Abdill here, reporting from Durham, North Carolina — the city of medicine.  Really, that’s what the signs, all of them, say when you get into town.  I came here with photographer and part-time cabinet maker Jackie Borowski to report on tonight’s men’s soccer game against No. 14 Duke (and maybe make some cabinets), but, to distract you lovely readers from the sordid tale on The Diamondback’s site, I offer up the tale of the journey as well.  It was a long trip.

I should preface this by explaining that I don’t get out much.  The scenery in Durham isn’t anything to blog about — it looks the same as the rest of the eastern seaboard.  If you drove up and down Campus Drive for five and half hours, you’d be seeing the same sorts of trees and buildings and people would be speaking the same language as they do down here.  But the culture is different in the near-South.  You can smoke inside.  People drive with their mouths hanging open.  To my great relief, though, the water spins in the same direction when you flush the toilet.

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Drew Yates' teammates seem think he deserves high marks. Photo by Matthew Creger/The Diamondback

You might as well call last night’s 7-0 blowout Terp victory extra credit, because everybody’s marks are a couple points higher than they’d otherwise be against… well, most other teams.

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Casey Townsend netted a hat trick against Duquesne. Photo by Matthew Creger/The Diamondback

When you beat a team 7-0, you give the blogging beat reporter a lot of stuff to choose from.

Here’s a sampling:

– With nine minutes to go in the first half and a 4-0 lead in hand, coach Sasho Cirovski had this lineup out on the Ludwig Field pitch:

GK: Will Swaim
D: Alex Lee, Ethan White, Kevin Tangney, Taylor Kemp
MF: Paul Torres, London Woodberry, Widner Saint-Cyr, Kwame Darko
FW: John Stertzer, Matt Oduaran

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It looks like we’ll be seeing the first major lineup shakeup of the year tonight. Out are midfielder Doug Rodkey (injury) and goalkeeper Zac MacMath (sickness). In are forward Billy Cortes — probably as a midfielder — and goalkeeper Will Swaim.

It probably won’t make much of a difference — Swaim and Cortes are more than capable substitutes and the Dukes ain’t exactly world-beaters — so I’m more interested in seeing what they do or don’t bring to the table.

——————–Swaim——————-
—-Lee—–White—–Tangney—–Kemp—-
——————–Kassel——————-
—Cortes——–Yates———-Forbess—
———–Townsend—–Herrick————-

More later.

Jonas Shaffer is The Diamondback’s men’s soccer beat writer. He can be reached at shaffer@umdbk.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/jonas_shaffer.