As a freshman last season, Zach Mathers was one of the anchors of a Duke defensive unit that allowed just 13 goals in 18 games. But as Mathers looked up the field, he watched an offensive unit that managed just 20 tallies in a lackluster season.
A position change to midfield has allowed Mathers to take a more active role in the Blue Devils’ offense, and the team saw instant dividends from the switch at the John Rennie Nike Invitational. Mathers scored twice on the weekend and was named the tournament’s MVP, leading Duke to a 1-1 draw against Rutgers Friday and a 2-0 victory against Northeastern Sunday at Koskinen Stadium.
“We learned a lot about ourselves this weekend,” head coach John Kerr said. “We gained a lot of confidence in our play against Rutgers Friday night and had that will to win.... Today’s game was disjointed due to the heat and the tactics of the other team. It was disappointing for the fans to watch a game like that, disappointing for us, but at the end we came out with the right result.”
Mathers’ first tally of the season could not have come at a more opportune time for the Blue Devils. After surrendering an early goal in its season-opener against the Scarlet Knights (0-1-1), Duke (1-0-1) trailed 1-0 in the closing minutes of the contest. Freshman Brody Huitema’s last-ditch shot attempt was blocked, but the rebound bounced right to Mathers, who found the back of the net with 11 seconds to play to force overtime.
Sophomore Luis Rendon had a good look at the goal for the Blue Devils in overtime, but his shot bounded off the post to keep the game deadlocked until the final buzzer.
“That’s going to be part of when we look back to the season. It could be the tie that gets us into the playoffs or the non-loss that gets us into the playoffs,” Kerr said. “We played excellent soccer throughout the game to come back and tie that game late in the second half was a tribute to how well we work and how we’re not going to give up this year. We should have won in overtime”
Mathers also broke through in the 72nd minute against Northeastern (0-1-1) to break a scoreless tie.
“I saw the ball come across and told one of my teammates to leave it,” Mathers said. “It fell really nicely for me and I got over it and slid it in the corner.”
Duke matched the Huskies’ physicality from the game’s opening whistle. After being called for just 10 fouls against Rutgers, the Blue Devils were whistled for 12 fouls in the first half and racked up 20 on the game.
Less than two minutes after Mathers gave Duke a 1-0 lead, Huitema was taken down in the box as he streaked toward the net on a breakaway. Northeastern’s Conner Alexander was issued a red card for the foul, and Blue Devil midfielder Sean Davis knocked home the penalty kick to extend the team’s lead.
Kerr noted that with a number of new players getting comfortable with Duke’s system, the team continues to grow. But the Blue Devil head coach did not shy away from testing these new pieces against the Huskies, starting three of his four freshmen in Huitema, Jimmy Doll and Seo-in Kim alongside transfers Alex Long and Tomas Coulter.
“Really happy with the additions to the team,” Kerr said. “We had five new players in our starting lineup. We’re making strides—a long way to go, but good progress.”
Long, a graduate student who played three years at South Carolina, kept the Huskies off the board early in Sunday’s game, making a big save in the opening minutes and punching a way a number of early Northeastern corner kicks to keep the game scoreless en route to his first shutout in a Duke uniform.
Mathers said that after allowing a goal in the 21st minute of the contest against Rutgers, the Blue Devils are hoping to start games more quickly in hopes of making late-game heroics a last resort.
“We need to come out stronger in the first half. We tend to come out pretty slow,” Mathers said. “If we pick it up we can start punishing more teams early and then in the second half we always seem to pick it up. Our start is huge for us.”
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