In Duke’s first test against the nation's best, the inexperienced Blue Devils had an early season wakeup call.
No. 1 Denver opened their season with the 17-13 win against No. 3 Duke who just came off an undefeated doubleheader weekend against Air Force and Elon. The Blue Devils were led by junior Myles Jones and freshman Justin Guterding who had three goals and two assists apiece while Chad Cohan had his first career hat trick. Jones and Guterding lead the team with 16 and 15 points on the season, respectively.
But the Pioneers countered with Maryland-transfer Connor Canizzarro and upperclassman duo of Erik Adamson and Jack Bobzien, who ran wild for 13 goals—with nine coming in the second half.
“We played way too much defense,” head coach John Danowski said to GoDuke.com after the game. “Hats off to Denver’s offense, they were brilliant. We thought offensively we were pretty good too, but we just didn’t have the ball a lot in the second half. That being said, our guys need to be in these games with the great crowd and great environment.”
Denver’s Trevor Baptiste dominated the faceoff—winning 25-of-34 and scooping up 14 ground balls. The Blue Devils had no answer for the Pioneer, as senior Jack Rowe went 8-for-28 and brother Kyle Rowe went 1-for-5.
The extra possessions piled up for Denver in the second half, as Baptiste won a staggering 17-of-19 after the break. This led to possession after possession for the Pioneers, who quickly wore down the Duke defense. Denver rode this relentless offense on a 9-1 run starting with three minutes left in the third quarter until there were three minutes left in the game. Despite the poor performance with faceoffs, Danowski stood by his specialist and pointed toward a lack of playing time throughout the last three years as reason for the senior's inexperience.
“Jack Rowe hasn’t faced off for us in four years,” Danowski said. “Hasn’t really played lacrosse in four years except behind Costabile and Fowler. This is his first taste. He’s got to learn, work a little harder this week, and get ready for tomorrow. He needs more reps.”
The Blue Devils and Pioneers traded shots throughout the first half with no team leading by more than two until Jones fed Cohan for a goal—his second of the half—with two seconds left in the second quarter to put up Duke 8-5 heading into the break. Denver’s offense got off 15 shots in the first quarter but found the back of the net on just four. For the first half, Duke’s Jack Rowe and Denver’s Baptiste were equally matched, but the second half is when everything began to click for the Pioneers.
The young Blue Devils maintained their three-goal lead 12 minutes into the third quarter, but the Pioneers tied it up at 11 after scoring three goals in the last 2:54. Duke’s freshman phenom Guterding scored his 13th goal of the year to put Duke up one last time but it was all Denver from there.
Canizzarro—the reigning ACC Freshman of the Year and transfer from Maryland—had two goals in man-up situations following Guterding’s score and added six assists throughout the second half, finding every possible opening in the tired Duke defense. Junior attack Bobzien picked up where he left off last year, leading all scorers with six goals—five of which came during Denver’s torrid second half offensive streak. There was a noticeable difference once the Blue Devil defensive unit was put on its heels as Danowski’s squad seemed to lose focus and cohesiveness.
“Defensively, we got three sophomores and our fourth defender is a freshman. Our pole is a freshman, and our backup pole is a freshman,” Danowsiki said. “We pretty much we have six new players in our top eight or nine defenders on call. We lost ourselves. During today’s game, there was no guy that’s been there to say, 'Hey fellas, this is what we’re doing wrong. Let’s correct it and let’s go.' We just don’t have that right now.”
The fourth quarter slipped away from Duke not only because of Baptiste’s dominance at the faceoff X but the Blue Devils’ youth and lack of experience in big-time games started to reveal itself.
“Tied in the fourth quarter, they have to figure out how to make a play and we just couldn’t today,” Danowski said. “The hope is we will learn from that, grow and use that for the rest of the year. “
The Blue Devils don’t have much time for rest as they head south to Macon, Ga., to face Mercer at 2p.m. Sunday.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.