On a chilly North Carolina night—one on which temperatures dropped below freezing before the opening faceoff—the Blue Devils got hot in the second half, making for a blazing start to the season.
No. 3 Duke steamrolled its way to a 17-6 season-opening victory against High Point Friday night at Koskinen Stadium. Seniors Deemer Class and Case Matheis led the way, notching a combined seven goals to go along with four goals from junior Jack Bruckner.
“We knew it was going to be a scrappy game,” Matheis said. “We knew it was going to be a fight at the beginning, but we got some ground balls, some possessions and then our shots went in, so were able to keep it going.”
After the Panthers (0-1) scored the opening goal, the Blue Devils (1-0) scored the next four—including a pair from Class. High Point’s Dallas Bridle scooped one into the net with just 4.5 seconds remaining in the first quarter to pull the Panthers within two. It was an even second quarter between the two sides, as they traded goals and the visitors remained within reach of Duke, trailing just 7-4 at the half.
But Class’s third goal of the night in the waning seconds of the first half and a man-up goal by Matheis just 37 seconds of the second sparked a 9-0 run that allowed the hosts to pull away.
“I think we came out a little too over-excited,” Bruckner said. “We got the ball around like [head coach [John Danowski] wants us to…and once we started clicking as a team offense rather than just one guy, it came to us.”
A win to start the season was exactly what this Blue Devil team needed after ending last season on a sour note. With 87 percent of Duke’s scoring returning to Durham this season, Danowski’s squad was certainly looking forward to erasing the memories of last season’s first-round exit from the NCAA tournament, when it fell to Ohio State 16-11.
“It’s just been a long time since we’ve competed,” Danowski said. “We got knocked out in the first round last year. We don’t compete in the fall, we don’t have any scrimmages in preseason and I think it was just more of function of the guys being really anxious to play. They wanted to play against a different color jersey, and it’s been a while since we’ve done that.”
Friday night, the Blue Devil scoring attack showed why many lacrosse pundits have labeled it as one of the nation’s best.
Duke's 17 goals came off the sticks of eight different players, and the hosts racked up 29 shots on goal. Senior midfielder Myles Jones—who was selected as the top overall pick in the Major League Lacrosse draft last month—scored a pair of goals and assisted on four more, helping Matheis notch a hat trick on the night.
Although High Point goalie Zach Tuell made 12 saves, it was nowhere close to enough. With experience and major depth at both attack and midfield, the Blue Devils put on a scoring show and punished their opponents at every opportunity—something that can be expected from them often this season.
“If you’re a player, it makes it fun [to have offensive depth and experience],” Danowski said. “It makes it fun knowing anyone’s capable of making a play. Now that doesn’t mean scoring a goal or making an assist, but it might mean starting the offense, drawing two defenders and then moving the ball…it just means that when the ball is on that end, the team can kind of take a deep breath.”
Redshirt sophomore Danny Fowler started in goal, making just his 10th start for Duke. The Wantagh, N.Y., native replaced then-junior Luke Aaron midway through the 2015 season and has held onto the first-team role ever since.
Fowler made six saves on 16 shots on goal, keeping a potent High Point offense at bay for much of the evening. A third-quarter shutout was partially a product of both Fowler and a stellar defensive effort from the Blue Devils, holding the Panthers scoreless for a 20:19 stretch spanning the second through fourth quarters.
“[Being a year older], they’re able to talk to one another,” Danowski said. “Communication is a big part of team defense. You could hear them talking and saying the right things to one another. Usually when guys don’t talk, it’s because guys are not confident and they’re unsure of their assignments. [Tonight], guys were sure of their assignments.”
The Blue Devil special teams units were also successful, converting on all three man-up opportunities and allowing just one High Point extra-man goal despite playing a man down on six separate occasions.
“It was good for us to play man-down because we’re going to play man-down in the course of the year,” Danowski said. “With new guys playing, the experience of playing man-down is always a good one.”
Duke returns to the field at Koskinen Stadium at 1 p.m. Sunday to host Lehigh in the second of two games in a three-day span.
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Twitter: @mpgladstone13
A junior from just outside Philadelphia, Mitchell is probably reminding you how the Eagles won the Super Bowl this year and that the Phillies are definitely on the rebound. Outside of The Chronicle, he majors in Economics, minors in Statistics and is working toward the PJMS certificate, in addition to playing trombone in the Duke University Marching Band. And if you're getting him a sandwich with beef and cheese outside the state of Pennsylvania, you best not call it a "Philly cheesesteak."