Aidan Wiess | Editor
On a senior day filled with drama across the conference, Duquesne earned a 2-1 victory over the La Salle Explorers to move into fifth place in this week’s Atlantic 10 Conference tournament. Midfielder Ask Ekeland scored two goals in the victory.
The day started with multiple possibilities, as the Dukes were in seventh place to start the day but had a string of results that could have put them anywhere between second and eighth in the conference standings. On the other hand, the Explorers were playing out of pride, trying to stay out of last place to finish their season.
The match started quickly with La Salle fighting hard in their final match, and their aggression resulted in a quick yellow card in the third minute. However, La Salle’s fight quickly led to a few early Duquesne turnovers, and one of those turnovers in their own half led to a corner kick. Explorer midfielder Dylan Kwasnik scored an “olimpico,” where a player sends the ball into the net directly from a corner.
Ask Ekeland saw Kwasnik’s outstanding goal and scored another. After his breathtaking half-goal against Wright State, Ekeland took a free kick from 35 yards and calmly curled it into the top left corner to knot the game in the 19th minute, giving him another highlight this season .
From there, the remainder of the first half was closely contested, with both teams having potential scoring chances. However, each goalkeeper made two saves each to keep the game level at halftime.
The second half starts off in an eventful tone. As a long ball sent to Duquesne’s Jayden Da went into the air, La Salle goalkeeper Filip Sabatti flew off his line and slid straight through Da’s legs, completely missing the ball. Even though the Duquesne sideline was calling for a red card, Sabatti only received a yellow and the match continued.
A great opportunity for the Dukes presented itself in the 73rd minute when defender Christoffer Vie Angell found open space at the top of the box, but the shot was pushed wide.
The hectic nature of the game came to a head with a bizarre sequence in the 77th minute. Duquesne’s Jaxon Ervin received a yellow card for a takedown, but it didn’t appear to be a particularly dirty challenge. However, the La Salle team expressed its dissatisfaction. When the dust settled, La Salle’s head coach had been sent off with a red card, and an assistant coach and a bench player had also received yellow cards.
From there, Duquesne’s relentless push for a goal in the second half continued, and they finally broke through in the 85th minute when Ekeland flew up the field and knocked away a sensational pass from senior Nate Dragisich to give the Dukes the advantage, which they would not have done. give up.
Once results were finalized throughout the league, the Dukes learned they would travel to North Carolina to face the fourth-seeded Davidson Wildcats in the first round of the A-10 tournament.
Head coach Chase Brooks acknowledged the challenge of playing on the road in the postseason.
“This time of year, it’s just about being healthy,” he said. “That’s going to be what we focus on, just making sure we’re healthy and making sure we fill in some of our little gaps that we have this time of year and continuing to try to build momentum and build confidence.”
“We just have to take every game like it’s our last,” senior midfielder Nate Dragisich said. “Elimination football is fun and nerve-wracking; it’s all the emotions in one. We just have to go out and play our game.”
Ekeland’s two goals were also a hot topic, as his two goals allowed him to become the second highest scorer in the entire league.
“Ask would be the first to tell you it wasn’t his best game overall, but then he shows up with goals in big moments,” Brooks said. “Those are the things you can’t coach, those are the intangibles you like to have, and Ask is a tremendous player who had a great year.”
The Senior Day celebration that took place before the game was lost in the intensity of the game and the playoff race. Among the veterans honored was Dragisich. He contributed to Ekeland’s game-winner and recently set the all-time appearance record at Duquesne.
“It’s been a long journey,” he said. “I came into a program that wasn’t in a good place, and I’m proud to have helped turn it around and make it a year-to-year contender in the A-10. It means a lot, I had a lot of fun here and I’m not done yet.
The Dukes are back in action for the first round of the conference tournament at fourth-seeded Davidson University on Friday at 7 p.m.
