Men's lacrosse loses late lead, falls to Brown in OT

For 59 minutes and 40 seconds the No. 5 men's lacrosse team held Brown midfielder Jed Dewick scoreless.

Too bad for Duke, lacrosse matches are an hour.

The Blue Devils (2-1) fell 9-8 to the 13th-ranked Bears (1-1) at Duke Lacrosse Stadium Saturday afternoon as Dewick scored the game-tying goal with 20 seconds remaining in regulation and gunned home the game-winner at the 2:05 mark in overtime.

The loss was a crushing one for Duke, as it seemed to have the game in hand before Dewick turned the tables.

The majority of the match was a see-saw affair that saw the two teams head into the fourth quarter knotted at seven goals apiece. It wasn't until the 3:32 mark of the final period that Blue Devil freshman Nick Hartofilis broke the tie with his first goal of the afternoon. Hartofilis received a pass from senior midfielder Jim Gonnella about 20 feet directly in front of the net, faked to his right and then spun back to his left, eluding two defenders before firing home the apparent game-winner.

"Nick scored a big one and we were feeling confident at that point that we finally had control of the game," Gonnella said. "We definitely knew that they were a good ball control team, and that once they got control of the ball, that they were going to come at us for the next couple minutes. But that's the game. That's what we play for, that's what we practice for is one goal games. Unfortunately we were on the other side this week."

The Duke defense stiffened for the next three minutes and appeared to have the game in hand with under a minute left and last year's National Defensive Player of the Year, Tyler Hardy, in control of the ball. The Blue Devils faltered however as Hardy stepped in and then out of the box, turning the ball over to the Bears.

"That was a mistake on my part," Duke coach Mike Pressler said. "I should have taken a timeout [when Hardy crossed midfield], but I thought we had it under control."

Duke's scoring chances were thwarted twice, however, by Brown goalie Gregory Cattrano, who made a stick save on a shot by freshman Jared Frood and intercepted an over-the-net pass that would have set up an easy Blue Devil goal.

"Jared Frood had a nice look at it," Gonnella said. "He made a nice shot but he just hit the goalie in the hip. Their goalie is very good and he made some good saves. He made a difference in overtime, but we had some good looks that we just didn't take advantage of."

Cattrano finished the game with nine saves while Duke's Joe Kirmser made 10 on the day.

"Today we saw good solid goalie play on both sides," Pressler said.

Kirmser was unable to come up with one final save as Dewick capitalized on Brown's first scoring attempt of the overtime period to give the Bears the win, sending both his teammates and Brown's droves of traveling fans into a frenzy.

The emotions were in stark contrast to the resilience the Blue Devils felt in the third period. After surrendering a 3-2 first quarter lead to go into the half down 6-4, Duke came out with increased intensity. Back-to-back goals from junior attackman John Fay and sophomore midfielder Scott Diggs, scored within 50 seconds of each other, drawing the Blue Devils even at six apiece. Brown retaliated immediately, however, taking a 7-6 lead on a goal by midfielder Scott Banarjee. The goal came at the 6:11 mark, just 18 seconds after Fay's goal, and was facilitated by a strong pick on Hardy that gave Banarjee a relatively clear path to the net.

Duke refocused after the quick goal and eventually drew even at seven with an unassisted goal by Frood with 1:37 remaining in the period.

"It was a tough loss, now we just have to bounce back on Wednesday," Pressler said.

The Blue Devils will have their chance at 7 p.m. on Wednesday against arch-rival North Carolina at home.