Shedding a defender on the right side of the field, it appeared as if No. 1 Duke’s Mia Oliaro was poised for a rush towards Boston College women’s soccer’s goal. The lane she created was not to be utilized for dribbling, though, and she pulled back her leg to strike a pass.
Bending its way through the penalty box, Oliaro’s airborne pass zipped by two Eagles’ defenders and in open space between Wiebke Willebrandt and Duke’s Julia Saunicheva. The pass was out of reach for anyone but Saunicheva – a perfect through-ball. It took just a second for Saunicheva to compose herself, gather the ball on a bounce, and pot it in the bottom-right corner of the net just over 30 minutes into the game.
After Oliaro sparked the offense, there was no stopping Duke (12–1–0, 7–0–0 Atlantic Coast). The Blue Devils’ unrelenting offense surmounted the Eagles (10–5–1, 2–4–1) in a 7–0 win.
Duke dominated the score sheet and the shot differential told the story of the game. Duke fired off 15 shots in each half compared to the Eagles’ two in each half.
Oliaro wasn’t going to settle for just one spectacular play. Less than seven minutes later, she struck again with a near identical left-foot curler, except this time the ball was netted in the top-left corner instead of finding a teammate. Oliaro was true on 2-of-6 total shots and finished the game with two assists.
Less than two minutes later, things got worse for BC when a screamer from Sauvichena caromed off the crossbar and right back into Blue Devil possession. The wild carom forced the Eagles to reset their defense, but Duke had completed two crossing passes and then a perfectly-placed goal before the defense could recover.
With Duke already setting the tone with a stifling offense, struggles then came from within as BC surrendered an own goal before halftime in the 39th minute. The own goal, though costly, was only a small share of BC’s ball control woes. In addition to being out-shot four to thirty by Duke, BC surrendered more penalties – nine to Duke’s five. Duke also led the Eagles in corner kicks with six to three.
Willebrandt was able to limit some damage, but Duke was able to wear down the Eagles on its way to capping off the game with three second-half goals. Naturally, Willebrandt saw a heavy workload and impressed with several diving saves, including one that prevented what would have been a hat trick for Oliaro.
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