Trailing by four at halftime to an archrival that dominated the first half would have most teams worried. But No. 3 Duke, a team that returns the core of last year's national runner-up squad, saw no reason to panic.
Despite falling behind, 7-1, in the second quarter, Duke (6-1, 1-1 in the ACC) rallied past North Carolina, 11-8, at Koskinen Stadium Saturday. The win came one week after the Blue Devils defeated No. 20 Loyola, 9-7, in San Diego.
North Carolina (2-6, 0-1) owned the first period Saturday, as the Tar Heels won five of six faceoffs and were able to control much of the possession. UNC rarely let Duke's offense have the ball and scored five first-quarter goals to take a daunting 5-0 lead.
"They had a lot to gain from beating us, so I think they came out more focused than we did," junior Matt Danowski said. "Their offense played really well and I think our defense just played average in the first quarter. They were also able to really take advantage of man-up situations-they had two man-up goals-and that really helped them."
UNC pushed the lead to six early in the second quarter before Danowski finally put Duke on the board with just less than 12 minutes remaining in the half. The Tar Heels answered right back with Ryan Walterhoefer's goal to push the lead to 7-1.
"Their plan was to kind of take the air out of the ball and keep it out of our offense's hands," Danowski said. "And when we did get it we had a number of turnovers because we were rushing in the first quarter and really for most of the first half. We kind of calmed down in the second half and got back to our game."
It took just a minute for Duke to cut UNC's 7-3 halftime lead to two once the third quarter began. Senior Matt Zash found Dan Flannery on a fast break just 18 seconds in, and sophomore Brad Ross scored off the ensuing faceoff.
"Brad Ross's goal was the turning point of the game," Danowski said. "Those back-to-back goals made it 7-5, and 7-5 is a ball game."
Kyle Dowd made it an even closer contest just seconds later, when he scored from the left side to bring the Blue Devils within one. Duke dominated the next 20 minutes, tallying four more goals to open up a 10-7 margin. The extended 9-0 run that spanned halftime and more than 30 minutes, put the Blue Devils in control.
Duke's defense also tightened up in the second half, allowing just one goal on 15 shots.
"I think the defense definitely stepped up their game," said junior goalkeeper Danny Loftus, who finished with 12 saves. "I put it all on myself as far as the first half, but I regrouped and tried to just start over in the second half, and I did."
Several Duke players said they were not worried by North Carolina's fast start in large part because they have seen it before. Last year in Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels dominated possession in the first half and built a two-goal halftime edge.
In that game, the Blue Devils used a quick start in the third period to tie the game and went on to win 12-10.
"At halftime, nobody was too worried or frantic, we knew we just had to stay calm and play our game," Danowski said. "When our offense is playing well, we can string goals together really quickly, and I think our experience helped us not to panic."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.