In their last game, they had to wait nearly the full ninety minutes to get a goal against Syracuse in a 1-0 win. But the women of Duke soccer wasted little time before opening the scoring in a 3-0 blasting of Boston College Thursday night at Koskinen Stadium.
Starting the party early
In the twelfth minute, midfielder Maggie Graham lofted a beautiful pass towards Kat Rader, who outraced a BC defender to the ball, cut to her left and put a blast past keeper Wiebke Willebrant from just outside the eighteen-yard box. It was Rader’s fourth goal of the season.
11' | GOOOAAAALLLLL DUKE!!! 🗣️
— Duke Women's Soccer (@DukeWSOC) September 22, 2022
Maggie Graham pushes the ball up to Kat Rader to strike first!
😈 1, 🦅 0#GoDuke pic.twitter.com/MUpgIGfXcI
You just had to know she’d get on the sheet
You just knew we’d hear from goal-scoring ace Michelle Cooper. A penalty kick in the thirty-seventh minute gave the sophomore her sixth goal of the season and extended the Blue Devil lead to 2-0. Early in the second half, Mackenzie Pluck brought the ball up the left side, lost the BC defender with an abrupt change of direction, and sent a perfect pass to Cooper, who deftly headed the ball for her second goal of the evening and seventh of the season. Up 3-0, the Blue Devils cruised home for their second-straight ACC win.
53' | Can we get this one from every angle?! 🤯
— Duke Women's Soccer (@DukeWSOC) September 23, 2022
Pluck connects with Cooper for the header!
😈 3, 🦅 0#GoDuke pic.twitter.com/6vdjKFgc0z
Dominant in every way
When you look at the final stats, you see just how much the Blue Devils controlled this one. They outshot the Eagles 19-3 and had eleven shots on goal. Keeper Ruthie Jones had to make just one save in recording her fourth clean sheet of the season-it is her thirty-fourth career win. The dominant performance allowed Duke head coach Robby Church to empty his bench and use fourteen substitutes. Church was very pleased when he met with the media after the game, “I think it was our best 90 minutes of the year from the opening minutes all the way through. I am very happy with the 90 minutes, especially scoring early. Our mentality has started to change. We started to see that in the second half at Syracuse.”
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The Blue Devils will next travel to Raleigh to take on 25th-ranked N.C.State on Sunday night at 7 p.m. in a game carried on the ACC Network.