The men's soccer team continued its inconsistent play Saturday night, losing 2-0 to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (12-3-1, 3-1-1 in the ACC) in Winston-Salem.
The loss drops the Blue Devils (8-9, 2-3) below .500 for the season and in the conference.
"We are very pleased with the result," Wake Forest coach Jay Vidovich said. "I guess one of the signs of a good team is when they don't play as well as they are capable of, but still come away with the win. We played well enough down the stretch to take care of ourselves, but we could have done better in the second half. I am very pleased with the result though."
Duke did not keep the Demon Deacons off the scoreboard for very long. In the 27th minute, Wake Forest goalkeeper William Hesmer threw the ball out to midfielder Aaron Thomas.
Thomas fed the ball to Jeremiah White. The striker dribbled through the Blue Devil defense, finding a seam 12 yards from the net.
White fired the ball by Duke goalkeeper Scott Maslin, into the far side of the goal, and Wake Forest took a 1-0 lead.
The Demon Deacons struck again only seven minutes later. Defender Ryan Caugherty fed the ball to midfielder Vicente Bastidas. Bastidas found White streaking down the right side of the field. White slammed the ball off the right post and into the net to give Wake Forest a 2-0 lead and tally his second goal of the night.
The two goals raised White's total to an ACC-leading 14 for the season.
"Both goals were pretty similar," defender Kevin Sakuda said. "We stepped up to try to draw them offsides, and they wound up getting the ball over us. The first one, White had a pretty good shot. The second one, he had a ton of room. I really think he was offsides on the second goal."
Neither team could generate a significant attack for the remainder of the half, and the Demon Deacons took the 2-0 lead into the locker room.
Undaunted by a disappointing first half, the Blue Devils came out firing. Duke's best chance came in the 67th minute of play. Junior midfielder Donald McIntosh took a free kick just outside of the penalty area. McIntosh's shot appeared headed for the back of the net when Hesmer made a diving save to preserve the 2-0 lead.
The Blue Devils got off eight shots in the second half to only four for Wake Forest. But Duke was unable to get the ball by Hesmer, who held on for the shutout.
"I think Wake Forest was definitely a tough team," Sakuda said. "In the second half, we played pretty well. That's been our story all year. We just couldn't get it into the back of the net. We definitely dominated the half. But we don't have anything to show for it. It's getting a little frustrating."
In order to salvage a .500 record for the regular season, the Blue Devils will have to win their final game, Wednesday night against the No. 6 Clemson Tigers (12-4, 2-2) in South Carolina.
After facing the Tigers, Duke will return to Clemson for the ACC tournament.
"I think that the Clemson game is much more important for our morale than anything else," Sakuda said. "That's not to say that the game isn't important or that we're not taking it seriously. But we're looking at the ACC tournament as our opportunity to get into the NCAA tournament this year."
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