Zack Schilawski really wants to play soccer in his hometown of Cary next month.
"It's a nice place," Schilawski said with a smile after he scored two goals and assisted on a third as Wake Forest defeated Duke 4-2 yesterday in a third-round match of the NCAA men's tournament at Spry Stadium.
Coach Jay Vidovich of the Deacons joked: "He's got a prom date he still has to hook up with there."
The Deacs (16-3-3) will play UCLA in a quarterfinal at 7 p.m. Saturday at Spry with a chance to advance to the College Cup semifinals, this time in Cary, for the fourth straight season. UCLA advanced with a 2-1 win against Cal Santa Barbara.
The Blue Devils, 3-0 losers to the Deacons in the regular season on Nov. 3, changed strategy slightly yesterday, moving another player to the front line. But the Deacons adjusted and also had a pretty good attack of their own.
Keeper Akira Fitzgerald made two nice saves early, and then Schilawski and the offense started to break down the Blue Devils (14-7). Schilawski scored on a 20-yard shot past goalie James Belshaw at 29 minutes, with Austin da Luz and Ike Opara assisting.
Schilawski, the third-leading scorer in program history with 39 goals, struck again less than four minutes later, this time from about 15 yards after a perfect pass from Corben Bone.
"Zack's a big-timer," Vidovich said. "His two goals obviously were well taken. The amount of work going up against Duke's two center backs (Andrew Wenger and Christian Ibeagha), they are very strong to the ball, but Zack just felt it the whole night."
Coach John Kerr of Duke said that a 2-0 halftime deficit might have been easier on his team, but Sam Redmond headed in a corner kick from da Luz with 51 seconds left, and the 3-0 deficit was too much to overcome.
"Their movement is tremendous," Kerr said of the Deacons. "They are so in sync with each other, and it's just tough to stop."
The Blue Devils closed to 3-1 after Redmond was called for hand ball in the penalty area, and Cole Grossman made the penalty kick at 56 minutes. Ten minutes later, da Luz scored on a feed from Schilawski. Fitzgerald started the attack with a long goal kick and also was credited with an assist.
Duke outshot Wake Forest 15-12, but defender Kyle Adams said that the Deacons were ready.
"We work on this kind of stuff all the time in practice, so it wasn't like we were surprised at what they did," Adams said. "We did a really good job of blocking shots and not really allowing them to get good shots off."
Duke made it 4-2 on Ryan Finley at 68 minutes.
"I think I'm happiest with the growth of the players," Vidovich said of his team's NCAA run. "They are continuing to get stronger and understand.
"We train for this kind of stuff all the time, but you don't know until you experience it, so they are growing as we go."
jdell@wsjournal.com.
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