Senior preseason All-American Mike Grella scored two goals as Duke tied the United Soccer League's Real Maryland, 2-2, Saturday afternoon in its last preseason exhibition of the year.
The Blue Devils had dropped their first scrimmage to UNC-Greensboro, 1-0.
Grella notched his first score on a penalty kick in the 15th minute off a foul that he drew. He struck again 10 minutes later off a feed from junior midfielder Josh Bienenfeld.
Real Maryland, however, fired back in the second half, evening the score just a few minutes into the second half and playing the rest of the game to a stalemate.
"It just shows you soccer is a tough game," new head coach John Kerr said. "We didn't come out with the same bite in the second half, and we allowed them to get back in the game. It was a good lesson for our guys to make sure that we're not taking things lightly at the start of the second half.
"Overall our performance was solid and it improved on our performance against Greensboro, so I'm happy with that."
The Blue Devils kick off the regular season next Friday in a tournament in Bloomington, Ind. against No. 7 Indiana and round out the weekend with a match against No. 3 Notre Dame. Duke plays its first home game Sept. 5 against Kerr's former squad, Harvard.
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