When the Duke men's soccer team returns to Clemson, S.C., next weekend for the ACC tournament, it hopes the result will be quite different from yesterday's trip. Fielding a team ravaged by injuries, the unranked Blue Devils (8-10, 2-4 in the ACC) fell 4-0 to the No. 10 Clemson Tigers (13-4, 3-2) at Historic Riggs Field.
"We really did not play very well," Duke coach John Rennie said. "We made two real bad defensive mistakes in the first half, and that cost us two goals. We pushed forward and had chances, but we just couldn't get through."
The Tigers, who scored early and often, got on the board in only the eighth minute when junior forward Dimelon Westfield stole the ball from a Duke defender, setting up a one-on-one with Blue Devil freshman goalkeeper Justin Trowbridge. Westfield made a quick move and then fired a shot past Trowbridge into the middle of the Duke goal from 12 yards out.
Westfield then assisted on Clemson's second goal, when in the 35th minute, he picked up a loose ball that a Blue Devil defender failed to clear on the right side of the field. Westfield crossed the ball to senior midfielder Ross Goodacre, who struck the right corner of the Duke goal from 18 yards away.
After sustaining an offensive attack from the Blue Devils, the Tigers counter-attacked near the end of the second half and scored goals in both the 72nd and the 89th minutes.
"We didn't play our best game and we are missing quite a few of our players right now," Rennie said.
The match's result evened the all-time record between the two schools to 18-18-3. The win was Clemson's first regular season victory over Duke since 1993, a span that included 8 matches.
Both teams were coming off very tough conference losses. The Blue Devils fell to No. 6 Wake Forest Saturday night, while Clemson lost an extremely close affair to then-No. 8 North Carolina the same night. While Duke closed out its ACC schedule, Clemson has one more regular-season game left against Wake Forest this coming Saturday before welcoming the entire conference for the ACC tournament.
Going into the tournament, the Blue Devils' season can be summed up in one word: injuries. Currently, 50 percent of the opening day starting lineup is not playing due to injury, including five out of 10 field players. Among the most notable injured players is to sophomore defender Matt Ahumada, the heart of the Blue Devils' defense, who is having surgery next week on his ruptured ACL and torn lateral meniscus.
The injuries have compounded the problems facing the young and inexperienced team, as Rennie has been forced to move players around simply to fill the gap in what was otherwise a very solid defensive unit.
"It's just been one of those seasons--whatever could go wrong has gone wrong," Rennie said. "Our starting backs aren't playing right now. The guys out there are doing the best that they can, but that's not where they are used to playing. We are simply running out of people to play back there. This is the most unique situation I have ever seen. I've been coaching a long time, and have never seen anything like this."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.