Duke has no problems jumping out to an early lead. The challenge for the Blue Devils is keeping the opponent from coming back.
No. 9 Duke (4-3) took leads of 6-2 and 9-4 Saturday at Koskinen Stadium, only to see No. 19 Harvard (4-2) cut the deficit to two goals both times. But unlike the back-to-back home losses to North Carolina and Georgetown in the past 10 days, this time Duke was able to pull out a 10-7 victory.
"We thought we had them after the first five minutes of the game," attackman Matt Monfett said. "That usually happens to us. We think we have a team--we're up by four goals--but Harvard's a good team."
Kevin Brennan scored an extra-man goal, his team-leading 11th on the season, to give the Blue Devils a 9-4 lead early in the fourth quarter. But penalties on Michael Ferrari and Dan Hauber gave Harvard the opportunity it needed. The Crimson scored extra-man goals 80 seconds apart to cut the lead to 9-6. Then Harvard's Alex Vap won the face-off cleanly and assisted on Jay Wich's goal seven seconds later, making the score 9-7 with 8:50 to play.
Knowing that a loss to Harvard would all but destroy Duke's chances for an at-large bid in the postseason, the Blue Devils relied on a play called "power" to stop the damage.
The play started with Alex Lieske, who had three assists on the day.
"Alex pushed one side and gave it to Kevin Brennan," Monfett said. "I came around the back, lost my man, came around and shot it far-side on the goalie--where I should have been putting it all day."
Monfett's turnaround shot with 2:56 left, combined with A.J. Kincel's save with Harvard's leading scorer Matt Primm on the doorstep, gave Duke a victory that kept its postseason hopes alive.
"If we had lost this, there's no question we're out of the playoffs," said Hauber. "We've been talking about it all week. There's six at-large bids and about 10 teams in contention for them, so a bad loss means you're out of the playoffs."
Hauber did his part to help the Blue Devils' chances. He helped hold Primm scoreless when play was all-even, severely limiting the Crimson attack.
"I think I matched up pretty well against him," the 6-foot-3, 215-pound senior said. "His advantage against guys that guard him is his size, but I'm the same size as him and about 20 pounds lighter, so I'm a little bit faster. He couldn't really use his strength advantage, but I could use my speed advantage against him and that prevented him from getting to his spots in front of the goal. That was the key to stopping him."
Duke took a 3-0 lead less than seven minutes into the game. But despite winning 15-of-20 ground balls, 4-of-6 face-offs, and outshooting Harvard 16-3 in the first quarter, the Blue Devils only held a 4-1 lead.
Junior attackman Mack Hardaker had only scored three goals this season before Saturday, but his four first-half goals helped Duke get a 6-2 lead with 8:10 left in the second quarter.
"Our goalie kept us in the game early," Harvard coach Scott Anderson said. "Things started off slow, we were over-sliding. A lot of the offensive opportunities they had early in the game we created for them."
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