NCAA SOCCER : Wisconsin Gains Duke’s Respect, 2-0

Now that Wisconsin is the NCAA soccer champion, it wants respect.

“We are the national champions,” midfielder Mike Gentile said after Sunday’s 2-0 victory over Duke in the final in front of a record-tying crowd of 21,319 at Richmond Stadium. “I don’t want to see it in the paper that it was a fluke. This was a great team and I don’t know what else we have to prove to anyone.”

Former walk-on Lars Hansen scored in the ninth minute after Travis Roy’s shot caromed off a crowd of players, and Chad Cole scored in the 63rd minute, his first goal of the season.

Wisconsin (20-4-1) became the first team to go the entire tournament without giving up a goal since San Francisco in 1976. The Badgers did it for five games, the Dons in four.

Jon Belskis, forced into action when regular goalkeeper Todd Wilson sustained a season-ending elbow injury, made only two saves while earning his third consecutive shutout. He did not allow a goal in 321 minutes of the tournament.

“At the beginning of the year, we set goals for ourselves,” Badger Coach Jim Launder said. “We wanted to win the Big Ten and go to the Final Four. And then, almost as an afterthought, we said, ‘While we’re there, we might as well win it.’ ”

Duke (16-7-1), which reached the championship by stunning four-time defending champion Virginia, 3-2, on Friday, played as if it were still trying to recover from that emotional triumph.

“In the second half, we ran out of gas,” Coach John Rennie said. “They were obviously stronger and bigger. They have a little bit of everything.”

The opening goal was Hansen’s third in five NCAA tournament games. The other two gave the Badgers 1-0 victories. The senior from Drammen, Norway, beat Portland on Friday and William & Mary in overtime in the second round.