Duke soccer: Men use big second half to dump Louisville

Saturday night, the seventh-ranked men of Duke soccer used a late goal to complete a come-from-behind win to open ACC play on the road in a back-and-forth affair against number ten Louisville.

Home team strikes first

Although the Blue Devils put on a lot of pressure and had scoring opportunities, it was the Cardinals who got on the board first. Konstantinos Georgallides netted his second goal of the season to give the hosts the lead in the 34th minute.  It was the first goal Duke keeper Eliot Hamill has given up this season-a shutout streak that reached just over 300 minutes.

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Second-half comeback needed

Duke kept up the pressure to start the second half, but couldn’t capitalize on a couple of scoring chances, including a shot from Shakur Mohammed that hit the crossbar. The Blue Devils finally got the equalizer in the fifty-third minute courtesy of Jai Bean, who was making his first appearance of the season. In the seventy-second minute, Hamill was forced to make a couple of saves to keep the game tied before Mohammed put the Blue Devils in front for good in the eighty-first minute with a shot into the right corner. Hamill would be called on again to stonewall the Cardinals in the final minutes to preserve the win.

Speaking to the media after the game, head coach John Kerr was happy to get a victory on the road, “Our team had to overcome the adversity of getting scored on for the first time this season and we handled it well. We bounced back and pressured their defense higher up the field which created several chances to score. We’re very proud of this performance but it’s very early in the season!”

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Louisville put nine shots on goal forcing Hamill to make a season-high eight saves. Mohammed added an assist to go along with his goal and now has eight points on the season. Sophomore midfielder Nick Pariano assisted on both goals and now has four. The men are back in Koskinen Stadium to take on North Carolina on September 16th in a game streamed live at 7 p.m. on ACC Network Extra