The lacrosse team's victory over Hobart College on Sunday would have made the U.S. Postal Service proud. The team brought home a 17-7 victory through rain, sleet and snow.
"It was a wild game," Duke head coach Mike Pressler said. "The whole second half was played in a horrendous blizzard. By the end of the game, there were two inches of snow on the ground. You couldn't see any lines on the field."
Hobart, located in Geneva, N.Y., defeated Duke 17-15 last year when it was the undisputed king of NCAA Division III lacrosse, having won 12 of the last 13 national championships. This season, the program moved to the Division I level and hoped to christen its inaugural season with a home victory over a top opponent--Duke.
"I think the weather kind of hurt the crowd, but there was a couple of thousand people at the game anyway," Pressler said. "It was raining when we started and about 35 degrees out. By halftime, the rain turned to sleet and by the second half, it was a blizzard."
For Hobart, the first half featured an onslaught of white lacrosse balls instead of white flakes. Duke took control of the contest immediately, jumping out to a 5-1 lead by the end of the first quarter. Both the offense and the defense continued to excel in the second quarter, as Duke roared to an 11-1 lead by halftime.
"The kids handled the conditions very well," Pressler said. "We jumped all over them. That was the best first half we put together all season. We handled the first half very well."
Pressler said that his team's size was the biggest factor in the game. The Blue Devils kept Hobart off balance early and were able to out-hustle Hobart throughout the contest.
"Their coach made the comment that we were bigger and stronger and we kind of pushed them around in the first half," Pressler said. "We got every loose ball and won every face-off. For us to hold Hobart to one goal at home and for us to score 11 in the first half, the game was pretty much over by halftime."
Hobart couldn't get back into the game in the second half. Although it did outscore Duke in the third quarter, Hobart could only cut Duke's lead to 14-5 by the end of three quarters.
By this point, snow was flying and Hobart's chances of shocking the Blue Devils two years in a row were gone. Pressler said that even the weather conditions that the Hobart game featured didn't shock him.
"I knew enough about the conditions up there from when I used to coach at Ohio Wesleyan," Pressler said. "Ohio Wesleyan and Hobart were big rivals, and I've been to Boswell Field many times.
"As the skies are always blue down here, up there you don't see the sun until May. It rains, it can do anything at any moment through the month of April."
The fourth quarter brought on yet crazier situations. With the game well in hand, Duke was still flying around the field--only sometimes, without the ball, now orange instead of white to avoid utter confusion.
"As the conditions got worse, it got even wilder at the end," Pressler said. "Guys would think they had the ball in their stick and would run up 20 yards before they realized it was still on the ground.
"We went to orange balls. We've used them in practice, not down here, but where I used to coach. We'd never used one ever in a game but I finally said with five minutes to go, `We've got to use the orange balls.' They found one and we used it."
Individually, senior Matt Ogelsby stood out like one of those orange balls. The two-time All-American notched four goals for the Blue Devils and tallied an assist. His head coach found Ogelsby's career-high total of 14 ground balls particularly outstanding.
"Six is good," Pressler said. "Fourteen is unbelievable. Matt Ogelsby was superior once again. He dominated the midfield of play and got us started, scoring our first goal.
"Matt was the player of the game."
Other than Ogelsby, the Duke attack featured very balanced scoring. Seniors Scott Harrison and Ross Moscatelli both scored twice and tallied an assist. Attacker Steve Finnell had a pair of goals and assists while midfielder Jim Gonnella also notched two scores.
On the defensive end, Joe Kirmser was credited with 25 saves. Pressler said that number was misleading and that the defense played well.
"With the weather, there might have been some discrepancy," Ogelsby said. "Of those 25, he wasn't really tested that much. A lot of them were easy, routine kind of saves."
Pressler especially liked the fact that Hobart scored only seven goals. Since allowing 13 goals to North Carolina in Duke's 13-8 loss on Mar. 29, the Blue Devils have steadily reduced their opponents' offensive outputs. Harvard managed only 11 goals against Duke last weekend and Massachusetts reached only eight on April 5. Both games were victories for the Blue Devils and bode well for the team's chances against ACC foe Virginia next Saturday.
"Our defense has stepped it up," Pressler said. "We were under 10 until the Carolina game. We're coming back down to where our goals-against should be."
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