With junior goalkeeper James Belshaw barking orders at the backline and a number of fresh faces continuing to acclimate to their new roles, the Blue Devils managed to pull out a 2-1 win against N.C. State Tuesday.
Watching Belshaw call out to his teammates, the sizable crowd witnessed an exciting game, though it was only an exhibition contest.
“We’re trying to get a lot of philosophical ideas across the players in preparation for preseason next summer,” head coach John Kerr said. “We’re doing a really good job of attacking those principles and communicating them to the players. They’re making a lot of progress.”
Coming off a 2-0 win against Virginia just three days prior, Duke wasted little time in their third exhibition match of the spring season. With a dangerous free kick into the box, sophomore defender Sebastien Ibeagha came up with the ball and was able to slide it into the back of the net to give the team an early lead.
Despite their quick start, the Blue Devils looked sloppy midway through the first half, missing six injured players in the midst of the spring season. A number of passes lacked clear recipients and defensive blunders allowed N.C. State to control the ball for long periods of time. Duke had difficulty transitioning from defense to offense, due in large part to poor communication—something head coach John Kerr said the team needs to improve on in these contests.
The Wolfpack capitalized on these flaws with 15 minutes remaining in the half. A ball fed into the 18-yard box found striker Nadar Jaibat, who had little trouble putting the ball away to tie the game up at 1-1.
The young Duke team showed resilience. Just moments after losing their lead, the Blue Devils responded with a goal of their own. It was almost identical to the team’s first, coming off a free kick just outside the box. Ibeagha headed the ball directly into the goalkeeper, setting up a rebound that gave Duke a 2-1 lead heading into the break.
The team came out sluggishly in the second half when for a stretch of twenty minutes, N.C. State kept the ball in the Blue Devils’ defensive third. Despite surrendering six Wolfpack corner kicks, Duke maintained its lead. On one particularly dangerous play, freshman defender Nat Eggleston attempted to clear a cross, only to have the ball bounce off the cross bar.
Quickly moving past these spring-season errors, though, the Blue Devils played with more confidence down the stretch. While not their strongest performance by any means, Kerr was happy to see his team hold strong and eke out a 2-1 win.
“Tonight, I thought we did a great job hustling and then keeping the ball towards the end of the match,” he said. “We had to ride our luck at the end to make sure we didn’t give up any cheap free kicks or let them have an easy corner kick goal. We did that and got a good result.”
The spring season has offered Duke an opportunity to adjust to the absence of standout Andrew Wenger, reigning ACC offensive player of the year and first overall pick in the MLS SuperDraft. With three matches down and two to go, the team has shown that it is moving forward, learning to play without its star and last year’s crop of seniors.
“Wenger was a fabulous player for us and was a big influence on all of our team concepts, but we have to move on,” Kerr said. “We’ve inputted a philosophy that we’re looking towards for next fall, with new players coming in and some guys that will hopefully come off the injured reserve to give us some depth and some real continuity going forward."
Ibeagha’s large presence was particularly important as one of few returning starters to play Tuesday. Due to youth and the six injuries, new players have had to step up and assume different roles.
Kerr stressed the importance of the spring season matches in preparing the players, with walk-ons and stars alike given chances to showcase their talents in these exhibition games.
“It’s a great opportunity for guys who didn’t get a lot of opportunities in the fall and see what they can do,” Kerr said. “The starters are meshing well with the guys who haven’t played a lot. It’s really good for the whole team morale and lets us make decisions going forward in terms of where people are at. It raises the bar every time we get out there.”
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