It didn’t take very long for the Blue Devils to jump out to an early lead, and they never looked back from there.
No. 5 Duke scored a pair of goals in the opening 40 seconds and used the early advantage to cruise to a 13-6 victory against Davidson Tuesday night at Richardson Stadium in Davidson, N.C. Five Blue Devils notched two goals to lead a balanced scoring attack for head coach Kerstin Kimel’s squad.
Senior attacker Kerrin Maurer continued her strong season and kicked off the scoring for Duke (11-1) just 24 seconds into the match off a feed from freshman Kyra Harney. Maurer—who added another goal and two assists for a team-high four points—finished the game having won a career-high nine draws, providing the Blue Devils with the consistent possession they needed to keep piling up goals.
Classmate Katie Trees followed suit almost immediately, firing a shot past Wildcat goalkeeper Katy Boyle 13 seconds later to give Duke a 2-0 lead in the blink of an eye.
But Davidson (3-6) had no intentions of being shut out and responded with a goal of its own just a few minutes later. Senior Emily Rademacher scored her 12th goal of the season on an unassisted play that cut the Blue Devil lead in half.
From there, Duke blew the game open. A flurry of offense in the ensuing 20 minutes turned a slim 2-1 advantage into a 9-1 cushion, with six different Blue Devils finding the back of the net to cap a 7-0 stretch that put the game out of reach before halftime.
Junior attack Emma Sissman finally ended the streak by firing a shot past Duke goalkeeper Kelsey Duryea with 1:23 left in the half. The Blue Devils responded with just one tick remaining on the clock before intermission, as Maurer’s second goal of the game sent the teams to the locker rooms with Duke holding a commanding 10-2 lead.
Thanks to Maurer’s efforts in the faceoff circle, the Blue Devils enjoyed a 10-2 advantage in draws in the opening session, which helped them dominate possession and rack up a 20-4 edge in shots during the first 30 minutes—a margin that grew to 33-10 by the final whistle.
The Wildcats scored quickly to open the second half on Rademacher’s second goal of the evening but never drew closer than seven the rest of the way. Kimel pulled Duryea with 15 minutes left in the game, inserting reserve goalkeepers Angel Thompson and Oralee Hespenheid to get them some game action.
Duke will return to the field and get back to its ACC slate Saturday when it travels to play No. 3 Boston College in Newton, Mass.
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