The opening weekend for the men's lacrosse team was near perfection.
The fifth-ranked Blue Devils won both matches this weekend at Koskinen Stadium in easy fashion, defeating Ohio State 16-7 Saturday and Butler 14-10 yesterday to start out their season 2-0.
Duke's defense dominated the entire game against Ohio State (0-1) and only allowed the Buckeyes two goals until the end of the third quarter, when Mark Marion broke the scoring slump with 12:51 left.
Duke senior T.J. Durnan dominated the game with a whopping eight points. He scored his first goal 1:32 into the game and never slowed down, finishing with five goals on the game.
"We were the better team and we knew it," coach Mike Pressler said. "There was no hesitation, no panic."
In addition to Durnan, the Hartofilis brothers combined to score an additional seven points. Nick scored three goals and an assist, while Chris tallied two goals and an assist. The offense continued with Chris Kakel, who had four points off three goals and an assist. Duke goal keeper Matt Breslin had 11 saves on the game.
Duke had a little harder time yesterday against No. 21 Butler (0-2), who tied the game on two different occasions in the first half. Although the game was tied 6-6 at the half, the Blue Devils came out in the end, outscoring the Bulldogs 8-4 in the second stanza.
"Ohio State played more of a zone defense while Butler played man-to-man," said junior attackman Greg Patchak. "[Assistant] coach [Joe] Alberici prepared us for this [weekend] so well that we just knew everything about their zone defense. I think we did a good job of keeping them where they were. There was no hesitation, we knew that it was just a matter of time."
Patchak scored four goals in a span of just five minutes to break a 7-7 third quarter tie, while Nick Hartofilis added two more goals of his own.
"I was very proud of our guys, even though we go down 6-7 in the third quarter, our players showed great poise," Pressler said. "We said it was going to be 60 minutes to take them out and it took us three quarters. In the third quarter, we just pulled away and the game was over."
The Bulldogs had a run in the second quarter, led by senior Mike Regan, who finished with four goals. Butler held the ball and used up a lot of the clock and outscored the Blue Devils 4-1 in the second quarter. But once the Blue Devils got the ball back in the third, they didn't look back.
"I think [Butler's] two games in two days and their lack of depth hurt them in the end," said Pressler of Butler, who lost to North Carolina Saturday. "That was part of the reason why we are a little fresher, we played a few more people, and we wore them down.
"I'm pleased with the effort. We are 2-0, we wanted to be 2-0, and we're ready for Maryland on Saturday. I like our team we are going to be very competitive in the ACC and nationally."
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