Duquesne Puts on Clinic Against St. Bonaventure, Defeating Them 5-1
Maxi Hopfer running upfield to get the ball he later scored a goal here.
PITTSBURGH -- Often, the best team in the conference can get cocky when they match up against the worst team in the conference, but tonight, that wasn’t the case for Duquesne University.
Duquesne defeated St. Bonaventure University 5-1 on a warm and windy Wednesday evening at Arthur J. Rooney Field behind Maxi Hopfer’s two assists and one goal.
Despite the match being against two Atlantic ten conference teams, Wednesday’s match was a nonconference game that was not regularly scheduled by the A-10.
Nationally Ranked No. 25, Duquesne’s (9-1-3 overall) Hopfer scored a goal of his own in the 56th minute, along with two assists. One of the assists was to freshman midfielder Ask Ekeland who scored two goals on the night. Hopfer’s second assist was to Sophomore Christopher Vie Angell.
Bonaventure (3-8-2) tried stopping the Duquesne drive, but a blocked pass was deflected directly to Ask Ekeland, who got the ball, loaded up, and shot with his right foot as the ball curved to the far bottom left of the goal. It was just too far for Bonnie’s goalie, Jules Dechert, to travel, and the ball sank in the back of the net in the 17th minute to give Ekeland his first of two goals on the night.
Ekeland, the team’s leading goal scorer (6), became the second player all season for Duquesne to score two goals in the same game. The first player to score two goals in the same game for Duquesne this year was also Ekeland. This happened in a contest against Howard, where he scored the first two goals.
While young, Ekeland adds a lot to this team, “There's a professionalism in him. I know he's only a freshman, but he's played at a high level back home. He just doesn’t know how to take a play off,” said head coach Chase Brooks.
Bonaventure then came racing down the field. Duquesne’s goaltender Domenic Nascimben tried to intercept the cross from the Bonnies but came too far out of the goal to grab it. Nascimben couldn’t secure the ball and suddenly was swarmed by two Bonaventure players who zipped a pass right past Nascimben while he was still lying on the ground. David Cubillos scored the first and only goal for Bonaventure.
At a point in the game that could have become very tight, Duquesne decided to turn on the jets.
While the score might say otherwise, this game was a difficult one, “It’s very hard to bring the performance on the pitch because everybody expects us to be better. Everybody expects us to win,” said Hopfer. “It's very easy for the favorite team to lose. That’s why it is extremely important that we showed today that we could keep concentrated on the field.”
There were four corner kicks in a two-minute period late in the first half. Duquesne had four attempts to score a goal from the corner kicks. Bonaventure did a nice job defensively breaking up the corner kicks and headers from Duquesne. On the fourth corner kick Duquesne looked to Ekeland again.
Head coach Chase Brooks said, “In the scouting report, we knew that there were some opportunities there. Obviously, it still comes down to us taking advantage of those moments.” Later adding “I give the guys a lot of credit. They were in the right place at the right time tonight and got to the back of the net.”
Ekeland’s goal, assisted by Hopfer was the game-winning goal. Ekeland kicked in the corner kick to Hopfer, Hopfer passed right back to Ekeland. Ekelend shot from the far-left side from about 20 yards out and bent it into the far-right post.
Duquesne then added three more goals to ensure the victory over Bonaventure. Angell’s goal assisted by Hopfer, Tom Tzabari’s goal assisted by Jack Emanuel, and Hopfer’s goal assisted by Nate Dragisich.
Four of Duquesne’s goals coming off of assists is no coincidence. Team chemistry runs deep in the Dukes men's soccer team, “We call each other a family, we are all we have here. We work together on the field, and we respect each other,” said Hopfer. “Off the field, we are together for hours, so at some point, the chemistry builds up.”
Brooks said that during the preseason, he worked hard on team-building exercises, and he is currently seeing the positive effects of that. “It's been fantastic. It’s a good group. They all believe in each other and working hard for each other,” said Brooks.
Duquesne sits at the top of the A-10 and have big hopes for this team. “The first big main goal is to win the A-10’s and, after that, go as far as possible. We take it step by step,” Hopfer said. “We, as a team and everybody, look from game to game to give everything on the field and win as many games as possible, and then we see what comes out.”
While this team has a lot of talent, they are still young, “I think what you’ve seen over these last couple of games is creating the opportunities, whereas four or five games ago, those opportunities were few and far between. I do think there's still room for growth, and I'm excited about that,” said Brooks.
