Eggleston Caps Wild Finish in 3-2 Win Over NC State

Wednesday, November 5

Durham, N.C.

7:00 PM

Duke University

NC State (First Round)

Eggleston Caps Wild Finish in 3-2 Win Over NC State

11/5/2014 11:14:00 PM | Men's Soccer

By: Duke Sports Information

Box Score

DURHAM, N.C. -- Senior defender Nat Eggleston scored the biggest goal of his life with 3:59 remaining in the second overtime to lift seventh-seeded Duke to a heart-stopping 3-2 victory over No. 10 seed NC State in men's soccer ACC Tournament First Round action this evening. The Blue Devils rallied from a 2-1 deficit in the final 90 seconds of regulation to keep their season alive.

“It's amazing,” Eggleston said of the win. “First off just to score the goal with 1:20 left to tie it up and extend our season is incredible. On the final goal we were just pushing and knew there was just four minutes left. We were just fighting for our season, fighting for our lives. It was one of those special moments when you just get to tap it in.”

Duke (9-8-1) advances to the ACC Tournament Quarterfinal against top-ranked and No. 2 overall seed Syracuse. The Blue Devils and Orange square off Nov. 9 at 1 p.m. The winner advances to the ACC Semifinal in Cary, N.C. the following week. Duke is riding a four-game win streak heading into Sunday.

“It was an unbelievable game,” said head coach John Kerr. “NC State played a great game. Their poise in the way they took the lead and could have gotten a second goal that might have knocked us out, but Wilson Fisher came up with a huge massive save. It was kind of even, back and forth and then they got that late goal and we had to knuckled down and scrape one out to get an equalizer before we went into overtime.”

Trailing 2-1 with less than two minutes to play, senior Nick Palodichuk registered the game-tying goal with 1:20 remaining in regulation, to keep the Blue Devils' season alive. Freshman Brian White finished with a goal and an assist, including a brilliant game-winning assist, while captain Sean Davis spearheaded the offense with a pair of assists.

After a lackluster first half in which both teams spent the majority of time in the middle of the field, the game picked up intensity from the opening whistle in the second half.

NC State (7-7-4) came out with more intensity to start the second 45 minutes and capitalized on a slow start from the Blue Devils with a goal just 4:02. Yanni Hachem was the lucky recipient of a beautiful cross from Matt Ingram to put the Wolfpack up 1-0.

The Wolfpack continued to pressure the Blue Devils and nearly took a 2-0 lead with a beautiful strike from Travis Wannemuehler that Fisher was able to deflect off the crossbar to keep Duke in the game.

Having weathered the early storm of offense from NC State, Duke settled into its rhythm and got the equalizer from White in the 62nd minute. Classmate Bryson Asher collected the ball 30 yards from goal and sent a good through ball to White who pushed it past Alex McCauley for his second goal in as many games.

With time winding down and looking like overtime was inevitable, NC State grabbed a 2-1 lead when Holden Fender headed in a corner kick with 1:49 left to play and set up the wild final 20 minutes of soccer.

North Carolina State had a 16-12 edge in shots. Fisher finished with a career-best six saves to post his fourth win of the year. McCauley made one stop in the 100-plus minutes of action.

#GoDuke