Though the air was cold in Koskinen Stadium, the temperature had no effect on a red-hot Blue Devil offense. No. 19 Duke (9-4-0) caught fire in a strong second half, blasting past Navy, 3-0. The Blue Devils were hardly challenged by the Midshipmen (8-7-0) in their first head-to-head meeting since 1979, helping head coach John Kerr celebrate his 100th career victory in style.
Kerr was all smiles after the win, yet early on his team’s play gave him reason to frown.
Navy ran circles around Duke for the first 20 minutes of play, controlling time of possession. They outhustled the Blue Devils in every facet of the game and earned several early scoring chances.
“They were buzzing all over the field and they were moving the ball quickly,” Kerr said. “They were causing us all kinds of problems defensively, and we weren’t sharp enough in the first 25 minutes.”
However, the Midshipmen simply could not maintain such a high level of energy. Eventually, Duke broke through and scored its first goal in the 25th minute.
Temi Molinar weaved through several Navy defenders and fed a through ball to Ryan Finley, who promptly blasted it by the goalkeeper for his eighth score of the year.
“He [Molinar] beat two or three kids and just played a nice through ball,” Finley said. “It was an easy finish, he did all the hard work.”
The Blue Devil defense, led by junior captain Christian Ibeagha, shut down the Midshipmen all night long. Navy only squeezed off three shots all game, and none tested goalkeeper James Belshaw, who was not forced to make a save all night.
In fact, the second half was played entirely on Navy’s half of the field, and the Blue Devils wasted no time in padding their lead. After beating two defenders, Cole Grossman netted a bouncing shot from 25 yards in the 53rd minute. Five minutes later, Christopher Tweed-Kent hammered the nail into the coffin, volleying a cross into the left corner for his first career goal.
“Once we got a grip on the game, we understood what they were trying to do,” Kerr said. “We stepped up our pressure and dominated the second half.”
Kerr issued a mass substitution just after the 60th minute, relieving all but one starter of his duties. In all, a whopping 23 players saw significant game action. Duke’s substitutes kept up the pressure for the remainder of the game, though they were unable to further pad the lead. Afterwards, Kerr seemed satisfied with his team’s performance.
“It was good for us to get the starters a good 60 minutes, and they played hard against good competition,” Kerr said.
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