Kelly Hathorn jogged off the field late in the first half, gave Duke head coach Robbie Church a high-five, looked at her teammates on the bench and let out a hearty chuckle.
For the Blue Devils, it was one of those nights where everything went right, and all they could do was laugh at their success.
Duke (2-1-2) scored five goals in the first half, including three in an eight-minute span, en route to a 6-0 win over Elon (2-2-1) Thursday night at Koskinen Stadium.
And while the team's six goals were its most since 2004, the Blue Devils could have posted even more, given their 20 shots on goal. For the night, Duke out-shot the Phoenix 35-2.
The offensive outburst was most surprising considering the team's scoring troubles. The Blue Devils had scored just one goal this season and finished last year with four straight scoreless contests.
On Thursday evening, however, Duke lifted the lid off the net.
"It's a huge relief," Hathorn said. "It's the biggest relief in the world, actually."
The scores came early and often for the Blue Devils against the Phoenix. Sophomore Elisabeth Redmond scored in the 11th minute, junior Lorraine Quinn made it 2-0 in the 17th and Hathorn provided the dagger two minutes later.
That trio of goals buried Elon in an insurmountable hole-which was exactly Duke's plan against an inferior team.
"What we wanted to do was set the bar high," Church said. "If Elon could keep up with it, then they could keep up with it. They couldn't, and we buried them."
"Once we got one or maybe two, the confidence level went way up," Hathorn said. "Everybody was on the same page, and we all thought that we could do it.... [After the first three goals], they just roll over and you can keep firing them in. That's when it was even more fun, when we were just running circles around them."
Redmond's first goal came when Hathorn deflected a header her way. Redmond handled it with her chest, dribbled around a defender and fired a shot from the 18-yard box off the goalkeeper's fingertips into the upper-right corner of the net. It was Duke's second goal of the year, and the third came just minutes later when Quinn ran onto a Hathorn pass and sent a shot into the right side of the net with her left foot.
Hathorn, who had two assists to complement her first goal of the year, put home a rebound off the crossbar after Redmond had re-directed a pass with the outside of her foot.
The first three goals belonged to the veterans, but the last three came at the feet of the rookies. Three members of Duke's heralded freshman class-Rebecca Allen, Carey Goodman and Gretchen Miller-scored their first collegiate goals in the game, making the night even more memorable for the Blue Devils.
Most importantly for Duke, the players seemed to be having more fun on the field than they have had in a long time. After all, even Church-who predicted his team's scoring outbreak last week-admitted that the 6-0 thrashing was as well as his team has played in the last three years.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.