Duke 16, Syracuse 10 (FINAL): Duke nearly suffered a fourth-quarter collapse in its semifinal matchup against Cornell. But holding a three-goal lead with 15 minutes to play for a national championship, the Blue Devils never looked back.
Duke defeated Syracuse 16-10 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia to win the Blue Devils' second national championship in program history.
Josh Dionne, Christian Walsh and Jake Tripucka all notched goals for the Blue Devils within the first five minutes of the final period.
JoJo Marasco added two goals for Syracuse to cut his team's deficit to 13-9, but Jordan Wolf's third goal of the contest with 3:07 remaining stopped the Orange run and sealed the game for Duke. The Philadelphia native added an empty-netter in the game's last two minutes.
Duke 10, Syracuse 7 (end of 3rd quarter): Building on its momentum from a strong second period, Duke took its first lead of the game after the break.
After a slow beginning to the period for both teams, Josh Offit found the back of the net to put the Blue Devils ahead 8-7.
Seniors led the way for Duke with David Lawson and Josh Offit scoring twice in the quarter. Junior Josh Dionne gave the Blue Devils an insurance goal with 1:10 in the period to give the team a two-goal cushion before Offit nailed another for the 10-7 lead entering the fourth.
The Blue Devils initially struggled to find an offensive groove this period when the Orange came out of the locker room in a zone. That appeared to keep Duke off balance at points, but its defense limited Syracuse to just one goal in the period, even when the offense was slow.
Duke 5, Syracuse 6 (end of 2nd quarter): The beginning of the second period continued the flow of the first one with the Orange extending their lead to 5-0.
But Jordan Wolf finally broke the ice for Duke, throwing his hands in the air after the score and helping ignite a second-quarter surge from the Blue Devils. After the Orange made it 6-1, Duke scored four unanswered goals to bring the game within one entering halftime.
Wolf scored two of Duke's five second-period goals with Jake Tripucka, Myles Jones and Josh Dionne also finding the back of the net. Tripucka's goal was the most acrobatic: the senior lunged toward the goal from just outside the circle and punched it home while drawing fouls from the surrounding defenders who jockeyed him to the ground and toward the net.
Notable halftime stats:
- Shots: Duke 23, Syracuse 21
- Groundballs: Duke 21, Syracuse 13
- Duke has won 10-of-13 faceoffs
- Saves: Duke five, Syracuse eight
- Turnovers: Duke 5, Syracuse 5
Duke 0, Syracuse 4 (end of 1st quarter): It was an ugly offensive period for the Blue Devils, who failed to get many clean looks on goal while struggling to contain the Orange offense.
After Brendan Fowler won the game's initial faceoff for Duke, the Syracuse defense set the tone for the rest of the quarter by stopping a Jordan Wolf shot. The Blue Devils took 10 shots in the period. The Orange took 15.
Following a Duke stop and a subsequent turnover, the Orange got on the board when Billy Ward got the ball right in front of the goal, leaving goalie Justin Turri helpless.
Turri has been a star for Duke but didn't have much of a chance on any of the Orange's four goals. Syracuse took advantage of an extra-man opportunity when Brendan Fowler was called for a penalty.
Pregame: Welcome folks to live coverage of seventh-seeded Duke lacrosse's national title bid against No. 1-seeded Syracuse at Ford Financial Field in Philadelphia.
Follow along with @chroniclesports for live updates and right here for quarter-by-quarter summaries and analysis.
For a full preview of the game, click here.
Some notes:
- The Blue Devils are vying for the second national title in program history in what will be their fourth championship game.
- Duke has reached the semifinals in all seven seasons since head coach John Danowski took over.
- This will be Syracuse's final lacrosse game as a member of the Big East. The Orange will be conference rivals with Duke beginning next season in the ACC.
- Duke junior Brendan Fowler ranks third in the NCAA with a 64.1 faceoff percentage.
- Syracuse has won 42.8 percent of its faceoffs this season but only turns the ball over 12.11 times per game, the second-fewest in Division I.
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