No. 4 Duke Defeats Maryland, 1-0, Will Face Wake Forest For ACC Championship

Friday, November 3

Boyds, Md.

8:00 p.m.

Duke University

Maryland

No. 4 Duke Defeats Maryland, 1-0, Will Face Wake Forest For ACC Championship

11/3/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer

By: Duke Sports Information

BOYDS, Md. ? On a cold night in front of a raucous pro-Maryland crowd of 7,119, Duke (15-3-1) scored a first-half goal and held on late to claim a 1-0 victory against the Terrapins (15-4-1) in the ACC Tournament semifinals. The two teams met in the semifinals for the second consecutive year, with Duke winning both contests. With tonight's win, the Blue Devils avenged a 1-0 loss to Maryland in College Park, Md. On Sept. 29.

The Blue Devils started the game strong on the offensive end, taking the first six shots of the night. In the ninth minute, Duke had a flurry of opportunities with four consecutive shots by Joe Germanese, Pavelid Casteneda, Michael Videira and another by Germanese. The first two shots were blocked by Maryland defenders and Videira's strike from 15 yards reached Terrapin goalkeeper Chris Seitz, who made a diving save. Germanese's final shot went wide, ending the Blue Devil threat.

Maryland was unable to get a shot off until the 16th minute when sophomore midfielder Graham Zusi fired a blast from the right corner of the 18-yard box wide left.

In the 27th minute, Videira played a ball through the Maryland back line to sophomore forward Mike Grella, who found himself alone in the box with Seitz before Maryland defender A.J. Delagarza ran into the play and made a sliding tackle which knocked Grella to the grass.

The Blue Devils had another quality opportunity in the 31st minute as Grella fed senior forward Chris Loftus on a fast break. Loftus' shot ricocheted off a Maryland defender and nearly spun into the goal before Seitz corralled it.

Just moments later, junior defender Tim Jepson was whistled for a yellow card and Zusi fired the ensuing free kick from 25 yards out just inches over the crossbar.

At the 34:14 mark, Loftus went down with an injury to his leg and did not return to the game.

In the 38th minute, Wadsworth sent a corner kick to the far post which Germanese headed toward the goal. Grella was unable to play it in from the doorstep before the ball cleared the endline wide right.

Less than two minutes later, Wadsworth connected with Germanese again for the first goal of the game. Wadsworth sent a cross from the right side across the goal mouth to a wide open Germanese who beat Seitz on a header to the bottom right corner of the net. The goal was Germanese's fourth of the season while Wadsworth picked up his ACC-leading 13th assist. The assist was Wadsworth's 32nd as a Blue Devil, which ranks seventh in the Duke record books. Tom Kain holds the Duke career assists record, with 45 during his four years in Durham from 1982 to 1985.

Duke took the 1-0 lead into halftime after outshooting the Terrapins 15-2 in the opening period. The Blue Devils also held a 5-1 advantage on corner kicks after the first 45 minutes of play.

The first 14 minutes of the second half was marked by battles in the midfield as neither team recorded a shot until Pavelid Casteneda fired from 25 yards to the right side of the net, but Seitz was there for the save.

The Blue Devils survived a scare in the 62nd minute as a Maryland throw-in dribbled through the left side of the box, but no Terrapin was able to put a foot on it before Papadakis slid in to take control.

Barnes was issued his second caution of the season with at the 64:04 mark and the ensuing free kick sailed dangerously over the heads of the Duke back line before Papadakis got his hands on it.

With just under 22 minutes remaining, Grella gathered the ball off of a broken Duke corner kick and launched a highlight-reel bicycle kick which missed the right post by inches.

ACC Freshman of the Year Jeremy Hall took the first shot of the second half for the Terrapins at the 73:46 mark, a sharp roller off a Maryland throw, which narrowly missed the right side of the goal. Papadakis was issued a yellow card for dissent after the play.

Freshman forward Joshua Bienenfeld took his first shot of the game with 10 minutes left in the second half on a blast from 15 yards which sailed high and left.

Maryland had one of its best opportunities in the 82nd minute when Rich Costanzo took a right-footed rocket which went off the hands of a diving Papadakis and out of bounds. Three minutes later, Maurice Edu took a shot off a corner from 12 yards which just missed high and right. Maryland had its final scoring opportunity of the night with 21 seconds remaining as Omar Gonzalez send a header wide right.

For the game, Duke outshot Maryland 18-6, including a 5-0 advantage on shots on goal. The win was Duke's seventh in its last 11 meetings with Maryland. The Blue Devils improved to 4-1 against Maryland in the ACC Tournament.
Duke will look to defend its ACC Championship against top-ranked and second-seeded Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament final on Sunday at 1:10 p.m. The game will be televised by Fox Sports Net. Duke defeated Wake Forest during the regular season by a score of 4-3 on Sept. 8 in Winston-Salem, N.C.

2006 ACC Men's Soccer Championship
First Round - Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Match 1: #9 N.C. State 4 - #8 Virginia Tech 3

Quarterfinal Round - Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Match 2: #2 Wake Forest 0 - #7 North Carolina 0 (Wake Forest won on penalty kicks 5-4)
Match 3: #1 Duke 2 - #9 N.C. State 1
Match 4: #3 Virginia 2 vs. #6 Clemson 0
Match 5: #4 Maryland 1 vs. #5 Boston College 0 (2OT)

Semifinal Round - Friday, November 3, 2006
Match 6: #2 Wake Forest 1 vs. #3 Virginia 1 (Wake Forest won on penalty kicks 3-2)
Match 7: #1 Duke 1 vs. #4 Maryland 0

Championship Final - Sunday, November 5, 2006
Match 8: Championship Match- 1:10 pm (televised by Fox Sports Net)

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