Duquesne Men’s Soccer wins Atlantic 10 regular season title for first time in over 20 years

Somewhere in Pennsylvania, the Duquesne men’s soccer bus was on pins and needles watching the Saint Louis versus Davidson match hoping for a draw or loss by the former.

Earlier Saturday, Duquesne had the opportunity to clinch the Atlantic 10 Championship, which would represent the program’s first since 2005 and first outright since 2004 but fell short 3-0 at La Salle, leaving its fate outside of its own hands.

When Saint Louis scored on the road with 1:33 remaining in regulation, it stormed the Davidson student section and the Duquesne bus was nothing but quiet, but that would not be the end of the story.

Instead, Davidson found the back of the net some 23 seconds later, immediately going on the attack. As the clock ticked, it became apparent that Duquesne had secured the regular season title, something which could not have made its head coach Chase Brooks any prouder.

“It’s a great feeling,” Brooks said minutes later. “Obviously I think we wish we would have just taken care of it in the 90 minutes we had today, but I credit these guys for the work they put in the entire season. We put ourselves into a position tonight where we had a chance and thankfully the cards fell in our favor.”

During the preseason, this was a Duquesne side which did three-a-days, intentionally being together at all areas and bonding just as much off the field, something referenced throughout the season.

It immediately set the foundation both with consistency and standards, something Brooks certainly credits for this result.

“This is obviously an awesome moment for the group, but our job is not done yet, we want to go prove that the season as a whole wasn’t a fluke, that we deserve to be where we are and that we are the best team in this conference,” determined Brooks.

Brooks did admit with Duquesne coming into the conference tournament that in its two losses this week the team went into those contests knowing it was “pretty darn good” and said it could have been not giving 100% in all moments, perhaps trying a little too hard or doing things that are not making the team successful so now the key thing for the Dukes is refocusing.

It will certainly be motivated as a side as it appears Duquesne’s quarterfinal matchup will be against the same La Salle team it just lost to and Brooks wants his Dukes to make the most of it.

“We’ve got to make sure we get right back at it,” Brooks offered. “We can’t take anything for granted. This is a step along the path. The journey was A to B, B being an A10 championship, obviously the regular season is wonderful, but we know if we want to go to the NCAA Tournament this year, we’re probably going to have to win the whole thing, so that’s what we’re going to do. We’re aiming to host a championship and win a championship on Rooney Field.”

The game will be played Friday at 7 p.m. and certainly an effort will be made to get as many Duquesne programs to show support. An effort for the game to be played the next day was ruled out due to a football game at noon and a men’s basketball game slated to tip off at 7:30 p.m.

Getting fans onto Rooney Field is going to be critical for Duquesne in creating a homefield advantage in a home venue where the Dukes have yet to lose this season.

“I circled the group up postgame after the emotions maybe subsided a little bit and ultimately put my arms around everybody and said, ‘listen I love this group, it’s one of our more talented groups top to bottom,'” concluded Brooks. “‘It has been an awesome opportunity we’ve had this season to put ourselves in a very good situation and now that refocusing has already started. Now it’s about continuing to take care of business.’ It’s an unbelievable opportunity. Obviously, we’re very good at home but again we can’t take anything for granted. We have to go and show people who we are and what we’re about, and we have to take it.”

Zac Weiss