UNC men's soccer upended by Blue Devils, 2-1

Three weeks, 20 days, 493 minutes.

That’s how long it had been since the North Carolina men’s soccer team had allowed a goal entering Friday night’s matchup with Duke. The Tar Heels last conceded in a 1-0 loss to then-No. 4 UCLA on Aug. 31.

So when No. 1 UNC (5-2-0, 1-1-0 ACC) took the field against the Blue Devils (3-2-1, 1-1-0 ACC) and started dominating early, it looked like the team was headed for its fifth straight victory.

But nobody told that to Duke midfielder Sean Davis.

Davis’ free kick in the 75th minute, which curved over the wall and past the outstretched arms of goalkeeper Brendan Moore, not only tied the score 1-1, but cracked the code on UNC’s vaunted defense. A second Duke goal, this time assisted by Davis, came only six minutes later and gave Duke the 2-1 victory.

“I think we just ran out of gas,” coach Carlos Somoano said. “I feel like the two games we’ve dropped, we just didn’t have our sharpest legs.

“That’s not an excuse, but I know our team, and I can see when they can move and when they can’t move as well as normal.”

While the defense had been stout prior to the Duke game, UNC’s offense has really been the team’s strength. In only his second season playing in Chapel Hill, forward Andy Craven is leading the Tar Heels with four goals in seven games.

On Friday, though, Craven couldn’t produce a much-needed goal. Despite five shots, only two of them were on target; the trend of poor shooting carried over to the entire offense.

Wide right. Wide right. Wide left. And wide right again.

It wasn’t until the 37th minute, when Alex Olofson crossed the ball to Tyler Engel in the box, that UNC had a realistic chance of scoring.

Engel’s scissor-kick, only inches from falling out of bounds, ricocheted off the right post and rolled lazily into the bottom left corner of the net.

“I saw Oly get to the end line, and then usually because I’m back post I curl around to the front, and then he played a great ball to the top of the box and I just hit it in the corner,” Engel said.

The final third of the first half, highlighted by Engel’s score, the Tar Heels were especially threatening; with creative passing combinations and fancy footwork, UNC was creating chances left and right.

“I certainly think the last 15-20 minutes of the first half we were hot, and I was worried we weren’t going to get any reward for it, so I was glad Tyler was able to pick that one up,” Somoano said. “Certainly we could’ve gotten another one, and at that point in the game we were very dangerous.”

But in the second half, those chances stopped coming. Duke’s defense stopped Craven and friends from penetrating, while on the other end, the Blue Devils’ intensity led to shots of their own. Eventually, Duke was able to do what UNC could not: score.

After the game, defender Boyd Okwuono recognized that UNC was unable to overcome Duke’s first goal, and that that was ultimately the reason why the Tar Heels lost.

“We just have to respond. We have to work,” he said. “I don’t know what it was, but we just didn’t respond.”

sports@dailytarheel.com