Duquesne Men’s Soccer Off To Best Start Since 2013

Less than 48 hours after Thursday’s win over Michigan, the Duquesne men’s soccer coaching staff had a surprise in store for its players, a trip to Niagara Falls.

With Duquesne playing at Canisius Sunday afternoon, this surprise trip to Niagara Falls was kept from the players until the last possible moment and the excitement was contagious among the traveling party.

“At the end of the day, we’re educators first and foremost so to provide those opportunities is a lot of fun and good for the team,” Duquesne coach Chase Brooks said. “They were excited because we kept it a secret. We sprung it on them when we got into range so there was a lot of excitement.”

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Duquesne would carry this positivity into Sunday, earning a 1-0 victory over Canisius and is now 2-0 for the first time since the 2013 season, Brooks’s first at the helm.

The win also secured Duquesne’s first consecutive road triumphs since 2019 and matches last year’s road victory total.

“Today was a good result for us on the road,” said Brooks. “We’ve had our troubles on the road, so to come into a tough environment against a hard-nosed team, it’s always good to come out with a win.”

Statistically speaking, Duquesne outshot Canisius 20-9 and 9-1 on goal.

Duquesne had one starting lineup change with Zach Mowka making the starting 11 and he took one shot in 54 minutes of play.

The Duquesne tally was scored by junior forward Tate Mohney, just a day after his birthday. Duquesne moved into formation quickly following a Canisius corner kick and his kick pinballed through and off the Golden Griffins defenders, finding the back of the net.

💸! pic.twitter.com/jO92Nfy2TJ

— Duquesne Men's Soccer (@DuqMSoccer) August 28, 2022

Early on, Duquesne has continued its commitment to formation, following a later-season change a campaign ago. Brooks credits his team for making it fairly simple to adapt and believes the current formation fits it very well.

Duquesne did have an additional change in the travel roster, but that did not stop it from being the aggressors, something which was a tribute to playing together during preseason play.

“One thing as a squad we’re good at is getting forward,” Brooks said. “We test the keeper a lot, that is a goal of ours and it shows the belief in each other. We played five different forwards today and they all had moments where they got shots onto frame.”

Regarding the on-field personnel changes, Brooks stated it continued coming down to balance and blend with training sessions continuing to be held at a high level.

Duquesne will complete its season-opening stretch of three consecutive road contests when it travels to face Robert Morris at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

GAMEDAY INFO

Duquesne starters (2-0-0)- Domenic Nascimben (GK), Christoffer Vie Angell, Jesper Moksnes, Torge Witteborg, Zach Mowka, Maxi Hopfer, Elmar Jonsson, Harper Cook, Nate Dragisich, Ask Ekeland, Cameron Territo,

Canisius starters (0-2-0)- William Howard (GK), Ryan Dagelman, Inder Thind, Riley Wagner, Josh Miller, Ely Sidibe, Dylan Rice, Michael Switala, Kodie Sarkodie, Kyle Pollard, Daniel Longo

Goal- Tate Mohney 1st DUQ 62′

Yellow cards- Kodie Sarkodie CAN 23′, Tate Mohney DUQ 72, Team DUQ 90′