After a successful trip to Wilmington, N.C., the Blue Devils return to ACC play tonight against Boston College at 7 p.m. in Koskinen Stadium. No. 11 Duke (3-1-2, 0-1-1 in the ACC) is coming off its first road game of the season, a 1-0 victory over UNC-Wilmington Tuesday night.
As has been the case for most of the young season, sophomore Ryan Finley led the way in the win, scoring the team’s lone goal and launching a team-high four shots. Finley, the NCAA’s leading goal-scorer, now has 73 percent of the Blue Devils’ goals for the year.
While Finley does carry much of Duke’s offensive load, head coach John Kerr is not worried.
“He’s the deepest guy [on the field], that’s for sure,” Kerr said. “We’re not overly concerned at this stage. If Ryan is the only scorer in the next five games, I’ll be concerned.”
Nevertheless, the coach is still looking for other players to get more involved on the score sheet.
“We definitely need more production from Cole [Grossman], from Temi [Molinar], from Chris Tweed-Kent, and from [Rob] Dolot,” Kerr said. “We need more production from them on the offensive end.”
The key question that remains for the Blue Devils is where sophomore Andrew Wenger will line up tonight. Wenger started the year at forward alongside Finley, but a knee injury to freshman Sebastien Ibeagha forced Kerr to move Wenger to the backline. Although Ibeagha returned on Tuesday, his older brother, senior Christian Ibeagha, went down with an injury himself. For tonight’s match, Kerr said that Wenger will likely start at center back alongside the younger Ibeagha.
With Wenger in the back, Finley and company will have to be in top form, as the Eagles have allowed just three goals this season and zero on the road. No. 10 Boston College (4-0-2, 0-0-1) defeated the Blue Devils in both of last year’s meetings—2-0 in Chestnut Hill, Mass., and 1-0 in the ACC tournament.
“They’re stingy. They work really hard for each other,” Kerr said. “They’re organized and they get players behind the ball quickly so it makes it more difficult for us to break them down, but we’ve developed a game plan to counteract that and give us some more opportunities going forward.”
If Duke finds a way to get past the Eagles’ defense, it will have to deal with one of the top goalies in the country who always brings his ‘A’-game against Kerr’s squad. Sophomore Justin Luthy had three saves in Boston College’s first win last year, then shut out the Blue Devils in extra time in the ACC tournament.
“Their goalie last year had the game of his life against us, and hopefully that won’t happen again,” Kerr said.
Duke is in much need of an ACC victory after starting the year with a comeback draw against Virginia and a heartbreaking loss to UNC. With just one ACC home game remaining after tonight’s contest, Kerr stressed the importance of this match in relation to his team’s goal of reaching the top of the conference standings.
“It’s a critical game for us,” Kerr said. “We don’t want to go winless in our first three ACC home games.”
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