The Greyhounds learned an important lesson Saturday—according to the laws of physics, you cannot stop Myles Jones.
After a quiet night in Monday's 12-10 loss to Richmond, the senior midfielder scored five goals and chipped in three assists Saturday as No. 9 Duke upended No. 8 Loyola 15-6 at Ridley Athletic Complex for its first win against a ranked opponent this season and first victory against the Greyhounds since 2010.
Jones matched his career highs in goals scored and points with five and eight, respectively, moving him into the lead among active players in the nation with 192 career points.
“Our backs were very much against the wall with two [consecutive] losses,” Jones said in Duke's postgame press conference. “You never want to see that. There was such urgency. We worked really hard in practice. I think a lot of guys were excited for the opportunity more than anything. The guys played right. The guys played together. We capitalized on a lot of opportunities…. It was overall a good victory [by] all parts of our team.”
After breaking an early 1-1 tie with 4:35 remaining in the first quarter, Duke (5-3) went on a tear to create an 8-3 halftime lead. Jones kicked off the 7-2 run after ducking his defender, switching to his left hand and firing a shot right through the pipes as he took a hit.
Before the end of the half, the Huntington, N.Y., native connected on two more unassisted opportunities. In the second quarter, the 240-pound midfielder lined another lefty shot into the back of the net, before sending a mid-range shot flying past Loyola goalkeeper Grant Limone to complete the first-half hat trick.
“I think the hard thing for Myles has been trying to live up to this ‘Mr. Lacrosse.’ That’s hard for any kid. He looks like a man and he is a man, but he hasn’t been out in the real world yet…and everybody is telling him how terrific he is and he wants to deliver that,” Duke head coach John Danowski said. “I was kidding around with him after the game. I said to him, ‘Wow, Myles is back. What happened to the other guy?’ He goes, ‘I don’t know. I got hit in the head early in the game’—when he scored that one goal. He said, ‘I think he knocked some sense into me.’”
Duke outshot the Greyhounds 27-16 in the first half—with 14 of those shots on goal—and sophomore Justin Guterding and junior Jack Bruckner scored two goals apiece. But the scoring would not have seemed so easy if it was not for the work of junior faceoff specialist Kyle Rowe at the faceoff X.
Rowe took all but one draw for the Blue Devils in the first half, snagging 11-of-12 at midfield. The Vienna, Va., native also scooped up eight ground balls to help Duke take a 19 to 11 advantage into the locker room in the hustle statistic. By the end of the game, Rowe was 19-of-23 on the draw, and picked up 15 of the Blue Devils’ 40 ground balls.
“I thought our wings did a really good job today boxing out their wings. We had a lot of communication going on, telling me what areas of the field were open and especially when I was in trouble with the ball we had good talk of where I needed to turn to get rid of it,” Rowe said. “Across the board, we did a good job of getting open once we had the ball, setting up a clear and getting it into the box.”
After suffering from prolonged scoring droughts of 30:36 and 15:41 in its last two losses, Duke avoided a similar stretch Saturday. Spanning the second and third quarters, the Greyhounds (4-2) went cold for 15:07, allowing the Blue Devils to make a 6-0 run and break open an 11-3 lead. During that span, four different players found the back of the net for Duke. Jones and Guterding both connected twice, and Bruckner and senior Deemer Class recorded one tally apiece.
Following the run, Loyola notched three goals in the final 20 minutes of play, but the Blue Devils responded every time, keeping the home squad at bay in order to seal the victory. Senior attackman Case Matheis rounded out the scoring with 2:17 remaining for his second goal of the day before Duke whittled away the clock for the win.
“I thought we took much better care of the ball offensively,” Danowski said. “We won faceoffs both last Saturday and Monday, so that was the same, but offensively we didn’t carelessly turn the ball over. We didn’t have empty possessions. Today, I thought the guys were very much aware of [you] can’t do that.”
The Blue Devils will return to action Saturday at 1 p.m. against Georgetown to open a four-game homestand that will continue into the start of conference play. Duke defeated the Hoyas 15-13 in Washington last season.
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