With 8:04 remaining in the third quarter, attackman Max Quinzani appeared to lose a scoring opportunity when he was flattened by a defender with possession of the ball. As he fell, though, the sophomore still fired a shot and celebrated his fourth goal of the match lying flat on his back.
The sequence was emblematic of how well the top-ranked Blue Devils' offense performed from start to finish on their way to a 19-9 victory over No. 3 North Carolina (5-1, 0-1 in the ACC) Saturday afternoon at Koskinen Stadium. Quinzani led Duke (7-0, 2-0) with a career-high six goals.
"We knew that coming into this game that in past years, they've gotten up on us early," senior goalie Dan Loftus said. "In the locker room we said, we don't want that to happen to us. We said the game is 60 minutes, not 30."
The Blue Devils' early focus showed, as they stormed out of the gate and never looked back.
Ned Crotty started the scoring for Duke, as he spun his way through the Tar Heel defense to put the Blue Devils up 1-0 barely two minutes into the game. Less than two minutes later, senior Zack Greer stole the ball from North Carolina goalie Grant Zimmerman and found Quinzani, who scored easily.
After both squads traded goals twice-putting Duke up 4-2-the Blue Devils took control with a 6-0 run in the second quarter. Quinzani tallied two goals just over a minute apart by making difficult catches in traffic to extend Duke's advantage to four. Then, with 5:51 left before intermission, the veteran combination of Matt Danowski and Zack Greer struck as Danowski fed Greer to put the Tar Heels in a 9-2 hole. North Carolina appeared to make a run toward the end of the second period when it notched two quick strikes, but the Blue Devils scored four straight to open the third quarter and erased any chance of a Tar Heel win.
For the game, Duke and North Carolina had an almost equal number of looks, with 47 and 46 attempts on goal, respectively. But Loftus made a season-high 15 saves.
Although both teams had a similar amount of offensive chances, the Blue Devils' ability to steal the ball enabled them to keep North Carolina from capitalizing around the net.
"I thought we got some great goalie play and good team defense," head coach John Danowski said. "We were able to push the ball and get goals in a variety of different ways. That really helped us get a lead."
A number of Duke players reached milestones in the game, including Greer, whose five scores made him the all-time goals leader in school history. The Blue Devils improved to 32-0 when Greer has three or more goals.
After the game, however, the talented senior had little to say about the milestone, focusing instead on the big picture of what had happened Saturday afternoon.
"I didn't even know," Greer said of the record. "We beat Carolina. Doubled them up."
Quinzani continued his torrid production, as he leads the ACC with 22 goals. The sophomore is on pace to easily surpass his 24 goals scored last year.
The victory gives the Blue Devils their seventh straight over their crosstown rivals. It also gives Duke its second victory over a top-five opponent this season, both of which have come with comfortable margins of victory.
The Blue Devils, however, were only focused on their latest conquest over the Tar Heels.
"It doesn't matter if you're playing checkers," Loftus said. "Anytime you beat [North Carolina], if you're a fan or a player, it's a great day to be a Blue Devil."
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