Duquesne men upend Howard in season opener

The Duquesne men’s soccer team’s first game resulted in a 4-0 victory over Howard and a quick scare for the Red and Blue.

Soon after scoring the first goal of the game, junior forward Simon Gomez was on the receiving end of a nasty hit from Howard’s Jeremy Swann and collapsed to the ground. Gomez soon left the game limping only to return for the start of the second half.

Swann was given a yellow card after the play.

Gomez’s goal came only seven minutes into the first half on a quick shot from within the goal box.

Gomez was afraid he might have suffered a knee injury.

“I was a little bit afraid [after the collision] because I landed on my knee,” Gomez said “and the thing I fear the most is getting a knee injury and that putting me out for the whole season, so I was a little bit afraid of that.

Sophomore midfielder Matt Essig wasn’t too shaken by Gomez’s collision and its impact due to the strength Duquesne has on the bench.

“We have so many talented players on the bench, so I thought we were alright [for the rest of the half],” Essig said.

The remainder of the first half was scoreless for both the Dukes and Bison, but Duquesne came out strong in the second scoring two quick goals from senior forward Joshua Patterson and Karter Sell respectively.

Patterson was glad he could score the goal early in the second half after a myriad of chances in the first.

“We had a lot of chances in the first half that we kind of put away, so it was a lot more easy for our team to relax after the second goal and play a little more comfortable,” Patterson said.

Essig capped off the Dukes’ victory with a quick shot that resulted in a goal at the 33:40 mark of the second half.

“It [the goal] was exciting. You know, getting my first career goal, and then just looking at everybody around I saw smiles after that,” Essig said “I think once we put that one in --maybe sooner actually-- we all knew that we had that win in the bag.”
Head coach Jake Ouimet was pleased with the victory and the opportunity it gave his players.

“It’s great to be able to get the guys, especially in the first game, to have time. We got our goalkeeper [Sam Frymier] half of a game and he’s a freshman,” Ouimet said. “We got people in the beginning 20-25 minutes [of playing time], which is great. You always hope to do that, but it doesn’t work out sometimes because your games are a little bit tighter.”
This was the second of four games in the Duquesne Invitational, a yearly tournament hosted by the Dukes. Pitt had taken on Niagra prior to the Dukes’ game. That game resulted in a 1-1 draw.

The Pitt game went on into double overtime and pushed the start of the Duquesne game back 20 minutes.

The Dukes will take Saturday off before resuming play in the Duquesne Inivitational on Sunday. Duquesne will take on the Niagra Purple Eagles after a game between Howard and Pitt.