Pittsburgh, Pa. – The Duquesne University men's soccer team had its 2024 season come to a close Saturday with a 3-0 loss to Fordham at Rooney Field in the quarterfinals of the 2024 Atlantic 10 Championship. The Dukes, who had a 12-match unbeaten streak at home snapped, finish the season with an overall record of 11-4-2 (.706).
POINTS OF EMPHASIS
Scoreless through 45 minutes of action, the Rams struck early after the break, as Daniel D'Ippolito played a long outlet pass perfectly, letting it bounce in front of him before corralling it and unleashing a shot to the upper left corner of the goal to give Fordham a 1-0 lead at 46:21. A more free-flowing pace in the second half saw both teams with opportunities, including another from D'Ippolito after his first goal less than five minutes later, which was turned away by senior goalkeeper
Zoltan Nagy. Duquesne followed by going on the attack and looked to be in position to tie it, but the shot junior forward
Dakota Jonke fired on goal hit the right post and bounced away at 53:45.
STRETCHING OUT
The Dukes had another opportunity just over three minutes later, with Carter Abbott coming up with the save for Fordham off a header from senior forward
Maxi Hopfer. The Rams were able to clear and D'Ippolito came through again for the Rams, splitting a trio of defenders before connecting for his second goal of the game at 61:12 that found the back of net on the right side. D'Ippolito sealed the win for the Rams at 75:43, firing a shot that snuck inside the far post to complete the hat trick and give Fordham (8-4-5) a 3-0 cushion.
QUOTABLE
"The season as a whole was a success," head coach
Chase Brooks said. "We still as a program have to continue to take strides on this level. Fordham's a program, and there's a lot of programs in the A-10 that are used to winning championships and competing in A-10 Tournaments. We're actually still a very young program when it comes to that. Nights like tonight, you could see that Fordham brought the edge and the intensity. That's a huge takeaway moving into the offseason. I wanted to make sure I thanked the seniors. They've done so much for the program to help elevate it to where it is now. That platform is something that we just have to continue to build on."
THANK YOU
Saturday marked the final game for a number of Dukes, including
Maxi Hopfer,
Jesper Moksnes and
Christoffer Vie Angell. Hopfer fired off four of Duquesne's 13 shots in the contest, including two on goal, while Moksnes and Vie Angell each logged a full 90 minutes. For Moksnes, he concludes his career on the Bluff by playing 90 minutes in each of his final 19 matches, including all 17 during the 2024 campaign. One of five Dukes to start all 17 matches this season, Moksnes played 1,530 out of a possible 1,530 minutes throughout the year. For Vie Angell, Saturday's match marked the 50th of his career at Duquesne, each of which he was a member of the starting lineup.
QUOTABLE
"I had a lot of fun this season coaching these guys," Brooks said. "It was a joy to show up to work everyday and work with them. We knew we were going to get the effort from them every time we showed up. It's easy with guys like Max on the field because his energy is just infectious. That's going to be missed, and we're going to have a bit of a void that we'll have to fill. That's part of the process. Outside of one team it never ends exactly the way you want it to. Certainly like to still be playing on Wednesday night, but we learn from it and move forward."
NOTES
Hopfer concludes his career on the Bluff with 65 points in 66 matches … Hopfer tallied 25 goals and 15 assists on an even 200 shots, including 87 on goal … Hopfer joined Joshua Patterson (220) and Damien Pottinger (212) as the only players in school history to record at least 200 shots in a career … Hopfer also trails Pottinger and Patterson in the career record book in goals, with Pottinger scoring 38 from 2000 to 2003 and Patterson posting 29 from 2009 to 2012 … The hat trick for D'Ippolito gives him 13 goals during the 2024 season, which moves him atop the Atlantic 10 leaderboard … Nagy registered six saves for Duquesne and wraps up the season with an 10-4-2 record, six shutouts, a 1.03 goals against average and .809 save percentage to go along with 72 saves … In two seasons on the Bluff, Nagy finishes with 160 saves, a 1.25 goals against average and a. 788 save percentage.
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