Less than five minutes into Duke's game against N.C. State Friday, Wolfpack goalkeeper Jorge Gonzalez was already screaming at his teammates.
He should have yelled something more helpful.
Just two minutes later, in the game's 7th minute, Blue Devil midfielder Blake Camp scored the first of Duke's five first-half goals off a no-look pass from forward Mike Grella.
Less than a minute after that, Camp found Danny Kramer open on the left side of the net. Kramer put a shot past Gonzalez and into the opposite corner of the goal, and the rout was on.
No. 16 Duke (9-3-1, 3-2-1 in the ACC) beat No. 14 N.C. State (9-5-1, 3-3-1), 6-0, Friday at Koskinen Stadium, recording the team's highest goal total of the season. The shutout was the Blue Devils' fifth of the year.
"You never expect to win a game in this league by more than one goal," Duke head coach John Rennie said. "To score as many goals, and some really, really good goals, as we did in the first half, that's what we needed, and it's very unusual in this league to do that. But it's exactly what we needed."
In the 14th minute, Kramer was taken down in the box. Chris Loftus converted the penalty kick-he shot to the right side as Gonzalez dove left-for his team-leading ninth goal of the season. In the 21st minute, Kramer put in a rebound off his own shot after fighting through four N.C. State defenders.
"I think we came out real intense," Kramer said. "I'm not saying that they didn't, but I think we took it to them. We came out flying, we didn't sit back, and I thought maybe they were sitting back a little bit and letting us attack them.
"The main difference is just that we scored goals and we put them away.... Like coach says if you don't score you're not going to win."
The Blue Devil defense held star Wolfpack forward Aaron King-who was tied for the ACC lead with 13 tallies-to five shots, but none were on net. Duke goalie Justin Papadakis had to make just one save.
After consecutive conference losses to Maryland Oct. 7 and Virginia Oct. 16, the Blue Devils said this match gave them a much-needed boost of confidence.
"I think it was good to prove to ourselves we can put the ball in the back of the net, if we play our game we can beat anyone," Kramer said. "We only won one game, so it's not really going to affect what happens with UNC and Stony Brook."
Reserve forward Pavelid Castaneda, a freshman, was one player who certainly gained confidence from the game. Castaneda scored his first career goal in the 35th minute on a diving header.
"Once I start scoring, forget it, that's when the trouble comes for the rest of the ACC," Casteneda said with a laugh.
John Taddei contributed to this story.
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