Blue Devils Battle to 1-1 Tie at Elon

Tuesday, September 28

Elon, N.C.

7:00 PM

Duke University

Elon

Grossman Named to Preseason All-America Team

Blue Devils Battle to 1-1 Tie at Elon

9/28/2010 9:55:00 PM | Men's Soccer

By: Duke Sports Information

ELON, N.C.-The ninth-ranked Duke men's soccer team held a 22-8 advantage in shots, but was unable to come away with the win as it battled to a 1-1 tie with Southern Conference foe Elon this evening at Rudd Field. The Blue Devils remain unbeaten in non-conference play this season.

Duke owns a 4-1-3 overall record after the 1-1 draw, while Elon is now 3-2-3. Senior Cole Grossman tallied the goal for the Blue Devils, his second of the season. The Blue Devils had nine corner kicks to Elon's three for the game.

"I said to the boys that sometimes in a game like that you want to make sure that you gain a second goal to make sure that you have a little bit of a margin of error," head coach John Kerr said. "We didn't get that second goal and unfortunately scored an own goal. And that really got them into the game and got their spirits up."

The Blue Devils controlled the run of play throughout the first 20 minutes of the first half before Elon gained a rhythm of its own in the later minutes of the opening session. Neither team was able to generate truly dangerous opportunities as they headed into halftime even at zero.

The opening minutes of the second half was much of the same until Duke broke through with a score in the 56th minute. After a shot off the foot of Ryan Finley was blocked by the Elon defense, the ball popped out to the left flank where junior Christopher Tweed-Kent collected it near the end line. Tweed-Kent quickly slipped the ball into the box where Grossman was able to slide and tap it into the right corner of the net. The goal was Grossman's second of the year.

After weathering a spurt of offense from the Blue Devils, Elon started to pressure the Duke defense. The Phoenix evened the score in the 74th minute as the ball might go wide off a shot from the foot of Denzel Ogunyase, a Duke defender accidentally touched the ball into the net to make it a 1-1 game.

The Phoenix carried the momentum over the next 10 minutes as they put Duke under heavy pressure. Ogunyase had a good look again from the right side of the box, but Duke goalkeeper James Belshaw came up with a crucial save to keep the game even.

With just under five minutes to play, Grossman stepped behind a free kick from 20 yards and hooked a shot around the wall to the right post. Irwin read the shot well and made the save as he blocked the ball across the end line.

The Blue Devils regained the momentum in the final five minutes of regulation, garnering three corner kicks, but the team was unable to break through as the game was sent to overtime.

After some back-and-forth action in the opening five minutes of the first overtime period, Duke freshman Jonathan Aguirre nearly ended the game as he ripped a shot from 22 yards on goal. Elon goalkeeper Clint Irwin got just enough of the ball to push it off the crossbar. Irwin came up with another big save in the final seconds as he parried a shot from senior Nick Sih wide of the net to send it to a second overtime.

In the second extra session neither team had much luck in creating dangerous looks at the goal. The best chance of the 10 minutes came when Sih got forward on the right side and sent a ball into the box where Grossman touched it just wide. Despite Duke pressing forward in the final minutes, it was unable to get on the board as it posted its third tie of the season.

"That goal gave them a lot of confidence and they had a lot of spirit in their team and they did well once they scored that goal," Kerr said. "We were on our heels defending and the good news is that we kept them out and didn't allow that second goal and I thought we were the stronger team in the overtime."

Belshaw finished with three saves, while Irwin had nine stops in 110 minutes of action.

Duke resumes ACC action on Oct. 1 at rival Maryland. The game is scheduled to kick off at 8 p.m., on Fox Soccer Channel at Ludwig Field.