BALTIMORE — In the end, the only people left at Homewood Field were a television crew quietly packing their gear and a group of Duke fans, mostly the players’ families, on the other side of the stadium. The din of the nearby Johns Hopkins group emanated from inside the locker room.
Minutes before, the Blue Devils (11-1) had lost arguably the most important regular season game in program history—an 11-10 double-overtime loss to Johns Hopkins—and along with it their record undefeated streak and a chance for a first-ever No. 1 ranking.
Yet as the Duke team filed out toward the bus and said its goodbyes, the looks on the faces of most still showed amazement rather than sorrow.
For 60 minutes of regulation and almost two overtimes—on one of the biggest stages and against lacrosse’s most storied program—No. 2 Duke and No. 1 Hopkins (9-0) competed, trading leads in every quarter. The Blue Jays’ Kevin Huntley finally secured the victory when he forced his diving shot past goalie Aaron Fenton with 1:05 left in the second overtime period. His score extended Hopkins’ record home win-streak to 32 before 7,136 fans in attendance and a national television audience.
When the new USILA poll is released today, Hopkins and Duke will likely remain No. 1 and 2, respectively.
“It was like two boxers standing in the ring a little bit after halftime,” Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala said. “Everyone said ‘we will take our gloves off and you take your gloves off and we will slug it out.’ I thought both teams showed a lot of character.”
Duke’s Matt Zash managed to come away with a clean win in the second overtime’s initial face-off before he limped off the field with leg cramps. After the whistle, Zash’s replacement, freshman Fred Krom, took what would be the team’s last shot—a waist-high attempt snagged easily by Hopkins goalie Jesse Schwartzman.
About a minute later, following a Hopkins shot that hit the pipe, Huntley slipped underneath two Duke defenders and was able to end the game.
“Freddy’s one of our fastest guys,” Pressler said. “He took a poor shot, that’s all. A poor shot. We won face-offs today, [Fenton] was terrific today. We did everything we could, just one play away from beating Hopkins at Homewood.”
Said Huntley: “It was sort of a broken play up at the 40-yard line. My man was pressed out on me out past the restraining line. Really the only thing I could do was go to the goal and I did. The goalie sort of jumped a little bit high on my fake and left the bottom open.”
Both teams were able to call a timeout and try to set up the winning play as time wound down.
Pressler called timeout at the end of regulation and set up a play for the cramping Zash, who asked for the ball, Pressler said.
As Zash faked and made a move from behind the goal, the Hopkins short-stick defensive midfielder, Benson Erwin, poked the ball out.
“When your best players says he can go, and I knew he was hurting, I still went with him,” Pressler said. “I’d probably still go with him again.”
The Blue Jays then called their own timeout to set up a final shot, but Huntley’s low shot went wide of the goal and the game went into overtime.
Duke’s Matt Danowski almost won the game in the first overtime, but his shot hit the pipe. A subsequent Blue Jays’ miss and Krom’s saved shot followed.
The Blue Devils fell behind 5-2 in the first quarter, but they rallied back. On the day, Duke had leads of 1-0, 8-6 and 10-9. The game’s halftime score, 6-6, exceeded the score of the teams’ 6-5 game last year, which Hopkins won.
Hopkins’ Matt Rekowski evened the score at 8-8 midway through the fourth quarter with Duke’s Kyle Dowd, who transferred from Johns Hopkins in 2003, guarding him. Seconds later Rekowski quick-sticked another shot in to put his team up 9-8.
Minutes later, Dowd drove hard to his right and rocketed a head-level shot past Schwartzman.
Duke would score only once more after that.
“[Rekowski] beat me to the goal, kudos to him,” Dowd said. “They made plays at the end. We had our opportunities and they took advantage of theirs.”
But at the end of the game against Hopkins, who has played in the last three Final Fours, it was Duke’s lack of experience that made the difference.
“We know that we didn’t play well in the first quarter and took them to double overtime,” said Danowski, who had three goals. “We can beat them and we’ll beat them when it counts.”
A freshman mistake finally did in the Blue Devils in the second overtime, but that did not stop them from leaving feeling positive about the matchup.
“[The game was] a great environment,” Pressler said. “TV game. Great exposure for us. Great for recruiting.
“Again our goal was, the undefeated thing is over with, but it was never a goal of ours. So it’s never been an issue. It’s not like we are disappointed about that. Our goals start to become apparent next week against UVa for the ACC regular season title.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.