Blue Devils Impressive In Scrimmage Against Coastal Carolina on Sunday

Sunday, August 13

Durham, N.C.

5:00 p.m.

Duke University

Coastal Carolina- Exhibition

Blue Devils Host Duke/adidas Classic This Weekend at Koskinen Stadium

Blue Devils Impressive In Scrimmage Against Coastal Carolina on Sunday

8/13/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. - The Duke men's soccer team took to the field just four days after they started practice, hosting Coastal Carolina in a scrimmage on Sunday at Koskinen Stadium. The two teams played a set of three scoreless 30-minute sessions.

"We got a lot of guys playing time and for the most part all of them did well," said Head Coach John Rennie. "The goals will come but I was very happy with our defensive effort. I thought we shut them down very well. It was a quality team and a good result."

The Blue Devils' starting core looked strong in the first session. The top two scoring chances came towards the end of the period. Zach Pope sent a cross to the far post where Spencer Wadsworth headed it off the post. A short time later, Wadsworth found Chris Loftus on a give-and-go in which Loftus sent the ball off the post, narrowly missing for the second time.

"We are very happy with the way we played today," said Wadsworth. "We would have liked to do a little more offensively but we have only had a few days of practice and eventually the goals will come. I thought our defense played very well and a lot of our scoring chances came off the midfielders getting involved which is a good sign for down the road."

The second group put the pressure on the Chanticleers with several late scoring chances. Mike Grella started it off when he stole the ball and got past the goalkeeper, who came out on him, but the defender was able to get back and make a sliding stop. Grella later fired a shot to the left post that the goalkeeper made a diving save on. Graham Dugoni and Kevin Stevenson each had hard shots from about 25 yards out sail just over the crossbar. Freshman Ryan McDaniel had a point blank shot saved and Paul Dudley saw a header go just wide of the post.

"We created a lot of chances," said Rennie. "We created down the middle a few times, with combination plays, we went wide and we were good on free kicks. We created a variety of scoring chances and the sharpness is just not there right now because of fatigue and it is early. If you create chances like that the goals will come."

Duke will practice twice a day for the next two days before traveling to Greensboro for an exhibition contest with UNC Greensboro at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.