Will Stover | staff writer

The Duquesne men’s soccer team entered Saturday night’s match at Alumni Soccer Stadium in Davidson, North Carolina, with everything on the line. Coming off a stretch of tough Atlantic 10 contests and sitting on the edge of playoff contention, the Dukes knew their matchup against the Davidson Wildcats was as close to a “must-win” as it gets.

With the regular season coming to an end, every match took on added urgency as the Dukes tried to punch their ticket to the postseason — only to have their hopes slip away in the 83rd minute when Davidson captured a late victory over Duquesne.

From the opening whistle, the tone was set. Davidson struck first in the 38th minute with a loose ball rocket by Davidson’s Nicholas Zeballos from the edge of the box.

The Dukes answered before halftime, however, when freshman Alex Posada collected his first NCAA Division I goal, converting a feed from midfielder Bendix Bennetzen to even the scoreboard seven minutes before the half.

Posada’s game-saving moment provided a spark for Duquesne’s offense, but the Wildcats wouldn’t be denied. With just eight minutes to play, Davidson’s Brady McGlone raced into space and drove home the dagger off a play orchestrated by Zeballos.

Despite Duquesne’s urgency and momentum, the comeback attempt fell short.

The tough loss came down to a battle of will. Davidson out-shot the Dukes 17 to 8 and earned eight corner kicks to the Dukes’ three. For Duquesne, the opportunities did not come as often, and the margin for error proved smaller. And that, in a must-win game, decided the victor.

“As a veteran, you love to see the younger guys thrive,” goalkeeper Diego Chavez said. “Especially in a game like that… there was a lot of pressure, and for him to kind of trump that pressure and come through for us was amazing.”  

His praise was directed at the freshman Posada, who has taken on an upperclassman role on the team.

“At this point… it was just basically kind of like, win or die — you know what I mean? Like win or go home.” Chavez said.

That mindset set the tone for the evening for Duquesne, and Dukes defender Daman Sangha echoed the sentiment.

“We knew going into this game it was a must win, essentially. And that’s kind of the mentality we played with… It didn’t go our way, but that’s the mentality we had.” Sangha said. “Posada… as a freshman to come in and start every game, pretty much, is impressive. Even overall, we’ve relied on underclassmen to play significant minutes for us.”

For Duquesne, the loss was painful, but not fatal. The Dukes now carry an 8-5-1 overall record and are 2-5 in conference play. While that conference mark doesn’t look ideal, the team could still find a way to the playoffs.

“We still, luckily, have a chance this weekend based on the results that went our way,” Sangha said, referring to the home-match with the George Mason Patriots on Saturday.

Their upcoming game on Saturday proves very important. A win would give the Dukes momentum and, more importantly, extend the hope of sneaking into the A10 tournament.

“If we can continue that motivation into this next game… we’ll claim it, because we’ll be at home,” Chavez said, talking about the home-field advantage at Rooney Field.

The red-shirt senior also spoke on the emotional stakes, noting that if it were his last game, he wanted to “play having fun… leave everything out there.”

Still, Duquesne would have preferred to come away with the result. The loss means the Dukes must now shift gears quickly, sharpen communication and harness the “win-or-die” attitude they brought into Davidson.

In the tension of this season’s closing chapter, Duquesne gave themselves a shot. Still, Chavez and his team recognized something is missing in their recipe for success.

“When you’ve got zero shots on you or zero saves … it means the team’s doing something good, but there’s something missing,” Chavez said.

The hope now is that the missing piece — closing the game out when it counts — will arrive on Saturday.

Will Stover can be reached at stoverw1@duq.edu