves for the Blue Devils.

Davidson, who sits at 2-3-1 in Southern Conference play, wraps up its home schedule with a 2 p.m. contest against College of Charleston on Saturday at Alumni Stadium. In addition, the Wildcats will honor their four seniors before the game for Senior Day.

Scoring Summary
74:29 DU Zach Pope (1) (Joe Germanese)
88:13 DU Spencer Wadsworth (2) (Graham Dugoni)