Late goal line drama sees Pack draw Blue Devils

DURHAM, NC — The NC State men’s soccer team drew Duke 0-0 at Koskinen Stadium Friday night, picking up a crucial road point in the process.

For the second match in a row, the Wolfpack (7-3-3, 3-2-1 ACC) defense oversaw a goalless draw, this time holding the Blue Devils (6-6-1, 2-4 ACC) to just two shots on goal.

“I thought the guys played well,” said NC State head coach George Kiefer. “I thought it was a good performance for us … I think Duke sat very deep. In fact, their coach apologized for their approach in that  … you’d think at home they’d come out and be a good fight both ways but then saying that they almost nicked one, right, going the other way so a good performance from our guys in the first.”

The Wolfpack was the better of the two teams in the first half both on the stat sheet and off it. Statistically, the Pack led the Blue Devils 3-1 in shots and 1-0 in corner kicks. While the stats were not terribly dominant, they failed to tell the whole story.

At times the Wolfpack forced the Blue Devils to drop into a flat bank of six in the back and absorb a lot of pressure. The majority of the pressure came down the right flank from the midfield duo of sophomore Ivy Brisma and junior David Loera who consistently were able to beat their respective defenders and deliver balls into the box. 

“They have a relationship … I think they’ve played together long enough where when David rolls a certain way, Ivy knows where it’s going and vice versa,” Kiefer said. “And then you’re seeing … a lot of people just match up with those two.”

Despite the first-half dominance, the Blue Devils looked likeliest to take the lead early in the second half but the hosts were denied by redshirt senior goalkeeper Vinnie Durand. The keeper saw it late as it came through a crowd of bodies but he did well to react to it and keeper the clean sheet going.

“Nothing but credit to Vinnie,” said senior center back David Norris. “He has come in from years of being the second goalkeeper and come in as a professional and I think he’s done an excellent job so far and I feel confident with him behind me.” 

While the two teams traded shots through the majority of the half, the final five minutes of it turned into a bar-banging bonanza. Duke got it started with a beautiful free kick which cracked off the bar and back into play but Duke’s Max Moser missed the wide-open net. Then less than a minute later, Brisma floated a cross towards the far post which looked destined for the top left corner of the net before a combination of the bar and Blue Devils keeper Will Pulisic kept it out of the net.

Beyond the woodwork hits, the two sides traded a fury of shots within the final five minutes but even with all of the shots, neither side was able to find the back of the net and the match headed to golden goal overtime.

In overtime, the two teams exchanged a few shots but neither came very close to scoring until the final minute of the second half of overtime. Duke came within just a foot of the ball crossing the line but Norris lept into action and prevented what would have been a winning goal for the Blue Devils.

“The ball had just skipped past me, going to the end line,” Norris said. “One of their forwards crossed it back in and Vinnie got a hand to it and it just started rolling towards the goal line. I almost just froze because I didn’t want to hit it in, but I just ended up hooking it out of bounds which I was happy with.”

The Wolfpack will be back in action at 7 p.m. on Tuesday when it hosts Elon in a midweek break from ACC play at Dail Soccer Field. 

“They just beat Duke on Tuesday night and they could have beat Duke by several goals,” Kiefer said. “It is a match and you know [Marc Reeves, Elon’s head coach] I’ve known him all the way back since the St John’s days us at Radford did a good job. It’s going to be a grind, it’s going to be a good battle. That’s why we scheduled them we’re looking forward to it.”