Farewell Aragog.
In a matchup against the best scoring defense in the nation, the fourth-ranked Blue Devils escaped the web, beating No. 17 Richmond 12-3. Despite a slower initial pace that should have favored the Spiders in the first half, Duke’s defense held strong, headlined by freshman goalie Patrick Jameison’s 12 saves on 15 shots. In the latter periods, the offense roared to life, as reigning Tewaaraton Award winner Brennan O’Neill found his groove with a hat trick. Graduate transfer Josh Zawada and junior Andrew McAdorey added braces of their own.
“Very happy with how the guys went about their business and how they handled … three games in eight days,” Duke head coach John Danowski said of his team.
At the start of the second half, the nation’s top-ranked offense finally clicked into gear. O’Neill found his way onto the scorer’s sheet, dodging from the right and firing it past the hapless Zach Vigue. Following a faceoff win, specialist Jake Naso stayed up on offense, catching and firing a sharp angled shot across the mouth of the goal and into the top corner. Another bullet from O’Neill from the left wing found the target to put the Blue Devils (8-1) up 7-2.
Duke then went into overdrive. Graduate attacker Dyson Williams found himself free in front of the mouth of the goal and dumped it into the back of the net for another. An errant shot from O'Neill fell into the stick of Zawada behind the crease, who then found a wide open Jack Pappendick for an extra goal. Benn Johnson then got in on the action, scoring his 10th goal of the season from range to seal a 6-0 Duke run in the third quarter. The streak was not without some excellent defense, which included a beautiful deflection from sophomore Henry Bard to block a pass during a man-up advantage.
“Nothing really changed,” Danowski said when asked about the second-half spark. “Coach Matt Danowski decided we’re going to attack and initiate our offense from behind the goal. And that seemed to help us … we were able to just stick to the fundamentals and relax a little bit.”
The slow pace in the first half may have been problematic on paper, but Duke’s defense was fierce from the get-go. The Blue Devils kept the Spiders (5-3) on the perimeter and forced mistakes as the shot clock expired. After winning the opening faceoff, Richmond’s Dalton Young misplayed the ball into the hands of graduate student Jake Caputo. The next possession, long-stick midfielder Will Frisoli forced an errant pass after pressure from behind the X did not allow the Spiders’ Luke Grayum any room to breathe. Jameison then continued to improve on his fifth-ranked save percentage in the nation, denying Young at close range. Another example of the spectacular defense occurred when a Richmond fast-break was screeched to a halt after a plethora of Blue Devils slammed into a slipping Lance Madonna.
“We made a point all week of not letting them get out and run in transition,” Danowski said of his team’s effective defense. “Once we were six-on-six, I thought the defense group was very connected. They all moved together [and] they won individual battles.”
At the same time, though, the Blue Devils struggled to find their rhythm offensively. While good ball movement created goal scoring opportunities, Max Sloat, O’Neill and Williams seemed unable to find the cage, missing shots high and wide. Just when a man-up advantage seemed to provide Duke with a golden opportunity to get going, an O'Neill shot from close range rang off the post and squirted out of bounds harmlessly. Finally, after a long 12:11, McAdorey received a perfect pass from behind the cage and slotted his bouncing shot past Vigue while absorbing contact to the body. Three more saves from Jameison helped the Blue Devils hold Richmond scoreless in the first quarter.
The defensive masterclass continued into the start of the second quarter. After Naso pushed on a faceoff, giving Richmond a man up advantage, Duke continued to slide impeccably and forced a high Madonna pass that sailed out of play. Jameison continued to make impressive saves, including a bouncer from a cutting Lukas Olsson and a high riser from Grayum. However, after over 19 minutes, the Richmond offense finally found paydirt. Madonna picked up the pass, dodged left and rocketed a shot into the upper righthand corner of the net to tie the game.
The first Richmond goal led to a back and forth affair. 21 seconds after the Spiders goal, fantastic ball movement off a loose faceoff found Zawada wide open in front of the net for a simple goal to put Duke back in front. A few minutes later, Richmond’s Grayum cut inside into the crease, ate a bodycheck, and finished past Jamieson to tie it up. Duke then stuck their nose out front again, as McAdorey found Zawada at the top of the zone, who fired it into the lower-left-hand corner of the net. With time expiring in the first half, a close-range shot from Charles Balsamo hit off of Vigue and into the back of the net to make it 4-2.
“[Richmond] played a style of defense that we hadn’t really seen all year,” Danowski said. “We hit a couple of pipes and you gotta tip your cap to your opponent.”
Protecting the eight-goal advantage in the fourth, Jameison continued to play incredibly, blocking a shot from Aidan O’Neil. Another offensive set from Richmond went awry, as Tyler Carpenter picked off a pass as the Spiders tried to move it from the X. After a 32-minute drought, Richmond finally scored again, as Young ripped one into the netting on the fast-break. The three goals are the fewest that Duke has allowed this year.
“He was really solid,” Danowski said of Jameison. “He doesn’t give up a lot of rebounds. He was able to outlet the ball [and] we were able to clear it well. When you can catch the ball and don’t give up rebounds it makes such a difference.”
Duke hopes to repeat its defensive performance against its first ACC challenger Wednesday when it travels north to face Syracuse.
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