Boston College Athletics
Men's Soccer ACC Tournament Quarterfinal Preview: Duke
November 09, 2010 | Men's Soccer
Nov. 9, 2010
Boston College vs. Duke
2010 Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Soccer Championship - Quarterfinal Round
Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2010 - 8 p.m.
WakeMed Soccer Park, Cary, N.C.
Team Records: Boston College - 9-3-5, 2-2-4 ACC; Duke - 9-4-4, 3-3-2 ACC
Coverage: ACC Network via theACC.com
2010 ACC Men's Soccer Championship Central Web Site
BOSTON COLLEGE EARNS ACC TOURNAMENT'S NO. 5 SEED: The Eagles concluded the 2010 Atlantic Coast Conference regular season with 10 points and a 2-2-4 league record to earn the conference tournament's No. 5 seed. Duke edged Boston College by one point, finishing its conference schedule with 11 points and a 3-3-2 record to earn the No. 4 seed ... Video coverage of Wednesday's quarterfinal-round game between the Eagles and Blue Devils is available through the ACC Network at: theACC.com.
THE DUKE SERIES: Boston College and Duke have met seven times as league opponents. The Blue Devils lead the series 4-3-0. BC is 2-4-0 against Duke in regular-season action and 1-0-0 in the ACC Tournament. The 2010 ACC Championship marks the second straight season in which Boston College will open the league tournament against Duke. Last year, third-seeded BC earned a 1-0 overtime victory over sixth-seeded Duke on Edvin Worley's golden goal in the 96th minute to advance to the semifinals.
THE LAST MEETING: (Sept. 24, 2010 in Durham, N.C.) - Duke junior midfielder Christopher Tweed-Kent scored the game's lone goal in the 83rd minute as 10th-ranked Boston College fell to the host and 11th-ranked Blue Devils before 1,061 fans at Koskinen Stadium. Tweed-Kent scored the gamewinner off a cross from classmate Temi Molinar from six yards out at 82:51. Forward Ryan Finley also assisted on the goal, the first scored against Boston College in four games dating back to its 1-1 tie with then-No. 9 Maryland on Sept. 10. BC's opponents' scoreless streak came to an end at 423 minutes, four seconds. Sophomore forward Charlie Rugg paced the Eagle offensive attack with four shots, including a pair of prime scoring opportunities. The first came in the 10th minute but was stopped by Duke sophomore goalkeeper James Belshaw (four saves). Rugg later nearly missed netting the go-ahead goal with a header that bounced off the post 24 seconds prior to halftime. Classmate Kyle Bekker also nearly scored twice. The 5-foot-9, 165-pound product of Oakville, Ontario, connected with Boston College's first shot off the post in the ninth minute from 22 yards out. Bekker later nearly beat Belshaw with a dangerous shot that missed by the far post in the 74th minute.
2010 Boston College Men's Soccer Roster
ROSTER BREAKDOWN
By Class:
SENIORS (4): Dave Dale (Eagan, Minn.), Myles Gerraty (Nutley, N.J.), Ayotunde Ogunbiyi (Gwynedd, Md.), Karl Reddick (Pottstown, Pa.)
JUNIORS (4): Edvin Worley (Jensen Beach, Fla.), Conor Fitzpatrick (Coventry, Conn.), Patrick Chin (Arcadia, Calif.), Amit Aburmad (Zofim, Israel)
SOPHOMORES (8): Stefan Carter (Wheatley Heights, N.Y.), Kyle Bekker (Oakville, Ontario), Sacir Hot (Fair Lawn, N.Y.), Justin Luthy (Dublin, Ohio), Kevin Mejia (Pasadena, Calif.), Charlie Rugg (Roslindale, Mass.), Colin Murphy (Onehunga, New Zealand), Isaac Taylor (Ashton, Md.)
FRESHMEN (8): Chris Ager (Gjettum, Norway), Gregg Bryer (Cape Town, South Africa), Nico Capetola (Manhasset, N.Y.), Henry Bunkall (Pasadena, Calif.), John Bunkall (Pasadena, Calif.), Ryan Dunn (Hampton, N.H.), Jamie Doherty (Mansfield, Mass.), Cameron Stoker (Holden, Mass.)
Hometown in:
United States - 19; California (4), Connecticut (1), Florida (1), Maryland (1), Massachusetts (3), Minnesota (1), New Jersey (2), New Hampshire (1), New York (2), Ohio (10), Pennsylvania (2); Canada - 1; Israel - 1; New Zealand - 1; Norway - 1; South Africa - 1.
QUICK HITS
• Boston College finished the 2010 regular-season with a 9-3-5 record, including a 7-1-1 record against non-conference opponents.
• BC went unbeaten on its home turf - the Newton Campus Field - this fall, notching a 6-0-3 record, including a 5-0-0 record against non-league opponents.
• Boston College played to a draw in four (of eight) ACC games this fall, equaling its five-year combined total of ties since joining the conference in July 2005 in one season.
• The Eagles outscored their opponents 16-6 in the first half of play and 15-13 in the second half of play.
• The team neither allowed a goal nor scored itself in five games that advanced to overtime (golden goal) play in 2010. That's 100 minutes of sudden-death competition.
• Four players - midfielder Kyle Bekker, midfielder Conor Fitzpatrick, goalkeeper Justin Luthy and forward Charlie Rugg - enter the ACC Tournament having started all 17 games this season.
• Junior Conor Fitzpatrick has started 58 of Boston College's 59 games over his three seasons. Sophomore Kyle Bekker has started all 38 games in the Eagle midfield in the last two seasons.
• Boston College is 0-2-3 in five matches against opponents that were ranked among the nation's top 11 by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). The Eagles and three league opponents - No. 9 Maryland (Sept. 10), No. 3 North Carolina (Oct. 15) and No. 8 Virginia (Oct. 22) - played to a 1-1 draw. BC suffered road losses at No. 11 Duke (Sept. 24) and No. 3 Connecticut (Sept. 28).
• Head coach Ed Kelly has led his teams to six conference tournament titles - five in Big East Tournament competition and one in ACC Tournament play. He led Seton Hall to back-to-back tournament titles (in 1986 and 1987) in his three years as head coach of the Pirates and led Boston College to three Big East Tournament crowns (1990, 2000 and 2002). Kelly led the Eagles to its first Atlantic Coast Conference championship in Cary, N.C., in November 2007.
• Freshman center back Chris Ager, a second-semester freshman from Gjettum, Norway, is fluent in four languages - Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and English. Sophomore Sacir Hot, also a center back, speaks three languages - English, Spanish and Serbian.
• Freshman center back Chris Ager was named the 27th recipient of the prestigious Thomas McElroy Award, an annual scholarship presented to the Boston College soccer student-athlete who best exemplifies the qualities that made Tom such a special person. Tom McElroy, Jr., a goalkeeper, was diagnosed with cancer in January 1979 and played his senior season through treatments and recuperation, helping to guide Boston College to a 3-1 victory over Bridgeport in ECAC Championship on Nov. 23, 1980. Tom McElroy succumbed to cancer on July 17, 1981 at age 22. He was inducted into the Boston College Varsity Club Hall of Fame on Oct. 23, 1987, the first men's soccer player to earn the distinction.
RUGG, BEKKER, AGER EARN ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS: Three players - forward Charlie Rugg, midfielder Kyle Bekker and defender Chris Ager - have each earned 2010 All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors. Rugg captured all-conference first-team recognition, Bekker earned all-league second-team honors and Ager garnered All-Freshmen Team accolades. A Roslindale, Mass., resident, Rugg played in and started all 17 regular-season games as a sophomore in 2010. For the second straight season, the 6-foot, 175-pound forward led the team in scoring with 18 points - a team-high eight goals and two assists. An Oakville, Ontario, resident, Bekker started all 17 regular-season games as a sophomore in 2010 and has started all 38 games in the Eagle midfield in his two seasons. The 5-foot-9, 160-pound Bekker tallied 10 points - three goals and four assists this fall. A Gjettum, Norway, resident, Ager has started each of the last 12 games as a central defender. He missed the first five games of his freshman campaign and has started each game since.
BC IN THE ACC: Boston College has a 22-18-8 record in six years of regular-season competition in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Eagles have finished among the league's top five teams in each of the last five seasons, producing a combined record of 22-12-6 (.625 win percentage) in regular-season competition during that span. The 2007 Boston College entry captured the league regular-season crown with a 7-1-0 record.
BC IN THE ACC TOURNAMENT: Boston College has a 5-4-0 record in five league tournaments. After suffering first-round defeats in 2005 and 2006, the Eagles went 3-0 en route to the 2007 ACC Men's Soccer Championship title. In each of the last two tournaments, BC advanced past its quarterfinal-round opponent before being eliminated in semifinal competition.
THE KELLY FILE
Years as a head coach: 26
Record: 256-182-49
Years at Boston College: 23
Record: 216-169-43
ACC Record: 22-18-8
ACC Record By Year ...
2005: 0-6-2
2006: 3-3-2
2007: 7-1-0*
2008: 5-3-0
2009: 5-3-0
2010: 2-2-4
* - Regular-season champions
BC IN THE RPI: Boston College is ranked 38th in the latest NCAA Ratings Percentage Index poll released on Nov. 1. The Eagles are one of six Atlantic Coast Conference teams ranked in the RPI's top 40 along with No. 3 North Carolina, No. 5 Maryland, No. 23 Wake Forest, No. 24 Duke and No. 29 Virginia.
SUSTAINED SUCCESS: Boston College has won 10 or more games 11 times in its 23 years of soccer under head coach Ed Kelly. Boston College has won at least 10 games seven times in the last 11 seasons. The Eagles captured a school-record 18 wins during the 2002 season.
RECAPPING THE 2009 ACC TOURNAMENT: Sophomore Edvin Worley broke scoreless tie in the 96th minute by converting a diving header off freshman Colin Murphy's cross to lift No. 3 seed Boston College to a 1-0 overtime victory over No. 6 seed Duke in the quarterfinals of the 2009 ACC Tournament. In semifinal-round play, seventh-seeded NC State scored an early goal and withstood a late charge by Boston College to blank the third-seeded Eagles, 1-0.
TWITTER UPDATES: Live in-game news updates, in short form, on Boston College men's soccer are available through Twitter at: http://twitter.com/BCSportsNews
