Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – The Duquesne University men’s soccer team opened its 2024 season on Thursday, scoring two second-half goals in a 3-1 victory over Seton Hill at Rooney Field.
FOCUS AREAS
With a 1-1 draw in the second half, the Dukes managed to score the decisive goal in the 62:20 minute when Junior Ashton Jell found a loose ball in front of the net and buried it in the bottom left corner to put Duquesne ahead. Jell, the program’s active leader in most consecutive starts (19), scored both his first career goal and his game-winning goal.
STATE FARM
The Dukes were able to score their third goal in the 76:49 minute, Maxi Hopper Record a feed from a classmate Jesper Moksnes and pushed the ball past Seton Hill goalkeeper Aiden Hollander, who ran out to hit Hopfer but missed the run to the ball. Hopfer, who did not score a goal in the 2023 season due to injury and only played in six games, scored his 19th career goal to secure the win.
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“We had to gain momentum as the game progressed,” said head coach Michael B. said. “We knew we didn’t start the way we wanted to. It was nice to see the connection start to develop and it was nice to see the boys start to figure it out. Against an opponent that we knew on paper we should beat, but football is a strange sport in that respect. You have to be there every day. It doesn’t matter who is in front of you, you have to rise to the occasion and play the game. The boys achieved everything in the second half and did everything we asked of them.”
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The win gave Brooks his 100th career win as a head coach. In addition to 78 wins as the Dukes’ coach, Brooks won 22 games in two seasons at Niagara in 2011 and 2012. He is now just four wins away from tying the Duquesne record for most coaching wins in program history, as Wade Jean recorded 82 wins on the Bluff from 1998-2005.
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“I think tonight we showed how much depth we have and why we have this squad,” Brooks said. “It’s a good group. The guys that came off the bench really stepped up to the task. Every goal is important. Jell is the personification of hard work. Super fit, always there for you. So reliable. It was definitely a great moment for him.”
NOTES
The Dukes improved to 15-12-2 (.552) in season openers since 1995, including 6-4-2 (.583) under Brooks … Duquesne is 4-0-1 in season openers at home under Brooks … Esteban Moreira gave the Griffins an early 1-0 lead at 19:58 before the freshman Marko Rasmussen scored the equalizer with his first NCAA Division I goal at 31:25 … The Dukes used 21 different players for the win, with Moksnes playing all 90 minutes and the freshman Bendix Bennetzen 84 play … Besides Bennetzen, he also managed Dakota Jonke, Ofek Sasson, Ali Nasser And Ashwin Menon … In 61 minutes from the bench, redshirt sophomore Jaxon Ervin provided an assist for Jell’s decisive goal and had two shots on goal, including one on goal … Senior Zoltan Nagy earned the start in goal and played the first half with redshirt sophomore Sam Coss played the final 45 minutes and got the win… Coss blocked a shot… Duquesne was outscored 17-5 in shots, including 10-3 in shots on goal.
Next
Duquesne welcomes Canisius to Rooney Field at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, August 25. It will kick off a football doubleheader as the women’s program hosts Bowling Green at 4 p.m.
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