After consecutive losses to No. 3 Georgetown and No. 7 North Carolina, the No. 9 men's lacrosse team (7-3) tore through Harvard's defense on their way to a 15-7 victory Saturday afternoon. With only two regular season matches remaining, the Blue Devils were in need of a win against the Crimson (3-4) and responded with a dominating performance.
"Our key during practice this week was to play more people," head coach Mike Pressler said. "We played 15 people on offense and at least that many people on defense."
Harvard possessed the ball for much of the first five minutes of the game before Duke jumped ahead with back to back goals 16 seconds apart. Senior Kevin Cassese got the Blue Devils on the scoreboard first when he faked out a Harvard defender in front of the goal and netted one of his four scores on the day. Attacker Matt Rewkowski, who also had four goals, beat Harvard goalie Jake McKenna on the next Duke possession to put the Blue Devils up 2-0 with 8:36 left to play in the first quarter.
"The first couple minutes we came out a little bit flat," Cassese said. "As soon as we got it going on offense we started clicking and making our shots. We played good, fundamental offense."
Duke executed Pressler's game plan to perfection while racing past the tired Crimson squad all afternoon. A.J. Kincel, who had 14 saves for the Blue Devils, quickly passed the ball upfield to counterattack against Harvard. Lee Skandalaris exploited a hole in the Crimson's defense to score an unassisted goal as Duke took an early 3-0 lead that it would never relinquish.
"It's a hot, humid day and Harvard doesn't play that many people," Pressler said. "Coming from the great, white North we got them on their first hot day. I think our numbers and the heat of the day wore them down."
The closest Harvard ever came to the Blue Devils was a 3-1 deficit after Colin Macleod beat Kincel when Duke was playing a man down. Rewkowski then burned the Crimson defense for consecutive goals to start the second quarter and put the game out of reach.
The Blue Devils carried a 6-1 lead into halftime and constantly outplayed Harvard during the second half as defenders Paul Jepsen and Taylor Wray led the way in controlling Duke's end of the field.
Harvard managed 31 shot-attempts during the match, but many of them were highly contested or easily collected by Kincel.
"We ran three midfield lines--which we usually don't do--to tire them down," Rewkowski said. "I don't think they were ready for the weather and we exploited it."
Harvard strung together a few goals at the beginning of the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 10-5, but Duke quickly responded with three successive scores. Kevin Brennan, who had two goals and two assists on the day, put the Blue Devils up 11-5 on a shot that flew through the Harvard defense into the back of the net.
"We played a little bit harder and smarter today," Pressler said. "We finished our opportunities early in the game. That's what we haven't been doing recently."
Duke earned a crucial victory as they stopped the two-game skid before heading to Johns Hopkins Saturday. The Blue Devils will be in another must-win situation next weekend against another highly-touted team.
"We lost two tough games," Rewkowski said. "We could sit there and be bummed out about it or we can pick our heads up and come back. We came back today and played well. This is a game we should win and we did."
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