The No. 10 men's lacrosse team (7-4, in the ACC) was crushed Saturday 19-6 by No. 1 Johns Hopkins (6-1) at Homewood Field in Baltimore, Md. The Blue Jays came out and controlled the game from the opening face off as Blue Devils struggled defensively.
Johns Hopkins pressured the Duke defense with their domination in the face off circle. The Blue Jays won 20 of 29 face offs, failing to give their defense much chance to rest.
"In my tenure we have never been dominated at the 'X' like we have been dominated in this game," head coach Mike Pressler said. "It was shocking and surprising."
Johns Hopkins won the opening four face offs and scored on each possession. Conor Ford scored the game's first goal 44 seconds into the contest.
"Hopkins was very deliberate, very patient and shot the ball well," Pressler said.
After Adam Doneger tacked on his second goal of the game to push the score to 5-0, the Blue Devils attempted to charge back.
Matt Rewkowski scored back-to-back goals only seven seconds apart to cut the Blue Jays' lead to 5-2 at the end of the first period.
"We just tried to regroup and put some goals in one-by-one," Rewkowski said.
After each team scored early in the second, Hopkins scored the next four goals to push the lead to 10-3. Three of the four Blue Jays tallies, spanning just 4:42, came off the stick of Peter LeSueur.
Rewkowski tacked on his third goal of the game to cut Hopkins' advantage to 10-4 at the half.
While the Blue Devils went into the half on a positive note, it was quickly erased as Hopkins scored five unanswered goals.
The Blue Devils only managed a pair of second half goals as Hopkins left no doubt that they were the superior team.
"They shot it really well," Pressler said. "They were a step quicker that we were. Every fifty-fifty ground ball went to Hopkins and when you play more defense and they shoot well that's what happens"
Duke's defense was unhappy with its efforts but recognized that the inability to win face offs and ground balls made their task very difficult.
The Blue Devils were disappointed with the outcome but isn't dwelling on the outcome. Duke, in danger of missing the NCAA tournament understand that it will have to elevate its play down the stretch to compete for a national championship. The run begins Saturday when it plays a critical ACC game against Virginia.
"We have to win some games over the next three weekends if we have any hopes for competing for a national championship," Pressler said.
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