For the ninth-ranked lacrosse team, this weekend's journey to the Spring Shoot Out in Long Island, New York, represented the longest road trip of the season.
It was also a homecoming of sorts, as nine Blue Devils were returning to their home state to showcase their skills in front of family and friends.
And it was a homecoming of mixed results, as Duke bested Harvard 15-10 on Saturday, but fell 12-11 to 15th-ranked Massachusetts Sunday. With the split, the Blue Devils improve their record to 7-3 and remain at 1-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
"I'm really proud of our guys," Duke head coach Mike Pressler said Sunday night after returning to Durham. "Our inexperience showed a little bit, and we just don't have enough guys right now. Our `thinness' -- I guess that's the word for it -- started to show, but we kept scrapping to the end, and I'm proud of that."
Saturday, Duke started slowly against an overmatched Harvard squad. The Blue Devils led 2-1 after one period of play, but the Crimson responded with a five-goal second quarter to knot the score at 6-6 as the first half came to a close.
The third stanza was a completely different story. Duke came out inspired, scoring six goals over the 15-minute span, two of them by junior midfielder (and New York native) Mike Clayton. Clayton would finish the game with three goals and an assist, among the team's leaders.
The Blue Devil defense was as stingy as the offense was productive, stifling the Crimson attack while goalkeeper Carter Hertzberg turned away all but one shot during the third quarter. Duke increased its lead to five goals, 12-7.
The fourth quarter was dead even, as each team scored three times to account for the final score of 15-10. It was by no means a show of total dominance, but it was certainly a well-balanced and solid victory.
The offensive firepower was spread throughout both the attack and the midfield. Sophomore attackman Scott Harrison led the charge with three goals and four assists. Junior attackman Ken Fasanaro joined Clayton as the team's top New Yorker, notching a hat trick while adding three assists on the day. Seniors Jim Mannino and Seth McCulloch both added two goals, while sophomore midfielders Ross Moscatelli and Matt Ogelsby each chipped in with one goal apiece.
"We don't have any superstars on this team," said Pressler. "We've just got a lot of solid players, and right now they're all contributing offensively. Our attack is really coming along well."
Sunday both teams again started slowly, and the game went scoreless for the first eight minutes before UMass' Mark Millon opened the scoring with his first of five goals on the day. McCulloch then responded with an unassisted tally to even the score at 1-1 and begin a 4-0 Blue Devil run.
Next it was Clayton's turn, as he scored twice within one minute, first in a man-advantage situation off an assist from Moscatelli, and then with the teams at even strength, off an assist from sophomore midfielder Steve Finnell. Moscatelli then capped off the run as he found the back of the net with only 21 seconds remaining in the opening stanza.
The game's second period developed into the type of see-saw battle that was typical of the entire afternoon. Millon again opened the scoring for UMass, only to see Duke net two straight goals, one by Ogelsby and one by Moscatelli. The Minutemen countered with three goals of their own before Clayton would complete his second hat trick of the weekend, scoring at the 4:13 mark off an Ogelsby assist. Millon closed the quarter the same way he opened it, and Duke went to the break leading 7-6.
But the third quarter dominance the Blue Devils showed against Harvard was nowhere to be found against UMass. Despite registering 10 shots during the period, the Duke attack could not come up with a single goal. The defense, which had before been so strong, likewise faltered, as Hertzberg came up with only one save, allowing three shots to slip by and the one-goal Blue Devil lead to slip into a two-goal deficit.
"It seemed like against UMass there was a lid on the goal," Pressler said. "We hit everything -- the pipes, the crossbar, the goalie. It's not like we didn't have the opportunities, it's just that we didn't put the ball in the net."
Far from accepting defeat, however, the Blue Devils staged a valiant comeback over the game's final 15 minutes. Moscatelli began with his third goal of the day only 1:16 into the period, bringing Duke to within one, at 9-8. After a UMass goal again increased the lead to two, the Blue Devils responded with three straight goals -- by Harrison, Fasanaro, and Mannino -- to give Duke a one-goal lead with just under five minutes remaining.
But the Minutemen would score twice over the next minute and hold the Blue Devils scoreless for the next five to take the victory. It was Duke's second loss this year by that same score (the first was two weeks ago to Navy), and it was heartbreaking, to say the least.
"We let it slip away," said Pressler. "We fought all the way back, and then we lost it at the end. Our problem right now is we're not finishing. We didn't finish the Navy game, and we didn't finish this one. We're two goals away from being a top-five team."
Battered and bruised but not beaten, the Blue Devils return to action next weekend with two games against Michigan St. and 12th-ranked Notre Dame at Duke Lacrosse Stadium. This weekend's split certainly hurt their chances to achieve a season-long goal of an NCAA tournament bid, and next weekend's games represent both a chance for redemption and a must win situation.
"You never want to say `must,"' Pressler said. "We've still got Carolina, and we've still got the ACC tournament at the end of the season. We've got enough games, we just can't afford to lose to anybody we shouldn't, and we've got to grab one we're not supposed to win on paper.
"Other teams could help us out, but we've just got to take care of ourselves."
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