Considered the biggest weakness of the team throughout the season, Duke’s defense put together a masterful performance to lead the Blue Devils to the ACC tournament final.
After losing to three different No. 1 teams earlier this season, No. 6 Duke finally notched a victory against the top-ranked team in the country, defeating Notre Dame 13-8 in an all-around impressive effort by the Blue Devils Friday at PPL Park in Chester, Pa. The victory sends the team back to the ACC tournament title game Sunday for the first time since 2012.
“It's awesome,” junior attackman Case Matheis told GoDuke.com. “This is my first experience actually going to the ACC final…. It’s another turning point because we’re really starting to build confidence and build our team dynamic going forward into May.”
Duke (11-4) got off to a slow and sloppy start, recording just two shots and committing four turnovers in the first eight minutes. Although the offense was not clicking early, the Blue Devil defense was locked-in from the start, holding the Fighting Irish (9-2) scoreless in the first quarter on 0-for-12 shooting and keeping the game knotted at 0-0.
Matheis started the scoring for the Blue Devils early in the second quarter, running straight at Notre Dame defender Matt Landis and ripping a shot past Fighting Irish goalkeeper Shane Doss.
The Darien, Conn., native's goal seemed to ease the nerves for Duke, as the team added two more quick goals—one from senior attackman Kyle Keenan and another from Matheis—to jump out to a 3-0 lead. Nick Ossello got Notre Dame on the board with 8:50 left before halftime, but that was the last look at the back of the net the Fighting Irish would see for quite some time.
The health of Blue Devil junior midfielder Myles Jones was a major storyline heading into this game, as the All-American came into the game with stiches in his dominant right hand and looked far from 100 percent early on. Notre Dame seemed to notice this and decided to put short-stick defender Brendan Collins on him. As soon as they did, Jones made them pay, shimmying to his left and firing a 15-yard blast into the net to get his 150th career point and give the team a 4-1 lead.
“I don’t think he was nearly as effective,” Duke head coach John Danowski said. “It’s going to take time to heal….The fact that he played today and had one [goal] and two [assists]—phenomenal. It was a phenomenal effort on his part and showed really his character and his toughness.”
Jones’ goal sparked a massive 8-0 run for the Blue Devils spanning the second and third quarters that put the game out of reach for the Fighting Irish.
Freshman attackman Justin Guterding added a fifth tally to give Duke a 5-1 lead heading into the locker room—Notre Dame’s first halftime deficit of the entire season.
Duke added five more goals in the third quarter before Mikey Wynne ended a scoring drought of 22:43 for the Fighting Irish. The Blue Devil defense executed perfectly during that stretch, stifling Notre Dame's talented attackman Matt Kavanagh and simply out-hustling their opponent.
Although the game was seemingly out of reach, the Fighting Irish did not go away quietly in the fourth quarter. After Kyle Rowe scored nine seconds into the period off of the faceoff—his first goal for Duke—and Matheis added his fourth of the game, Notre Dame picked up the pressure defensively and went on a six-goal streak to cut the deficit to 12-8 and give Duke a scare.
“To be honest we hadn’t really worked on the 10-man pressure and [Notre Dame] did a terrific job,” Danowski said. “They were playing without consequence. They’re the number one team in the country and they were just going to the cage and they were reckless and they were playing great.”
The Fighting Irish had a chance to make it even closer with an extra-man opportunity in the closing minutes, but redshirt freshman goalkeeper Danny Fowler made two huge saves before Guterding sealed the game with an easy goal off of a pass from Jones. The goal gave the Blue Devils a 13-8 lead, which they held for the remainder of the game.
Although defeating the No. 1 team in the country and making it to the ACC tournament final were big positives for Danowski's squad, the biggest takeaway from Duke’s victory was the stellar play of its defense. The defense entered Friday's game as the weak link in the Blue Devils’ armor and had allowed 15 goals to Notre Dame the last time the two teams met April 4, but strung together its best 60-minute performance of the season. Senior Brian Dailey led the charge by scooping up nine ground balls and Fowler corralled 12 saves between the pipes.
“I thought defensively we did a really nice job in front of [Fowler],” Danowski said. “I thought Danny is growing each week and we’re seeing the kind of evolution of the college goaltender.”
In addition to the team’s great defensive performance, Rowe was stellar once again at the faceoff, winning 74 percent of his duals at the faceoff X.
The win means Duke will get the chance to play for its eighth ACC title Sunday at 1 p.m. against third-seeded Syracuse. The Orange upended second-seeded North Carolina 9-8 in Friday's second semifinal.
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