Second-ranked lacrosse teams both score easy road wins

Sometimes the final score cannot tell the full story. Following the second-ranked menPis lacrosse teamPis 14-9 victory over Harvard Saturday afternoon in New Haven, Conn., the scoreboard could tell those in attendance that the Blue Devils walked away with a comfortable five-goal win. What the score couldnPit portray, however, was how Duke (8-0) completely dominated the Crimson (2-3), yet at times, really struggled on both sides of the ball. A sluggish defensive start resulted in a quick pair of Crimson goals as unranked Harvard took a 2-0 first-quarter lead. Duke answered with five goals in the second, but the Blue DevilsPi 5-4 halftime advantage was slim considering they outshot Harvard, 29-12, and won 9-of-11 first-half faceoffs (and 21-of-25 on the afternoon). Despite these whopping statistical margins, the Crimson was able to stay in the game in large part due to the heroics of Harvard goalie Keith Cynar. Cynar was fantastic, recording 22 saves on the afternoon, including 16 in the first half. The story of the game was their goaltending,<= Duke coach Mike Pressler said. [Cynar] was outstanding. The score was 5-4 at halftime and we felt it should have been closer to 10-4.<= And while Cynar certainly played well, part of the Blue DevilsPi problem was their own offense. Although Duke took plenty of shots, they were not necessarily good ones. While watching film yesterday, Pressler counted 14 first-half Cynar saves, but of those 14, 12 were shot at his body. We were getting shots, but we hit him,<= Pressler said. He only had two stick saves. We werenPit placing our shots. It was a matter of us not getting the ball past him.<= But that changed in the second half. The Blue Devils scored five goals in the third and added four more in the final period. Any shooting woes Duke had completely vanished, as it converted on four of its seven shots in the fourth quarter. Nick Hartofilis led the way for the Blue Devils, scoring all of his game-high four goals in the second half. [Hartofilis] had by far his best game of the year,<= Pressler said. He was the player of the game; he scored his goals when we needed him the most. We placed our shots better and [Cynar] started to get tired. We made better shots in the second halfaa couple of our shots, no one gets to them.<= And although DukePis offense finally hit its stride, mental errors and miscues plagued the Duke defense throughout the contest. Pressler described the effort as by far not our sharpest day on defense<= and said that he didnPit feel Harvard truly earned any of its goals. The coach realizes his team must weed out such mistakes as Duke readies for a difficult three-game homestand starting against UMass on Saturday, followed by games with ACC rivals North Carolina and Virginia. WePive got one of the biggest, the most difficult and the most dangerous weeks wePive ever put together,<= Pressler said. WePire now at the meat of our schedule. WePire excited to be 8-0, but we donPit want to get caught up in anything. We expected to be where we are.<= Note: DukePis 8-0 start is the best in the programPis 62-year history.