At the beginning of the season, each men's lacrosse player filled out a goal sheet. These sheets said many different things, but there were a few wishes that appeared over and over again.
Beating Virginia was one of those goals that was on everyone's sheet.
That's why when John O'Donnell scored the game-winning goal with 3:05 left in overtime, the entire team piled on top of him. No current Blue Devil knew what it was like to beat the Cavaliers until that moment, and for them, victory was sweet.
"This was a huge win," T.J. Durnan said. "This is definitely the biggest win we've had here in awhile."
Second-ranked Duke (10-1, 2-1 in the ACC) fulfilled its goal and won the regular-season ACC title with a 10-9 overtime win over No. 4 Virginia (6-3, 2-1) yesterday at Duke Lacrosse Stadium.
Just 30 seconds into overtime, Nick Hartofilis took a shot that ricocheted off the pipes. O'Donnell rushed after the rebound and scooped it up. He moved inside and fired a shot past keeper Derek Kenney to win the game. Then the celebration began and O'Donnell soon found himself on the bottom of a pile made up of the entire lacrosse team.
"The play was for Nick Hartofilis originally," O'Donnell said. "He hit the pipe and it got into an unsettled situation and I got the ball. I got a short stick on the wing. I just got inside, got a low shot off and it went in."
Perhaps as important as the shot itself was the preceding faceoff to start the overtime period. Duke had lost several fourth-quarter faceoffs, but Scott Bross managed to beat Jason Hard to give Duke possession. Less than a minute later, the Blue Devils were victorious.
"It was a great play by Scott Bross to win
The offense jumped out of the gate quickly, opening the game with a surprising 4-0 run in a six minute span. Durnan scored a hat trick during this spurt while Chris Kakel scored the other goal from his knees and dished out an assist. Considering the slow starts the Blue Devils have suffered this season, including a scoreless first half against North Carolina Wednesday, the quick start was received quite well.
"It makes the biggest difference," Durnan said of the team's quick start. "[Against UNC], we didn't score in the first half. This week, we made our first few shots and it's a big momentum change. It really gave us some confidence."
The Cavaliers answered with two in a row, but Durnan took a pass from Craig Schubert, spun and bounced in yet another shot past Kenney. It was Durnan's fourth of a game-high five points, and Duke held a 5-2 first-quarter lead.
"We had a bad night Wednesday night and we came out ready to play," Durnan said. "We knew we could beat their defense. We just moved the ball and took shots, and in the first quarter, they fell for us.
"I think most of the time they were sliding off of me and that's how I got my open shots. We were getting some looks and it's just a matter of hitting the cage.
Duke extended the lead to 7-2, but then stopped finding the back of the cage. The Blue Devils did not score for 28 straight minutes until Jared Frood broke the slump with a goal 40 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Despite the dry spell, Duke held on to an 8-5 lead thanks to a defensive unit which held the nation's second-most potent offense in the country to just nine goals. The Cavaliers were held scoreless for the entire third quarter as the Blue Devil defense never let Virginia's attack take control of the game.
"We never really got into a flow offensively," Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. "It was a struggle. I thought we battled hard, but nothing was happening easy for us at any point during the game."
Virginia's attack prefers to spread out the field and run, so to counter UVa's speed, Duke's offensive unit played a slower-tempo game than it usually prefers. Steve Card held Drew McKnight scoreless and Palin Archer played outstanding, limiting Tucker Radebaugh, Virginia's leading scorer and one of the nation's best attackman, to just two goals.
"The game was won on the defensive end," Pressler said. "Palin rose to the occasion. He shut down Tucker Radebaugh today. It was a great, great battle. That was a key matchup. Steve Card was terrific on Drew McKnight also."
But after the Cavaliers went on a three-goal fourth-quarter run to tie the game at eight, O'Donnell scored his first goal of the game with 4:27 left in regulation. Conor Gill tied it at nine with 2:07 in the game and the Cavaliers had a chance to win when they won the ensuing faceoff. But Blue Devil goalkeeper Matt Breslin and the rest of the defensive line held on to force the game into overtime.
Notes: It was Duke's first win over the Cavaliers in seven tries.... The Blue Devils will be the No. 1 seed at next weekend's ACC tournament in Chapel Hill. They will play North Carolina in the first round on Friday at 8 p.m.
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