As Ruben Mesalles let rip his shot, a red-and-white-clad Hokie slid feet-first in the way of the ball. It rolled out to the corner. They couldn’t take down the No. 2 team in the country, but the Hokies came to Duke with no reservations.
No. 3-seed Duke hosted No. 14-seed Virginia Tech Wednesday night in Koskinen Stadium for the first round of the ACC tournament. The Blue Devils fought through lockdown defense for a 2-0 victory that will keep them at home for a quarterfinal matchup against California Sunday.
“They came with a good game plan tonight, and they made us take extra touches that we normally don't need to,” head coach John Kerr said after the game. “Because of their setup and their discipline defensively, we had to work hard to get our openings.”
Armed with vengeance and height, Virginia Tech (7-7-4, 1-6-2 in the ACC) stormed Koskinen Stadium. In their 27 previous meetings with Duke, the Hokies have won only four games, and their single matchup this season was not one of those victories. To say the visiting team had a chip on its shoulder would be an understatement. They certainly played like it — Virginia Tech caged Duke (11-2-4, 4-1-3 in the ACC) into its own side of the field in the first period of the game, taking an even share of possession and working the Blue Devil defenders into a sweat.
Duke defense is no joke, though, and it’s used to hard work. Senior Sintayehu Clements, new to the starting defensive line, blocked the ball ruthlessly all night. Mesalles, able to anticipate exactly where the Hokies would pass, began his interferences early. And rarely does a ball get past junior Kamran Acito.
Virginia Tech played out a similar scene on the other side of the field. Duke couldn’t push the ball deep enough into the bottom third to take any shots on goal in the first frame, especially not with four Hokie defenders lined up in front of their keeper. The visiting team left the Blue Devils without breathing room, playing an aggressive style of defense that earned it steal after steal. Indeed, possession bounced back and forth as if this were a tennis match rather than a soccer game: Each team took its turn trying to break the other’s stolid defense, failed, then scurried into a defensive formation before the fast-paced match could see a result for the other team. At one point, Acito’s frustration inspired him to dribble well into the offensive realm just so he could see the ball made some headway.
“They’re tall and physical and compact,” sophomore Ulfur Bjornsson said. “We just needed to be patient and trust in ourselves. That's how we got through eventually.”
With 1:19 remaining in the first half, Virginia Tech’s Ethan Hackenberg sailed a mighty arc of a shot at the spot between the top of Speel’s head and the crossbar above it. The Netherlands native leaped up to deflect it, shutting down the Hokies’ best attempt yet. The game broke for halftime at a nil-nil standstill.
Things only got faster in the second frame.
Malick Thiaw was finally about to break Duke’s defensive bastion: He had dribbled past the pawns and had the ball aimed and loaded for the king. But Clements, like a knight, came out of nowhere, finding the razor-thin moment of Thiaw’s hesitation to get in his way and protect Speel from having to make a save.
The scare pushed Duke’s accumulating frustration over the edge. Fleet-footed graduate midfielder Colton Pleasants took a pass from junior Drew Kerr with nobody in his way but Wenzel. Pleasants tends to execute, and that did not change Wednesday night as the Raleigh native slotted a rainbow-shaped goal decisively into Virginia Tech’s net.
This is how it happens in soccer: The first goal breaks the game wide open. But in this particular match, when the game broke open, it wasn’t brimming with goals. The inside of this game burst with fouls that summoned penalties and riled up the stands.
Just minutes after Duke’s result, the Hokies found themselves in a throng on Speel’s threshold, fighting in a mob to send the ball at the goal. Out of the scuffle, a foul was called on Jamie Kabussu, and the referee motioned for a Virginia Tech penalty kick.
But Speel dove to his right to deflect Ian Marcano’s open attempt with his left hand. Duke kept its 1-0 lead.
“What a penalty save,” Kerr said. “That really helped maintain our momentum.”
Then, Acito’s slide tackle on Oliver Roche drew a foul and a free kick for the Hokies, which Virginia Tech couldn’t capitalize on. Five minutes later, Roche drew a yellow card. Trey Gardiner shoved Bjornsson from behind as the Scandinavian striker rushed through the back third with the ball. Bjornsson put the penalty kick where Wenzel could catch it. None of these calls changed the score, but they transformed the game nonetheless from scrappy to hostile.
That hostility gave Bjornsson — the top scorer in the conference — the extra spark he needed to double Duke’s advantage. Graduate midfielder Cameron Kerr crossed the ball past three defenders, right to Bjornsson’s foot. The sophomore didn’t even take one touch before sending it flying into the right side of the goal. He celebrated with his hands up in a shrug for his signature post-goal move. With 9:05 on the clock in Koskinen, the Blue Devils led 2-0.
“We knew that coming into the second half, we were gonna get chances. We just had to take them,” Bjornsson said.
In waning minutes, Virginia Tech tried its luck, but to no avail. The boys in Duke blue circled up to sing “Happy Birthday” to Pleasants and celebrate their ticket to the quarterfinals.
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Sophie Levenson is a Trinity junior and a sports managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.