With under seven minutes remaining in the third quarter of yesterday's game against 11th-ranked Navy (3-2), the men's lacrosse team trailed 4-2. Less than four minutes later, Duke led 7-4.
The No. 3 Blue Devils (6-0) added a pair of goals in the final period for a 7-0 second-half scoring advantage and a 9-4 victory at the West Campus Turf Field, their third win of the week after defeating Brown and ninth-ranked Maryland-Baltimore County.
"We're capable of that," coach Mike Pressler said of the third-quarter spurt. "We have a lot of firepower on the offensive end. It just didn't happen early in the game."
Duke managed only two goals over the first 38 minutes of play before Chris Kakel found the back of the net to pull the Blue Devils within one at 4-3. T.J. Durnan tied the game just over a minute later and suddenly Duke couldn't miss. Nick Hartofolis, John O'Donnell and Greg Patchak scored in close succession as the Blue Devils pulled away.
"Our offense was more unselfish [during the run]," Pressler said. "In the first half they were trying to dodge their double teams by themselves instead of passing out.
"When you play a deliberate defensive team [like Navy], you tend to rush your offense."
On the other end of the field, the Duke defense shut out the Midshipmen in the second half.
"Navy's not a team that's going to run by us," Pressler said. "We tried to sit on them and press them and make them run by us; they couldn't do it. We played three similar teams last week and that was the case in all three games."
Duke had another strong defensive showing Wednesday, holding UMBC scoreless for more than 36 minutes en route to a 12-7 victory in Baltimore. After leading 5-0 at halftime, the Blue Devils stretched the advantage to six before the Retrievers finally scored 6:42 into the third quarter. Duke responded with goals by Craig Schubert and Frood for a comfortable 8-1 lead entering the final period.
Durnan contributed three goals and an assist for the Blue Devils while Patchak added a goal and three assists.
Last Saturday in Durham, Duke trailed Brown 1-0 after one quarter before notching four unanswered goals in the second quarter. Frood scored two of his four goals during the spurt, both unassisted, as the Blue Devils picked up a 10-5 victory.
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