Men's soccer upsets No.2 UCLA in OT

Before the MetLife-adidas Soccer Classic began, the event was being billed as "perhaps the country's premier men's soccer tournament.'' After this weekend's games, it would probably be safe to drop the "perhaps'' from that slogan.

Duke, now 4-0 and ranked No. 9, captured the Classic championship Sunday with a stunning, 4-3 overtime win over No. 2 UCLA, in which the Blue Devils rallied from a three-goal deficit in the second half to force the extra session. Duke thoroughly dominated an outmanned Alabama-Birmingham squad 4-1 in Friday's opening contest.

"This [UCLA match] is the best soccer comeback I've ever been associated with as a player or a coach,'' head coach John Rennie said.

"It never crossed anyone's mind that we were going to lose,'' said freshman forward Jay Heaps, who was selected the Classic's Most Valuable Player after scoring four goals in the two games. Juniors Brian Kelly and Mike Dunne and freshman Evan Whitfield also were named to the All-Tournament team for the Blue Devils.

The game began with little offensive firepower from either side. UCLA (3-1) dominated the play in the middle of the field but could not put any pressure on Duke sophomore goalkeeper John Morton, as the Bruins produced only four shots on goal in the entire first half.

In contrast, the Blue Devils were able to penetrate through the UCLA fullback line for a number of breakaway chances. Duke is employing a three-striker offense this season, and the system has been successful thus far. The Blue Devils are now able to press forward with more authority than a year ago, but this strategy puts added weight on the shoulders of the defensemen.

"We couldn't double-team them,'' junior striker Kevin Stein said. "But that's the chance we take with three defenders.''

Duke's new aggressive offensive scheme created eight shots on goal against star Bruin goalie Chris Snitko, but none of shots found the net, due in part to Snitko's reflexes and in part to the left goalpost. The game appeared as though it would be a grueling defensive battle.

The game began with little offensive firepower from either side. UCLA (3-1) dominated the play in the middle of the field but could not put any pressure on Duke sophomore goalkeeper John Morton, as the Bruins produced only four shots on goal in the entire first half.

In contrast, the Blue Devils were able to penetrate through the UCLA fullback line for a number of breakaway chances. Duke is employing a three-striker offense this season, and the system has been successful thus far. The Blue Devils are now able to press forward with more authority than a year ago, but this strategy puts added weight on the shoulders of the defensemen.

"We couldn't double-team them,'' junior striker Kevin Stein said. "But that's the chance we take with three defenders.''

Duke's new aggressive offensive scheme created eight shots on goal against star Bruin goalie Chris Snitko, but none of the shots found the net, due in part to Snitko's reflexes and in part to the left goalpost. The game appeared as though it would be a grueling defensive battle.

The match was anything but defensive in the second half. The paucity of Duke fullbacks left the Blue Devils with numerous marking problems against UCLA's breakaway runs, and the Bruins smartly exploited this weakness to start the second stanza.

Less than three minutes into the half, UCLA opened the scoring. Off a set play from a corner kick, Robbie LaBelle headed the ball to a wide-open Adam Frye, who volleyed the ball past Morton for a 1-0 Bruin lead.

In the 54th minute, Josh Keller substituted into the game for UCLA. On Keller's first offensive series, Greg Vanney slid a pass through the middle to Keller, who had not been picked up by the Duke fullbacks. Morton had no chance on the one-on-one as Keller buried his shot from the right side.

The shellshocked Blue Devils continued their collapse four minutes later. For the third time in under 12 minutes, Duke failed to mark an oncoming Bruin striker. This time it was Tom Poltl who exposed the Blue Devils' fullback folly. Poltl drove into the Duke penalty box uncovered, and Morton was forced to undercut him to prevent an imminent goal. All-tournament performer Vanney converted the penalty shot to give UCLA a 3-0 lead with 31:51 remaining.

That was when Duke's forwards finally found the "on'' switch.

"We felt their goals were undeserved,'' Stein said. "We knew once we scored we'd be back in it. We knew we were a better team.''

Freshman Josh Henderson gave Snitko a glimpse of the offensive fury that was to come when he narrowly missed a breakaway shot. Then, Whitfield took the ball from half-field and embarked on a marvelous run through six would-be UCLA defenders. The journey ended when Whitfield was tripped up--inside the penalty box.

"It was a brilliant run by Evan,'' Heaps said. "That was the turning point of the game.''

UCLA argued that it was a clean takeaway, but a penalty shot was awarded to Duke. Kelly beat Snitko low and left to put Duke on the board.

"I thought it was a make-up call,'' Heaps said. "But a lot of calls [in UCLA's favor] were bad, too.''

In the 73rd minute Henderson found himself leading a three-on-one Duke breakaway. Snitko deflected Henderson's shot, but Heaps was trailing the play and dumped the ball into an open net to bring the Blue Devils within one.

The crowd of 3,200--sensing the change in the game's momentum--sprang to life, and as if on cue, Duke came up with the equalizer.

In a textbook display of ball movement, Duke swung the ball from Kelly on the left side to Stein on the right, with five Blue Devils getting a touch. With seven minutes left, Stein drove hard to the right endline, and crossed a pass behind himself to Heaps. Heaps headed the ball past Snitko, and amazingly the score was deadlocked. Even more amazingly, Duke still had not used a single substitution.

"It was a surprise that no one was coming out,'' Stein said. "We were pretty tired at the end.''

The leg-weary Blue Devils survived a number of near-misses from the Bruins in the last five minutes of regulation, but the overtime period seemed to give Duke the shot in the arm it so sorely needed.

The suddenly passive Bruins started to hang back on defense to open the overtime, as though they expected Duke to take the lead. And at the 94:20 mark of the match Duke did exactly that.

Henderson and Whitfield worked a wall pass on the right side to create an opening for Henderson, who slotted a pass to Kelly. Kelly, who had shanked a number of chances earlier in the contest, left no doubters this time as he drove the ball past Snitko to put Duke on top to stay.

UCLA could not regain its bearings after the thrilling turnaround, and produced only four feeble shots on goal in the overtime periods.

"It was just a total team effort,'' Heaps said.

"This is a totally different team from last year,'' Rennie said. "We're more balanced. We have new players who are very good defenders, so we can go forward more.

"Who knows [how good this team can be]? But we're off to a great start.''