It happened so quickly that goalkeeper Wessel Speel looked surprised. SMU’s Milton Lopez took the ball past Bull Jorgensen, kept it away from Ruben Mesalles and shot it past Kamran Acito. He struck it from the top of the penalty arc and watched it dart into the bottom right of the goal before Speel clocked the play.
Thus began the Mustangs’ half-hour comeback effort.
No. 18 Duke, finally playing at home in Koskinen Stadium, took on No. 16 SMU Friday night in a frenzied matchup that ended in a 2-2 draw. The two programs faced off as conference opponents for the first time, proving the toughness of the ACC in a game that grew louder every moment.
“We defended well for a lot of the game, and then we let moments get to us. It's a shame, because we worked so hard for so long,” head coach John Kerr said after the game.
The first half played out like a crescendo, with Duke coming closer to a goal as the minutes ticked away. The Mustangs began with a bang, largely keeping possession of the ball. In bright blue and red, SMU’s tall team stood out on the field in Koskinen, playing with a speed and force that looked ready to crush the Blue Devils on their own field.
“We just didn't come out with the same passion that we came out with in the second half,” Kerr said.
That wasn’t the case for too long, though: Duke heated up, and SMU slowed down. When the Mustangs found their first real opportunity to score, Jorgensen threw his whole body in front of the ball for an effective block that gave things right back to the boys in white and blue. Speel kept the SMU box score clean with the help of Jorgensen and junior defender Acito while the Blue Devils on the front end of the field started to heat up. As the half proceeded, the ball spent more and more time on SMU’s side of the field, so that Duke boasted 57% of possession at the end of the period.
While most of the Blue Devils took their time warming up, graduate midfielder Colton Pleasants did the opposite. The UNC Wilmington transfer ran all over the grass, moving like an electric current in his efforts to put the ball within reach of SMU’s goal. Not out for his own glory, Pleasants played an excellent game of distraction, drawing Mustang defenders onto him and giving his teammates the chance to make a scoring play.
“He’s dangerous, right?” Kerr said of Pleasants. “He’s good on the ball, and he works hard. So it creates a situation where the other team has to worry about him, therefore other guys are open, and we can take advantage of that.”
They finally found that advantage. With increasing urgency, Duke bent back its cleats and shot, taking nine attempts before halftime.
With just 41 seconds to spare, one of them finally landed.
Senior captain Mesalles took his usual position at the corner and lined up to kick the ball in. His ball arched beautifully across the field, bounced off of a Mustang head and landed in front of Jose Ortega’s right foot. The junior forward didn’t even take a touch: He kicked the ball confidently into the net, squaring it just out of reach of SMU goalie Martin Dominguez.
The first goal is the hardest. Others follow easily. Three minutes and 51 seconds into the second half — just four minutes and 32 seconds after Ortega’s goal — freshman midfielder Julius Suber found graduate striker Adam Luckhurst on a cross from the left corner of the field, and the red-headed California native tapped it right in.
The Blue Devils had turned their slow-burn beginning into an action-packed five minutes, and it earned them a 2-0 lead over a team they have not beaten since 1996.
But then the clock ran below 30 minutes, and the action turned on Duke. Lopez’s long-range delivery put the fiery home team off-kilter and provided the Mustangs with a much-needed confidence boost. Just over eight minutes remained in the game when Ulfur Bjornsson took advantage of a fast break and sprinted down the field. Despite a lone SMU defender’s wicked speed, Bjornsson held onto the ball, even managing to maneuver around Dominguez. After the kick, though, the Iceland native didn’t pump his fists in the air, but rather groaned at the sky: He had watched the ball go wide around the right post.
The Mustangs had more luck. Like Ortega, Daniel Escorcia didn’t take a touch before he shot to the left of Speel. The Colombian junior ran over to his team’s bench, pounding his chest before his teammates surrounded him in celebration. SMU had no intention of entering its new conference quietly.
“We have to do better,” Kerr said.
It was not Bjornsson’s night. Moments later, the sophomore striker competed for a header and had his head hit on both sides by Mustangs vying for the ball. It took him a few moments to get up from the field and make his way back to the Duke bench.
When the final whistle blew, Blue Devils and Mustangs alike collapsed on the grass in Koskinen. When there’s a draw in a soccer game like this, nobody wins.
Duke will look to win — definitively win — Tuesday at Elon.
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Sophie Levenson is a Trinity junior and a sports managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.