After a disappointing loss to Notre Dame last weekend, Duke needed a strong performance from senior Max Quinzani to avoid the team’s second straight defeat.
Duke trailed Pennsylvania 4-1 after the first quarter and 7-4 at halftime before outscoring the Quakers 12-4 in the final 30 minutes to earn a 16-11 victory. The No. 8 Blue Devils (2-1) entered the fourth quarter down a goal, but two quick strikes by Josh Offit and a man-up goal by Jonathan Livadas gave the Blue Devils an 11-9 lead. Penn (0-1) refused to give up, though, and the Quakers rallied for two goals to tie the game at 11 before Duke scored the final five goals of the game to get the victory Saturday at Koskinen Stadium.
Quinzani led the way for the Blue Devils with six goals and two assists, including three goals in 62 seconds near the end of the fourth quarter. Quinzani’s scoring spurt began with Duke up just a single tally, 12-11, and his late play secured the victory.
“I only remember the first three,” Quinzani said of his six-goal haul. “Really, I couldn’t tell you what happened there. I went unconscious.”
“[Max is] just a tough-minded individual,” head coach John Danowski said. “I was really happy for him. He’s a senior, and seniors are supposed to be making those plays.”
For the third game in a row, Duke found itself trailing at halftime, but the team refused to let the slow start affect its performance.
“It’s a 60-minute game,” Danowski said. “You just have got to keep playing, keep hustling. When things aren’t going your way, you just have to get back to your fundamentals, whether on offense it’s ball possession and ground balls or defensively individual technique on the ball. I thought our kids did a great job of just continuing to play hard. Nobody was freaking out—no yelling or gnashing of teeth or anything.”
So far this season, every game has been a nail-biter for the Blue Devils. Duke won the season opener in overtime against then-No. 19 Bucknell and lost to current No. 3 Notre Dame by four goals last weekend. Saturday proved no different for Danowski’s squad, which is becoming more and more comfortable in tight situations.
“[The close games are] great,” Danowski said. “It is what it is. These are the games that you figure out what kind of team you’re going to become. No matter what you do in practice, it is not like a game. Once you put the uniforms on, and there are officials and the other team, and Mom and Dad are in town and your girlfriend perhaps, it’s different. You have to learn how to play with all those distractions.”
Duke will face a lot more distractions when it hits the road for the first time this season. The Blue Devils travel to Baltimore next Saturday to take on No. 6 Maryland in the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic.
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