In the battle of the brains, the men's lacrosse team had more than enough brawn, easily defeating 19th-ranked Harvard, 16-5, on Saturday at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn.
The somewhat neutral site allowed the nine Blue Devils from Connecticut to play in front of some familiar faces, but it was New York native John Fay who stole the show, scoring seven goals and netting two assists to lead fourth-ranked Duke (6-1) to victory.
Fay, who leads the Blue Devils in scoring this season, managed only one assist in Duke's last game against Georgetown. But Saturday, Fay tied his career high with nine points for the Blue Devils. He tallied nine goals last season against Hobart to tie the Duke record for most goals in a game.
"We were ready for a monster game from John, and he certainly had one," Duke coach Mike Pressler said. "It was John Fay's day offensively. He's a great shooter and a great finisher, and this year he's doing a better job of creating his own shots."
Fay put the Blue Devils on the board first while the Duke defense, which has been the catalyst for Duke all year, held the Crimson (3-2) scoreless for the first 24 minutes of the game.
"The strength of our team from day one has been our defense," Pressler said. "Greg Ehrnman did a tremendous job and just shut down [Harvard's leading scorer and Honorable Mention All-American Mike] Ferrucci. And even if they do get by our defense, Joe Kirmser is in the cage, and he's been tough-and getting better."
While the Crimson took 35 shots on Saturday, only three found the back of the net against Kirmser, who tallied 15 saves in 54 minutes.
Duke also was victorious in doing the little things-scooping up 63 percent of the ground balls and winning two-thirds of the face-offs.
"We really broke out in the face-offs," Pressler said. "That was a real positive."
Meanwhile, Fay was firmly in control of Duke's offense, netting six goals on 12 shots in the first half, including four scores in a row. His older brother Ed also got into the act on offense in the first half, scoring once to make the halftime score, Fays 7 (Duke 8), Harvard 1.
"Our offense started to come together [Saturday]," the junior Fay said. "There was a lot of unselfish play out there-trying to find guys to make the pass and help the team.
"I didn't do anything differently. The other guys on offense were just finding me open, and giving me open shots in front of the net."
In the second half, Pressler was able to play everyone who made the trip thanks to the first half padding. But Duke's offensive production didn't suffer at all, as the Blue Devils scored an even four goals in each quarter. Thirteen different players scored for Duke in all, including six players who had totaled six points between them going into the game.
"Everyone got a chance to play, and that was special because of all the parents there," Pressler said.
Junior Ben Quayle notched his first point of the season on a feed to Tim Speno, and sophomore Marc Amen's second half assist gave him his first career point.
"The way the scoring was so spread out shows that everybody was ready to play," Fay said.
Much of the impetus for the Blue Devils to perform well stemmed from their desire to avenge last season's 15-13 loss to the Crimson in Durham, in which the Blue Devils were "stupid the way we shot the ball," Pressler said after that game.
Last season, Duke had defeated four-straight ranked opponents before the loss to the Crimson sent the Blue Devils spiraling downward to end the season out of the NCAA Tournament. After being ranked as high as eighth before the Crimson turned Duke blue, the Blue Devils lost their next three games to finish the season ranked out of the top 15.
"Playing Harvard [Saturday] was definitely a motivational factor because of the tough loss last year," Fay said. "That loss started our down-turn last season, so it definitely gave us extra motivation this weekend."
The motivation also helped Duke overcome any let-down it might have suffered against the No. 19 Crimson, a relatively weak opponent compared to what Duke has been facing lately. The Blue Devils had emerged victorious from three straight games against teams ranked in the top eight in the nation before traveling to Connecticut. And with the game against the Crimson behind them, the Blue Devils now can look ahead to matches with No. 15 Massachusetts, who beat Duke 13-9 last season, and No. 3 Virginia in a game that could determine the regular season Atlantic Coast Conference crown.
"Hopefully, we can get some momentum out of Harvard," Fay said. "A lot of things came together in that game for us, and I hope that can continue. Every game for the rest of the year, we're going to have to give 110 percent to get the victory."
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