Dartmouth snapped Duke’s five-game win streak Saturday in Hanover, N.H., notching the game-winning goal in double overtime to defeat the Blue Devils 9-8.
Trailing 6-3 at the half, No. 4 Duke (8-3) scored five times in the second period and limited the No. 17 Big Green (5-0) to just two more goals in that span. In spite of the comeback, Sarah Plumb scored in the sudden-death second overtime to seal the victory for Dartmouth.
The Blue Devils edged the Big Green 22-17 in shots and 14-13 in ground balls, only turning the ball over eight times compared to Dartmouth’s 15. Junior Makenzie Hommel and sophomore Molly Quirke led all Duke scorers with two goals apiece.
“We had a really long challenging stretch where we had quite a bit of travelling in the last 14 days. Four of our last five games have been on the road,” Duke head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “I wasn’t entirely surprised that we got off to a little bit of a slow start—we had been worn out by the road. But I did expect us to bounce back in the game, and we did in the second half.”
Dartmouth jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first 3:47 of play. Quirke answered with a goal less than a minute later, cutting the Big Green’s lead to one, but a free position goal from Dartmouth’s Frances Bird put her team up by two again.
Assisted by Kerrin Maurer, Maddy Morrissey pulled Duke within one with 17:53 left to play. Dartmouth scored two more goals, building a 5-2 lead. With 13 seconds left on the clock, Maurer found the back of the net for her 19th goal of the season, but Plumb netted one more for the Big Green with two seconds remaining in the half.
“We were giving up junk goals, goals where there was a miscommunication or where we weren’t quite ready,” Kimel said. “We did a good job at halftime of collecting ourselves and buckling down, because we didn’t let ourselves give up any junk goals in the second half.”
Duke and Dartmouth continued to trade goals for the first ten minutes of the second half, scoring two apiece. The Blue Devils’ defense then buckled down, holding the Big Green scoreless for the final 20:24 of the game.
During this time, Duke tied the game at eight with a 3-0 run that included Quirke’s second goal of the day, a free position goal from Amanda Jones and a goal from freshman Taylor Trimble, who scored a game-high five goals against ACC opponent Virginia Tech. Due to Dartmouth’s tight defense, the Blue Devils were unable to convert on their final possession, sending the game into overtime.
After Duke won the draw control in the first overtime, they stalled for nearly three minutes before Dartmouth gained possession of the ball. This missed opportunity cost the Blue Devils the game, though, as Plumb netted the game-winning shot in the ensuing overtime period.
“At the end of the day we could have done a lot of the basic stuff a little bit better and it would have made a difference in the game,” Kimel said. “The combination of not executing very well in overtime and not taking care of the ball is really what hurt us in the long run.”
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