PITTSBURGH - With a big goal from Ask Ekeland early in the game, the Duquesne University men's soccer team defeated the University of Massachusetts in a tightly contested matchup 1-0 at Rooney Field on Saturday night in a mutual conference opener.

The Dukes (4-1-1) got going early with a quick pass from Nate Dragisich leading to a long run from junior forward Jayden Da past two Minutemen before throwing a pass right in front of the net to sophomore midfielder Ask Ekeland who tapped it in in the 11th minute. The score was Ekeland's fourth goal of the season with assists from Dragisich and Da being their first and second, respectively.

Despite being outshot in the first half 10-2 DU went into halftime holding onto a 1-0 lead as goalkeeper Zoltan Nagy made three saves to keep the shutout going.

The Dukes opened the second half with another big run from Da muscling past a UMass defender before firing a shot on goal that would be saved by Minutemen's goalkeeper Matt Zambetti. 

Trouble would start to surface in the second half including two yellow cards for Duquesne but they stood strong and put some dangerous shots on net including a long volley from sophomore midfielder Ashton Jell that Zambetti saved.

The defense was able to stand strong against the Minutemen's attack blocking seven shots and kept the pressure a lot lower for Nagy than the stats suggest. Despite a 26-5 shot advantage for UMass, the shots on goal were just 6-5 in favor of the Minutemen.

The Dukes fended off 11 corner kicks and Nagy totaled five saves for the second consecutive clean sheet.

Duquesne will look to keep up the winning ways against Xavier on Tuesday at Rooney Field with kickoff starting at 1:00 P.M.  

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