Wake Forest University
Duke
Wake Forest Drops Road Match To Duke, 4-1
9/23/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Sept. 23, 2011
Box Score | Box Score (.pdf) 
| Season Statistics (.pdf)
Follow Wake Forest Soccer on Twitter
DURHAM, N.C. - A second half tally by junior midfielder Ben Newnam wasn't enough as the Wake Forest men's soccer team fell, 4-1, on the road to the Duke Blue Devils on Friday, September 23 at Koskinen Stadium.
The Demon Deacons received their lone score of the night in the 74th minute on a header by Newnam, his second of the season, off a cross from junior forward Andy Lubahn.
Wake Forest came out firing early on, recording four shots in the first four minutes of play. Freshman forward Sean Okoli forced Duke keeper James Belshaw into action inside the first minute, but the teams would remain locked up at nil through the first 27 minutes.
Redshirt junior Danny Wenzel made an athletic sliding tackle in the 28th minute to save a wide open shot, but the referee called the Wake Forest captain for a deliberate handball and awarded a penalty kick to Duke's Jonathan Aguirre, who placed his shot inside the far post past junior goalkeeper Michael Lisch.
A fired up Wenzel received a yellow card shortly thereafter as Duke mounted pressure with two close chances. One header attempt by Nick Palodichuk was saved by Lisch, and another Duke shot went just wide of the far post.
In the 34th minute, sophomore forward Luca Gimenez was fouled inside the box and awarded an opportunity to equalize on a penalty kick of his own. Gimenez's kick was on target, but Belshaw managed to get a hand on it to save a score.
The Deacs had another excellent opportunity in the 35th minute, but a header shot from a streaking Gimenez was again plucked out of the air by Belshaw.
In the second half, Duke tacked on three goals to seal the win as the Deacons were forced to play without defender Jared Watts from the 73rd minute on after the sophomore received a red card - the first ejection of 2011 for WFU and only the third red card received by a Deac since 2006.
Wake Forest fell to 2-4-1 on the season and 1-2 in the ACC with the loss and will look to get back on track on Sunday, Sept. 25 with a recently announced home match against Winthrop. The match will serve as a makeup for the Deacs after lightning put a stop to last Wednesday's road match in South Carolina. Kickoff between the teams is set for 5 p.m. at Spry Stadium.
