Men’s soccer continues surge

The Duquesne men's soccer team climbed higher in the Atlantic 10 standings while finishing its home schedule unbeaten with a decisive 5-0 victory over Saint Joseph's at Rooney Field Sunday.

The Dukes (7-7-2, 4-2-1) started strong when senior midfielder Derek Patrizio camped in front of the Hawks' net and  nailed a cross from forward Simon Gomez past goalkeeper Andrew D'Ottavi in the 24th minute to give Duquesne a 1-0 advantage it would take into the half.

The Dukes scored four goals on 12 second-half shots, five more shots than the Hawks fired the entire match. Gomez and Josh Patterson stole the show in the final 45 minutes, when Patterson scored his ninth goal this season and Gomez netted his seventh and eighth.

Duquesne's destruction of Saint Joseph's was capped by freshman forward Austin Lange's third goal this season in the 71st minute.

Saint Joe's ran into the Dukes at the worst possible time; Duquesne has been dominant the past two weekends.

They have won their last four matches by the combined score of 16-1, giving them the A10's most prolific offense, led by Gomez and Patterson. They are tied with Charlotte for the conference lead in team goals with 30, and have the outright lead with 38 team assists. Gomez leads the conference with eight assists and is only second to Patterson in goals.

Gomez believes Duquesne's late-season push was necessary to prove that it can hang with the A10 elite.

"We have the skill, the talent and the chemistry," Gomez said. "We needed to play like this to remind us that we have the ability to play with the top teams [in the A10]. We knew we were not the number-12 team in the conference, what they said we were going into the season. We knew we were better than that."

Gomez has been Duquesne's most consistent offensive source, while Patterson has fought through early season struggles to become the Dukes' most explosive player recently.

After failing to find the back of the net in the team's first eight games, Patterson has scored seven goals in the last four games, including two in Duquesne's 2-0 victory over Temple Friday. The junior forward hopes he can stay red-hot in the Dukes' final two games and into a possible A10 Tournament appearance.

"I missed a lot of opportunities earlier this year, but I just think it's just the way the ball bounces sometimes," Patterson said. "I hope the team as a whole can keep this up, because we're going into an important two games where we need to win at least one to clinch a tournament spot."

With four straight victories, Duquesne has leap-frogged nine schools to place itself in the A10's fourth spot and has made it possible for the Dukes to claim the top spot. They now have 13 conference points, just four points behind first place Charlotte — who has one less conference game remaining than the Dukes — for the conference's top-seed and two points behind Fordham and George Washington for second.

Duquesne took advantage of a late-season home stretch to help improve its conference footing but will have to perform well away from Rooney in order to solidify its stance as an A10 force.

While the Dukes were perfect at home, going 7-0-2, 4-0-1 and outscoring their opponents 24-3, they have been a completely different team away from the Bluff, posting an 0-7-0, 0-2-0 record, and being outscored 14-6.

Coach Jake Ouimet said the team will need to tally a win away from home in order to be comfortable with its conference standing.

"We've played a very competitive schedule and I think that showed early on, but we've really turned it on late here and we need that to continue," Ouimet said. "This is a competitive conference and in order to claim a spot in the tournament, there's no doubt we need to pick up at least another three points next weekend."

Duquesne will take its show on the road one last time when it travels to play Richmond at 7 p.m. Friday before heading into a possible battle for the A10's second seed with George Washington at 1 p.m. Sunday.