CJ Costabile picked up the ball after the Blue Devils won the opening faceoff and brought it into the offensive third, ready to take a shot on goal.
But instead of recreating memories of his game-winning score in the two teams’ last meeting, Costabile missed. And with that, Notre Dame had flipped the script.
In their first game since losing to No. 5 Duke (1-1) in the 2010 national championship, the Fighting Irish (1-0) exacted a small measure of revenge Sunday en route to a 12-7 victory at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Fla.
No. 6 Notre Dame, which started nine upperclassmen, used two four-goal runs in the second and fourth quarters to take control of the game as the Blue Devils suffered their first defeat of the season to the Fighting Irish for the second straight year.
“It was disappointing,” redshirt junior Justin Turri said. “But it happens. We’re pretty young, gotta take some bumps on the road.”
Nevertheless, it looked like the young Duke team might overcome the jitters of playing a veteran opponent in a nationally televised game. The Blue Devils, anchored by sophomore Dan Wigrizer in goal, played staunch defense to start the game, holding the Fighting Irish scoreless for the first 24 minutes.
Unfortunately, Duke’s offense was almost equally inept during that stretch. The Blue Devils missed their first 10 shots, including three in succession directly in front of the cage as Notre Dame goalie John Kemp made some outstanding saves to keep the game scoreless.
“Offensively we had a lot of good looks, but their goalie made some great stops in close,” said Turri, who led Duke with three points on two goals and one assist. “If we make some shots, it’s a very different game.”
The Blue Devils finally broke the scoring drought at the 9:40 mark of the second quarter. Turri drew in the defense on the right wing and found an open Tom Rynn on the left side. The senior struck from 10 yards out to give Duke its first lead of the game.
Sophomore Josh Offit followed with a score of his own to put the Fighting Irish in a two-goal hole. From then on, though, it was all Notre Dame.
Junior attackman Sean Rogers drew first blood, coming around from behind the cage as the Fighting Irish reeled off three goals in 36 seconds. The second two scores both came directly off of faceoff wins as Notre Dame’s wing players dominated their Duke counterparts. Midfielder Max Pfeifer, seemingly the quickest player on the field for most of the day, tacked on one more goal to make it 4-2 in favor of the Fighting Irish heading into halftime.
“When those first two goals happened we thought the game would open up, unfortunately, it opened up the game in the other way,” Turri said. “They made some really good plays off the ground on ground balls…. We kind of just got outhustled today. They made some nice plays that kind of stopped the momentum.”
The Fighting Irish continued to control faceoffs for the remainder of the game, winning 13-of-22, and forced the Blue Devils to turn the ball over at a high rate. Duke finished the game with 15 turnovers compared to 10 for Notre Dame.
The Blue Devils still found themselves within striking distance in the fourth quarter, down two early in the period, until Irish midfielder Zach Brenneman took over.
The senior All-America candidate connected from distance to put Notre Dame up three. On the ensuing possession, with Duke overplaying the long-range shot, Brenneman found freshman Westy Hopkins wide open in front of the goal. The senior then scored once more from 15 yards out to complete his hat trick and secure the victory for the Irish.
The Blue Devils suffered a similar 11-7 loss to Notre Dame at the beginning of last season, but would seem to face a tougher uphill climb in 2011 with a less experienced roster. Head coach John Danowski will also be concerned with the status of Costabile, who rolled his ankle with 2:20 remaining and had to be helped off the field, not to return to the contest. Costabile had a problem with ankle injuries last season.
Turri wasn’t too concerned, however, with his team’s performance at this point in the year.
“We played pretty well considering how young we are,” he said. “Overall, our second game of the year, we did a pretty good job.”
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