The Blue Devils wrestled with both high winds and Golden Eagles Tuesday, but managed to come out with a victory. The men's lacrosse team (1-1, 0-1 ACC) put on quite a show for its fans at the Duke Lacrosse Stadium as the Blue Devils beat Boston College (0-1), 23-10.
This win follows Duke's heartbreaking loss on Saturday to Maryland, a game in which head coach Mike Pressler said Duke was "totally outclassed." The Blue Devils were anxious on Tuesday to even up their record and prove that their current No. 9 ranking is no fluke.
Sophomore attacker John Fay attributes the team's strong play to these very factors.
"We came out motivated to play today after the Maryland game," Fay said Tuesday. "We needed to get back on track for the Brown match [this weekend]."
Fay also added that he, personally, needs to score more often and easily than he was able to last season, as he notched only 12 goals in 1995.
"I got moved to attack this year [from midfield]," he said. "I have to pick up my scoring output this year."
And pick it up he did. Fay led Duke's incredible scoring game with six goals and an assist. Junior midfielder Jim Gonnella scored two goals and added six assists. In all, 11 different Duke players scored goals and seven made assists. Senior goalkeeper Joe Kirmser and the Duke defense supported the fiery offense to produce the 13-goal margin of victory.
Boston College head coach Ed Moy attributed Duke's outstanding performance to several factors.
"Duke is an excellent team," Moy said. "Their defense is very good. They have some outstanding middies, especially Gonnella. [Kirmser] played really well. When you're playing against a team as good as Duke, you can't mess up. We made mistakes and they took advantage of them."
Duke's dominance was not evident in the first quarter, however. Both teams struggled with scoring, and Duke did not even make a mark on the scoreboard until 6:29 left in the quarter, when Fay scored on a Gonnella assist. At that point, the score was 2-1 in favor of the Golden Eagles. Duke evened it up with 1:12 left to play on a goal by sophomore attacker Julian Flannery, his first of three on the day. With only 14 seconds remaining in the quarter, Boston College scored to regain the lead, 3-2.
The Blue Devils made up for their lackluster first-quarter performance by completely dominating the second quarter. The second quarter saw the Duke offense explode, outscoring Boston College 10-1. Senior attacker James Heavey began the scoring only 41 seconds into the period on an assist by Fay.
The Blue Devils didn't let up, as goals were made by Fay, Gonnella, junior attacker Scott Allen, freshman midfielder Scott Diggs and junior midfielder Joe Donovan, as well as another by Heavey. Heavey and Diggs both scored a hat trick against the Golden Eagles. Though Boston College tried to break up Duke's rhythm after their first goals in the second period with a timeout, the effort proved futile as Fay scored just 17 seconds later. The half ended with a turnaround score of 12-4 in favor of Duke.
The Blue Devils also proved strong in the third quarter. Their scoring was restricted to four goals throughout most of the third quarter, but a flurry of four goals in the last 2:40 of the period saw Duke increase its lead to 20-6. Duke's scorers included Flannery, Fay and Heavey, as well as juniors Alex Whitten and Tim Speno and freshman John O'Donnell.
Boston College made a strong effort to come back in the fourth quarter, but it was too late as it could do little more than trade goals with Duke. Boston College scored four times in the quarter to Duke's three.
The win lifts the Blue Devils for their trip to Baltimore, Md., this weekend. Duke will have its hands full as it faces No. 7 Brown at Loyola College at 3 p.m Saturday.
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