Put this one down in the record books-Duke head coach John Rennie now holds the most wins of any coach at an ACC school.
The No. 4 Blue Devils (10-2-1, 4-1-1 in the ACC) overcame a shaky start to defeat N.C. State (4-8-1, 1-5-1), 4-1, Sunday at Method Road Stadium to give Rennie his 90th ACC win in 28 years and his 392nd win overall at Duke. The win puts Duke into sole posession of first place in the ACC.
Rennie credited his coaches and players over the years, as well as longevity.
"I've had a lot of great players and a lot of really great assistant coaches," Rennie said. "I've been here a long time."
At the beginning of the match, however, it did not appear that Duke would even stay competitive, let alone win. N.C. State, playing with the emotion of senior day, struck early as junior El Hadj Cisse's soft bouncing shot deflected off a Duke defender at the in the eighth minute.
"It's hard to come out when you're away from home and try and set the pace," junior Tomek Charowski said. "They came out strong, and it took us a while to settle down and play our game."
Duke caught a break, though, when the Wolfpack's Santiago Fusilier saw his errant pass wind up out of bounds, giving the Blue Devils an opportunity to score. Junior Zach Pope then kicked the ball toward the the net, and senior Chris Loftus deflected the ball in at the 11:53 mark. Aside from that goal, however, Duke struggled for the majority of the half, failing to control the ball and making several bad passes.
Rennie, drawing on 28 years of experience, subsituted in junior Spencer Wadsworth, Charowski and freshman Joshua Bienenfeld. The move paid off immediately, as Wadsworth coverted a corner kick by Charowski at the 35:21 mark. Duke went up 3-1 a minute later on a goal off a breakaway by junior Tim Jepson off an assist from junior Michael Videira. The two goals signaled a shift in momentum, and from there it seemed N.C. State resigned itself to a loss, Charowski said.
"Getting a couple of goals toward the end of the half just completely changed the momentum of the game," Charowski said. "They seemed to almost give up after that."
With the offense clicking following the substitutions and the defense holding the Wolfpack down, no halftime adjustments were necessary.
"We just kept playing whatever we were playing because we were playing fine," Wadsworth said. "Our mentality was to come out and finish early and not get out of our rythm."
Although they would not score until late in the final half, the Blue Devils dominated possesion and had several opportunities to put N.C. State away for good, yet could not convert.
The Blue Devils finally broke through in the 83rd minute as sophomore Mike Grella scored, kicking the ball into the top-left corner of the net.
"It's good to be a part of wins like this," Wadsworth said. "[Rennie] is a really good coach and he deserves to win."
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