PITTSBURGH - After a chippy and defensive minded first half, the Duquesne University men's soccer team was able to come back out in the second half and scrape a goal across in the 70th minute by Jayden Da despite being a man down. This proved to be the deciding goal in a 1-0 Dukes win over the previously unbeaten Robert Morris Colonials on Wednesday evening from Rooney Field.  

Duquesne (3-1-1) has now won five straight matches against the Colonials (3-1-2) and improved its record to 13-1 when playing the local rivals on Rooney Field.

There were four yellow cards in the first half, and it all culminated with a red card given to Ben Pleavin just three seconds before the halftime whistle. Meanwhile, the shots were even at six for both sides. Zoltan Nagy came up large in the 9th minute when he denied John Paul Mbuthia on a shot to his feet. That was the best chance RMU got in the defensively minded half. Duquesne almost got on the board in the 22nd minute of the foot of Ashton Jell, but Colonials goalie Kieran Gorgenyi denied him with a leap to his right.  

In the second half, Duquesne played a more conservative brand of soccer being down Pleavin, and they were tested by the Colonial offense early and often. RMU took the first five shots over the first 15 minutes back from break. In the 60th minute, Chase Gilley launched a ball to the gut of Nagy, and that was the best the Colonials got in the second half as the DU defense locked down. Duquesne played gritty, and it paid dividends.

Sam Bennett launched a throw-in towards Da. Da deflected it to his teammate Jaxon Ervin, and before Da knew it, he had the ball on his toes, and he made no mistake in slotting it past Gorgenyi to give the Dukes a 1-0 lead with just under 20 minutes to go. This was a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the way.  

Da, a 6-4 junior forward, has now scored each of the last three goals for Duquesne over the two-game win streak and leads the team with five on the season. Ervin was credited with his second assist of the year on the game-winner.

The shots on goal were not as high as expected for Duquesne, totaling nine shots after entering the match with the 13th-best average in the NCAA (16.5 shots per game), but DU still held the shots on goal advantage for the match at 5-4.

Nagy came up huge with three of his four saves in the second half, which was enough for a Dukes win.  

Reilly Nickles logged his first career minutes with 26 minutes of action in the win.

This was also the first clean sheet of the year for Zoltan Nagy and the Dukes. They look to keep this home momentum rolling on Saturday in the Atlantic 10 Conference opener against UMass. Kickoff is set for 7 pm at Rooney Field.

POSTGAME INTERVIEW
Head Coach Chase Brooks


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