It was a tale of two halves as Duke extended its home winning streak to 18 games in the home opener at Koskinen Stadium Sunday.
After defeating High Point 16-13 Saturday, the No. 3 Blue Devils hit the field against Air Force looking for another win on opening weekend. A strong second half effort powered the home team to a 13-7 victory. Once again, freshman attackman Justin Guterding and junior midfielder Myles Jones led the assault.
“Nobody in the country does this—plays two games in two days,” head coach John Danowski said. “You can practice all you want but nothing takes the place of games…. [The players] have got to play. At the end of the weekend as long as we’re healthy, it was a great experience.”
With possible fatigue as a result of playing those two tight games, Duke (2-0) could not shake Air Force (0-1) early on, trailing 5-4 at half. But the exceptional play by Guterding and Jones was enough to put the lead out of reach in the second half.
Following a strong six-goal performance Saturday, Guterding was stymied by tight defense in the first half but came out of the locker room ready to light up the Falcon defense. A hat-trick flurry in the third period gave Duke’s offense the boost it needed to pull away from Air Force.
Through the first two games of his collegiate career, the freshman now has 10 points from 10 goals.
“That’s just me catching the ball and finishing. I’m not doing much,” Guterding said. “[My teammates] are unbelievable. They’re the ones that create space for me by cutting through, dodging.”
The first half was shaky for the Blue Devils after the opening minutes. Despite jumping out to a quick 2-0 lead on a pair of strong goals from sophomore Jack Bruckner—both assisted by Jones—the Blue Devils could not keep the Falcons on their heels.
Trailing 3-2 in the second period, Air Force went on a three-goal run to take a lead that it would not relinquish easily.
Out of a timeout, sophomore Austin Smith stormed the cage and scooped in a low, lined shot to even the score at three. Within three minutes, the Falcons struck again to take their first lead of the game on an unassisted goal by midfielder Nate Hruby. With only 4:12 remaining in the first half, freshman Chris Walsch netted another goal through the five-hole of Duke goalkeeper Luke Aaron after several defenders fell to the ground, leaving a clean path to the goal.
Holding a 5-3 advantage, Air Force gave up an unassisted goal to junior Deemer Class, but maintained a slim 5-4 margin heading into the half.
“You have to give Air Force a lot of credit,” Danowski said. “They basically had a game plan. We were up 2-0, but they stayed with it. Their game plan was simple. They were going to win face offs. They were going to hold the ball.”
Although the offense hit its stride out of the locker room, Duke’s defense locked down the Falcons in the second period. After allowing 16 shots in the first period, the Blue Devils only gave up eight in the second half—including only two in the final period.
There was much more hustle apparent in the Duke squad as well, picking up 25 ground balls in the second half in comparison to just 10 in the first.
“Coach [Ben] DeLuca thought we should extend the tempo a little bit and extend the field,” Danowski said. “We tried to pressure them a little bit and we created some turnovers early.”
Another strong performance by Jones in his new leadership role kept the Blue Devils in the game as well. With momentum swinging back-and-forth, the Huntington, N.Y., native launched two goals into the net amidst Guterding’s run in the third period. Two games into the season, he has a team high 11 points off of six goals and five assists working out of the midfield.
Bruckner also provided a spark for the home faithful. In addition to his two opening goals, the Belle Terre, N.Y., native tied the game right of the gate in the second half to get a hat-trick and swing momentum Duke’s way.
“Whenever we had the ball we had to keep possession of it and make sure we stayed poised on offense,” Bruckner said. “We really tried to value the ball in the first half. Then the second half we came out, we just played our game and just slung the ball around and just played Duke lacrosse.”
Despite its stronger play in the second, the Duke still managed a sloppy game that shows signs of youth and early season rust. With the game being closer than the final score indicates, the Blue Devils will be happy to take the win en route to an early season top-five matchup against No. 1 Denver next week.
“We beat Denver twice last year, so they’re going to be all fired up,” Danowski said. “It’s a great opportunity to measure ourselves up to see where we’re at and what to work on. Beating Denver or losing to Denver is not really going to change our perspective in any way because we are a long way away from becoming what we are going to become.”
Duke will travel to Kennesaw State University just north of Atlanta, Ga., for the neutral sight matchup Saturday Feb. 14. Faceoff is set for 1 p.m.
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