BERKELEY – Freshman Noe Morales gave the California men's soccer team a 1-0 lead over No. 19 Duke with his first goal as a Golden Bear on Sunday, but the Blue Devils scored a second-half equalizer at Edwards Stadium, and the teams settled for a 1-1 tie.
 
Cal's record now stands at 3-2-2 (1-0-1 ACC) after its conference home opener. Duke is 2-0-3 (0-0-1) after what was its ACC opener.
 
In the 22nd minute, Duke cleared a ball from deep in its penalty area only as far as Cal's Wisdom Onuoma, who was inside the top of the box. The defender
whipped a cross into the six-yard box, and the ball deflected off one or two Blue Devils by the near post before settling at Morales' feet in front of goal. The unmarked midfielder tapped the ball into the open net for his first collegiate goal.
 
The Bears took their 1-0 lead into halftime.
 
The final 45 minutes were somewhat even. Still, Cal retained its lead through 83 minutes and was a little more than six minutes from a win when the Blue Devils scored. A free kick just outside the Cal penalty area set up the goal. Kenan Hot – who scored an own goal in Cal's 2-0 win over Duke in the ACC Championship quarterfinals last fall – took the free kick. The midfielder played a short pass to Drew Kerr, who settled the ball for Hot, who served the ball into the Cal box. Midfielder Alessandro Arlotti headed the ball into the net for the tying goal at 83:58.
 
The Bears took three more shots, with their best chances coming on a bicycle kick by forward Malcolm Zalayet at 87:06 – his shot was saved by Duke goalie Eryk Dymora – and a Luka Lukic header at 88:05 that went just high over the crossbar.
 
Duke's last best chance was a close Arlotti effort from about 11 yards out at 89:28 that went wide left. Neither team could break the deadlock, and Cal wound up with its second draw of the season while the Blue Devils earned their third consecutive tie.
 
The Bears had the advantage in shots, 17-15, and corner kicks, 8-6. Cal goalkeeper Connor Lambe finished with five saves, while Dymora had six.
 
"We played well," Cal head coach Leonard Griffin said. "We created more than enough chances to win the game. To get a point in the ACC is always a positive, but we would like to have three points of course. Proud overall of how our guys played and competed.
 
"I'm pretty happy Noe Morales was able to get his first goal, happy some big time defenders for us were blocking shots and being relentless defenders, and happy our two nines – Malcolm and Luka – put a heck of a shift in and did a good job of creating a lot of chances for us. Overall it was a good day."
 
Cal heads back to the East Coast for its next two games – Friday in another ACC clash with No. 2 Clemson and Sept. 23 in a nonconference match at UNC Asheville.
 
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