Finley Nets 3 as Duke Races Past Virginia Tech

Saturday, October 30

Blacksburg, Va.

7:00 PM

Duke University

Virginia Tech

Finley Nets 3 as Duke Races Past Virginia Tech

10/30/2010 10:46:00 PM | Men's Soccer

By: Duke Sports Information

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Duke University sophomore striker Ryan Finley tallied a hat trick and an assist and four different players tallied a goal as the Blue Devils raced past Virginia Tech, 6-1, in Atlantic Coast Conference men's soccer action this evening at Thompson Field. The hat trick is the third this season by Finley and ties the Duke single-season goals record.

The Blue Devils improve to 8-4-4 overall and 2-3-2 in conference action. The five-goal margin against the Hokies is the largest against an ACC squad for Duke since the Blue Devils defeated NC State 6-0 in 2005.

The three goals pushes Finley's season total to 17 to tie the Duke single-season mark set by Ali Curtis in 1999. His 37 points this year are tied for ninth on Duke's points list and are the most by a Blue Devil since Ali Curtis had 39 points in 2000.

"We played well tonight," head coach John Kerr said. "Especially in the first half, we created chances early and were able to get the early lead. We went into a lull for about 10 minutes, but then towards the end of the half we had three of four great opportunities."

Duke jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first 12 minutes of the contest. Senior defender Matthew Thomas notched his third goal of the season and second in two games in the sixth minute. After a shot from senior Cole Grossman was blocked, Thomas was able to collect the ball in the middle of the penalty area and bury a shot past Virginia Tech goalkeeper James Daly.

Finley struck six minutes later off and assist from Thomas to make it 2-0 just 11:35 into the contest. The assist was the first for Thomas in his career and gave him a career-high three points for the game.

The Blue Devils slowed down in the middle portion of the half and Virginia Tech was able to garner a pair of corner kicks and get off a pair of shots, including one on goal. Duke started to control the run of the game again in the latter minutes and nearly doubled the score, missing on a couple of golden opportunities.

With a 2-0 lead at the half, Duke quickly made it a 4-0 game with a pair of tallies in the first 10 minutes of the second session. Finley notched his second of the game off an assist from Grossman in the 52nd minute. Grossman got into the scoring action 4:19 later as Finley provided the senior forward with an assist.

"We reorganized at halftime and came out with the right mentality in the second half and were able to get two more early goals," Kerr said.

Just over a minute after Finley netted his third score of the game with a chip over the goalie's head in, Virginia Tech's Patrick Huang ruined Duke's shutout attempt with an unassisted goal.

Freshmen Tyler McDaniel and Will Donovan both notched their first career points in the 84th minute as they connected for the Blue Devils. Donovan gathered the ball on the flank and sent a pass into the penalty area where McDaniel made a great run towards the near post and perfectly finished a shot to make it 6-1 in Duke's favor.

In goal, James Belshaw made two saves in 74:31 of action. Devon Bostock and Nick Tsipis split the final 15 minutes of the match with Bostock picking up on stop. Daly had three saves for the Hokies.

Duke held a 15-8 advantage in shots, while Virginia Tech won the corner kick battle, 4-1.

The Blue Devils close out the regular season on Nov. 5, hosting Wake Forest at 7 p.m.

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