University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville Men Fall 5-1 To Duke, Two Players Make All-Tournament Team
08.28.2016 | Men's Soccer
THE RUNDOWN
Score: Duke 5 UNC Asheville 1
Teams: Duke (1-0-1)
       UNC Asheville (0-2-0)
Location: Durham, N.C.
Durham, N.C. - Despite Chuka Anyafo's game-tying goal early in the second half, Duke University scored four second half goals to pick up a 5-1 win over UNC Asheville in today's finale of the John Rennie Nike Invitational at Duke.
GAME AT A GLANCE
Duke's Colby Agu broke open a scoreless game with just over two minutes left in the first half when he took a pass from Max Moser and desposited the ball into the lower left corner.
Anyafo tied the game just about a minute into the second half on a shot from 10 yards out off a save.Â
Following that, however, Duke answered less than a minute later and added goals in the 53rd, 69th and 73rd minutes, including the final two from Suniel Veerakone - both off 25 yard free kicks.
NOTABLES
- Elvis Boateng and Brian Wendelgass were named to the All-John Rennie Nike Invitational team.
- Duke out-shot UNC Asheville 19-10 overall and 12-4 in shots on frame. For UNC Asheville, Anyafo and Ben Chapal each had two shots, with Chapal producing a team-high two shots on goal.
- Chris Katt played the first 72:32 in goal for UNC Asheville and made six saves. Tyler Moore replaced him following the fifth goal and made one save the rest of the way.
- Anyafo's goal was his first and team's second of the season. Richie Lee has the other.
- Both teams combined for 34 fouls with UNC Asheville picking up 19.
QUOTABLES
"Obviously for the second time in a row, we played a very, very good team. We made some errors and they punished us for them. I thought we had a great response. They had a goal late in the first half, and we opened the second half with a goal. Then, full credit to Duke, they punished us for some very naive defending mistakes. Again, Duke is an excellent team, just like Elon - great student athletes and very well coached. These are the games that we want to play to find out how good we are. I certainly think that we're better than the scoreline reflects, but the scoreline is what the scoreline is. We'll travel back, take a day off tomorrow and get ready for two very good games in a row against Jacksonville and Stetson - both teams that are both very well coached and should be a great opportunity for us to get better. I was really pleased with a couple performances today. For Brian Wendelgass and Elvis Boateng to be named to the all-tournament team is a great honor for our program, and there was a world class finish today from Chuka - that was great to see. Besides being very disappointed in the scoreline, there were still some positive spots to hang our hat on and move forward" - UNC Asheville head men's soccer coach Mathes Mennell
UP NEXT
UNC Asheville will stay on the road and travel to Jacksonville University for an 8 p.m. match this coming Friday. They will then close out the season-opening road trip with matches against Stetson on Sept. 4 and Davidson on Sept. 9 before hosting the home opener on Sept. 11 against UNC Greensboro.
Â
