DURHAM, N.C. – The Georgia Southern men's soccer team wrapped up a three-game road swing Tuesday night with a game at Atlantic Coast Conference foe Duke. The Blue Devils were able to edge out a 2-1 win in the final two minutes at Koskinen Stadium and out-shot the Eagles 14-9 in a game that was nationally-televised on the ACC Network Extra, but the Eagles still had plenty of opportunities that could have swung the decision the other way.

Duke scored first in the 18^th minute to take an early 1-0 lead, but gave up an own goal in the 39^th minute to set the score at 1-1 following one half of play. The game-winner for Duke came in the 89^th minute.

MATCH FACTS
Georgia Southern (3-4-1) – 1
Duke (3-2-1) – 2

SCORING SUMMARY
18' – DU – Markus Fjortoft (1) scored off a cross from Brian White and Ryan Thompson.
39' – GS – Own goal by Duke.
89' – DU – Ryan Thompson (1) scored off a cross from Max Moser and Macario Hing-Glover.

NOTES
- True freshman Trei Schwartz and redshirt freshman Andrew Deltac each made their first career starts Tuesday against the Blue Devils as head coach John Murphy continued a trend that has seen six true freshmen and three redshirt freshmen play important roles for the Eagles early in the season.
- 18 different players have now started for Georgia Southern in the first eight games.
- Entering the week, junior forward Blake Wilson finds himself in the top-40 nationally in four categories, including top-15 in two. He is currently tied for ninth nationally with six goals, tied for 13^th with 0.86 goal per game, tied for 29^th with 1.71 points per game and tied for 38^th with 1.71 shots on goal per game. He is also second in the Sun Belt Conference with six goals scored and 12 total points.

QUOTE FROM COACH JOHN MURPHY
"Under normal circumstances there would be a lot to take away from this game and be proud of a team going on the road to Duke, giving as well as we were getting and forcing their goalkeeper to be the man of the match despite losing on a last minute goal. However, in this case I am even more proud of our group because we were missing five starters and key components to our team. We obviously had to shuffle our lineup, including we had Nick Wells playing right-back on defense for the first time in his career and he was one of the best players on the pitch and played fantastic all game long.

"The entire back four was strong for us, including Trei Schwartz as a true freshman making his first collegiate start and playing left side winger. We dropped him back and he played left-back late in the game and was fantastic as well. Freshman Josh Bronstorph was a super play maker and gave us chances all night long and Andrew Deltac was also fantastic. This game really showed the depth, quality and character of our group because we played very well and still had chances to win the game despite being short-handed.

"I couldn't be more proud of our guys because they play to win every game, but unfortunately we fell short tonight. There's plenty for us to take from this game and build on, but we have to recharge our batteries. We need to get ready to finally play another home game against North Florida on Saturday night and we are hoping to draw a good crowd to that game because this group of young men are a great representation of this University."

NEXT UP
The Eagles return home for a pair of games starting Saturday, September 24 against North Florida. The Eagles and Ospreys will kick off at 7 p.m. on Saturday night. Georgia Southern will then host Campbell on Tuesday, Sept. 27 in a 7 p.m. contest that will be featured on ESPN3.

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