It was hard to blame this one on the luck of the Irish.
Instead, No. 9 Notre Dame thoroughly outplayed No. 2 Duke Saturday in all facets of the game to ensure an impressive wire-to-wire 11-7 victory over the Blue Devils (1-1). In their season opener, the Fighting Irish (1-0) spoiled the Blue Devils’ home opener at Koskinen Stadium and emerged from Durham with a season-defining win—in their maiden contest of the year.
“Duke is very opportunistic and they’re obviously a very skilled team,” Notre Dame head coach Kevin Corrigan said. “We’re really happy to come out of here with the win.”
The game was marked by the utter inefficiency of the Blue Devils offense, which struggled all day long in evading Fighting Irish defenders and putting itself in good position to score. Aside from a 30-second stretch in the second quarter when Duke scored three rapid-fire goals—“trash goals,” according to Corrigan—off three consecutive face-off victories, the Blue Devils offense never managed to find its rhythm. Co-captain Max Quinzani’s three goals served as the lone offensive highlight for Duke, which was out-shot 46-33 for the game.
“Notre Dame had a game plan and they came out and executed it,” co-captain Ned Crotty said. “They had long possessions on offense, and it seemed like finally we would get the ball and then get a quick turnover. Overall, we just didn’t look good today.”
Duke fell behind 6-2 in the second quarter before its timely spurt to cut the lead to one, but the Blue Devils were unable to build any momentum for the remainder of the contest. Two Quinzani goals in the third quarter—including one beautiful catch-and-shoot set up by Crotty—kept Duke in the game going into the final stanza, but the Fighting Irish defense completely shut down the Blue Devil offense in the fourth quarter, keeping Duke off the score sheet entirely for the final 15 minutes.
A tough Notre Dame defense was assisted by a wonderful performance from goalie Scott Rodgers, who made several point-blank saves to keep his team in front.
“Scott Rodgers is a great goalie,” Crotty said, in reference to the 6-foot-4, 254-pound Notre Dame behemoth between the pipes. “There were a few times when we thought we had a good chance at a goal, and then he stuck his shoulder pad right out there to make the save. We obviously had to shoot even better than we did.”
Besides Quinzani’s hat trick, freshman goalie Dan Wigrizer’s gritty performance was the most noticeable positive to take away from what was otherwise a tough early-season loss for Duke. Despite Duke’s 11-10 lead in the faceoff tally, the Fighting Irish controlled the clock throughout the game thanks to their much longer average possession time. Wigrizer held his own in his home debut, coming up with timely acrobatic saves to keep the Blue Devils in the game.
“We failed to clear the ball, literally could not run past their guys, and Notre Dame was able to play to its strengths on offense,” Duke head coach John Danowski said. “Our goalie, for a freshman in only his second college game, played well today. He didn’t give up any easy goals, and we were very happy with his effort.”
The Blue Devils’ lackluster performance Saturday came one week after a nail-biting overtime victory against No. 19 Bucknell, as the 2010 campaign has certainly gotten off to a rockier start than some may have expected. Nonetheless, Duke has now faced two excellent opponents in its first two games, and looks to build off this experience as the season progresses.
“I just think Notre Dame was better than us today,” Danowski said. “We have no problem saying that at this time of the year. In the long run, this may be the best thing that could have ever happened to us. Losing at home and being disappointed with how you played—that’s good motivation for this week in practice.”
The Blue Devils’ first chance at redemption comes next Saturday against Pennsylvania in a 3 p.m. tilt at Koskinen.
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