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Men's Soccer
vs Louisville
Tuesday, November 1
Durham, N.C.
7:00 PM
Duke University
2
vs
2
Elon
Blue Devils and Phoenix Battle to 2-2 Draw
11/1/2011 10:25:00 PM | Men's Soccer
DURHAM, N.C.-Duke University freshman Matt Slotnick registered his first collegiate goal this evening to help the Blue Devils come from behind for a 2-2 draw with Elon in non-conference men's soccer action this evening at Koskinen Stadium. Junior Andrew Wenger had the other goal for the Blue Devils.
Duke (9-6-2) remains unbeaten in midweek play with the 2-2 tie with the Phoenix. Wenger netted his 17th goal of the season to tie the Duke single-season scoring mark. His 42 points overall this season are fifth in school history and only four shy of tying Tom Kain's mark of 46 from 1982. Senior Christopher Tweed-Kent pushed his point streak to six games with assists on both tallies.
"Well you always want to win," head coach John Kerr said. "They're a good team. Their record is not indicative of how good of a team they are. They were well organized. They were up for the game and made life very difficult for us and they attacked well and created chances. I was very impressed. Coach Powell has done a great job with them."
Elon (6-10-2) opened the game with the better of play as it tried to get in behind the Duke defense with direct services. Duke picked up its play and started to possess the ball better and looked for openings in its attacking third.
The Blue Devils finally broke through in the 28th minute when Tweed-Kent found the feet of Wenger 18 yards from goal. The native of Lititz, Pa., had a great touch to slip past a defender and then put the ball past Elon goalkeeper Nathan Dean for the 1-0 lead.
Wenger got another look a few minutes later, but his shot skipped just wide right of the goal and the Blue Devils took a 1-0 lead into halftime.
The Phoenix came out in the second half and quickly took a 2-1 lead with a pair of goals from Chris Thomas in a span of 3:22. The first came after Duke cleared the ball out of the penalty area and Nick Millington served it back to the far post where Thomas was able to put it past Duke goalie James Belshaw. Minutes later it was Thomas again breaking loose on a long ball from James Carroll. He got in behind the defense and deftly slipped his shot past Belshaw for the 2-1 advantage.
Duke responded and started to generate chances and control the run of play. The Blue Devils created good looks, but were just missing that finishing touch.
"We had most of the possession through the game," Kerr said. "Because they make life difficult and got everyone behind the ball early so it made it difficult challenge for us to break it down with so many players back there. That's tricky and it's not easy to do at any level. So if we were a little bit sharper in the final third I think we would have had a better ending. We had some good opportunities, but the final third we just weren't sharp enough. "
That final touch Duke was looking for came in the 73rd minute from Slotnick on the back post. Tweed-Kent carried the ball on the left side and served a perfect cross across the box where Slotnick knocked it home. The assist was Tweed-Kent's 11th of the year and third in the previous two games.
"I knew Chris [Tweed-Kent] is good at taking people one-on-one so I knew he was going to be able to get the ball in there," Slotnick said. "And I was just waiting for the ball to get over the defense and put me in a good position to score."
Duke dominated the majority of the two overtime sessions. The Blue Devils earned a pair of corner kicks right off the bat in the first extra session, but were unable to convert as they posted their second tie of the season and second consecutive against Elon.
The Blue Devils close out their regular season schedule on Nov. 4, hosting non-conference opponent Mercer at 7 p.m. Duke's six seniors will be honored prior to the game.
Players Mentioned
GK
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