Duke's 11-goal blowout win Saturday over Johns Hopkins-arguably the best program in college lacrosse history-has people wondering: Just how good are the Blue Devils?
They made the defending national champion Blue Jays look inexperienced, slow and, let's face it, downright bad. Granted, Johns Hopkins seems to be enduring a down year, but this was the school's worst loss since 1988.
Duke's stellar performance Saturday, though, has only brought up an even more puzzling question: How did Georgetown beat Duke?
The Hoyas, who were 3-2 back on March 22, upended the then-undefeated Blue Devils, 13-7, shocking the college lacrosse world. Sure, since then they have won every game and have risen to No. 4 in the country. But Georgetown must have done something special to hold Duke to just seven goals when the Blue Devils have averaged more than 16 in their other 11 games.
The reason for the Hoyas upset is two-fold.
First, goalie Miles Kass posted a season-high 18 saves-there's simply nothing Duke could have done about that. But more importantly, Georgetown recognized the Blue Devils' strength in transition and executed a perfect gameplan to counter it.
In lacrosse lingo, Georgetown basically abandoned its ride and jumped in the hole immediately. To the common observer, whenever the Hoyas lost the ball in the offensive end, they simply rushed back on defense and crowded the area in front of the net. Although this hurt Georgetown's second-chance opportunities, the Hoyas' strategy forced the Blue Devils to score out of their six-on-six set, which took them out of their preferred fast-break approach.
"I understand as a coach that the hardest thing to play is six-on-six offense," head coach John Danowski said after Duke's win over Johns Hopkins. "So we try to manufacture goals in as many different ways as we can."
But Georgetown's defense prevented exactly that. To use a basketball analogy, imagine the Hoyas shooting and then immediately running back on defense before waiting to see if the ball had dropped, making it virtually impossible for the opposing team to get out on the run and beat them with the fast break.
Apparently, that is how to beat Duke. And the Blue Devils know it, as they have been practicing their six-on-six offense every day because they realize teams are going to emulate Georgetown's scheme, sophomore attackman Max Quinzani said. In fact, Duke was expecting Johns Hopkins to employ that very tactic Saturday.
So what happened?
"They realized they had athletes, and they tried to run on us," Quinzani said. "So we were like, 'Alright, God, you're going to play us against our strength?'"
Unlike the Blue Jays, the Hoyas realized they could not beat Duke in a shooting match. Georgetown concentrated heavily on the defensive end and hoped its scores would be enough.
Well, as everyone knows by now, it was.
The Blue Devils may have looked unstoppable Saturday, but what makes them true national title contenders is they know there is still work to be done.
"We played really well, but we can still play better," midfielder Ned Crotty said Saturday. "Coaches will go back and watch the film, pick it apart, and we'll still have places to improve."
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