The Blue Devils dug themselves into a deeper hole in the ACC with their 2-0 loss to Boston College (5-3, 1-1 in the ACC) Friday night. Now with a 1-2 in-conference record, No. 12 Duke (5-2) will need to beat the likes of Wake Forest and Maryland, both near the top of the national rankings, to remain near the top of the ACC.
Duke yet again struggled to find the back of the net, despite having multiple scoring opportunities. The Eagles’ goalkeeper, Justin Luthy, was forced to make three key saves in the match, two coming in the second half to maintain a one-goal lead.
“The team played well and it just wasn’t our night,” head coach John Kerr said. “The goalie made some big-time saves and had the game of his life tonight for Boston College.”
The stalemate broke in the 51st minute as Boston College’s Edvin Worley found Colin Murphy for the easy score. Duke didn’t allow the deficit to get it down, as senior Ryan McDaniel and freshman Ryan Finley both had shots parried away in the following ten minutes.
The back-and-forth flow of the game ended with 30 seconds remaining, as Boston College was awarded a penalty kick and converted it to seal the game.
On Oct. 2 the Blue Devils will face No. 4 Maryland and attempt to even out their ACC record. To be successful in their talent-heavy conference, they will need to have a more explosive offense that can get out to early leads.
The habit of getting behind early and coming back late or in overtime is unlikely to be a successful strategy for individual games or the season as a whole, though Duke has already won two games in overtime.
Duke needs to procure early goals to win games, and from that it will be able to build upon a positive record, rather than struggling late to piece together a successful season.
The Blue Devils step out of conference play for a match against Elon Tuesday night before taking on the Terrapins Friday as students leave campus for Fall Break.
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