Duke men's lacrosse gives up late game-winning goal at home to Syracuse

Although they fought hard in a high-scoring battle that came down to the wire, the Blue Devils could not edge out a win against Syracuse in their first ACC matchup of the season.

The 13th-ranked Orange visited Koskinen Stadium Saturday afternoon and handed No. 3 Duke its second loss of the season on a game-winning goal by sophomore Jamie Tromboli, earning a 15-14 victory. Freshman Joe Robertson’s hat trick was not enough to put the Blue Devils over the top, as Duke could not stop the Orange’s Brendan Bomberry from scoring four goals himself.

“We didn’t prepare well enough, that’s for sure,” head coach John Danowski said to reporters. “Offensively, we kind of thought the game was lost in the first quarter...and I don’t think we had a lot of confidence then going forward.”

With one minute left, the score was tied at 14, and the Blue Devils were hoping to get a defensive stop after losing the faceoff. Graduate student Danny Fowler saved a long-distance Orange shot, but Fowler could not retain possession and the rebound went straight to Trimboli, who caught Fowler off-guard with a quick go-ahead shot. Syracuse won the next faceoff and held the ball until time was up, eliminating any comeback opportunities for Duke.

“When you lose a one-goal game, it's not the plays at the end that lose you the game, it's the plays that happen over the course of 60 minutes,” Danowski said. “I just didn’t think that we made a lot of mature plays.”

Syracuse (4-3, 2-0 in the ACC) struck first off a bad clear attempt, leading to a Blue Devil turnover and a fast-break goal for the Orange. Duke turned it over again to allow another Syracuse goal before freshman Nakeie Montgomery scored his fourth goal of the season to put the Blue Devils (8-2, 0-1) on the board. From then on, Duke played catch-up with Syracuse, as the Orange would repeatedly go up by one or two goals before the Blue Devils tied the score. 

Despite giving the ball away eight times in the first half, Duke headed to the locker room tied with Syracuse at seven after junior Brad Smith scored a long-range goal on a dodge from the left wing. Smith joined Robertson to finish the game with a hat trick.

The play-from-behind trend continued into the second half until graduate student Peter Conley scored in a man-up situation to help Duke take the lead for the first time all game at 12-11 to end the third quarter. It seemed like the momentum would stay with the Blue Devils for the remainder of the game, as Smith scored his third goal to open the fourth quarter and go up by two goals against the Orange. But good ball movement by Syracuse allowed it to tie the game again, and the Orange didn't let the Blue Devils take the lead again.