CHAPEL HILL—For the second straight week the Blue Devils fall—this time to a bitter rival.
After a blowout loss to then-No. 1 Syracuse 19-7 a week earlier, No. 6 Duke took the short trip down Tobacco Road to face No. 4 North Carolina to finish its three-game road stretch Sunday. The 5,711 fans in attendance—the largest crowd at North Carolina's Fetzer Field since a 1983 showdown against Johns Hopkins—witnessed the Blue Devils fall in heartbreaking fashion to the Tar Heels 15-14 for the first time in a regular season tilt in Chapel Hill since 2003.
“I don’t know if you saw the game against Syracuse, but we got hammered pretty well, so I was very proud of our guys,” Duke head coach John Danowski said. “Last week was pretty embarrassing for everyone involved with the program, so we were just delighted with our effort. We got better this week than we were last week. Some weeks you win, some weeks you lose, but we got better as a result of this. I’m very proud of our guys.”
With just more than a minute left in the game, Duke (7-3, 0-2 in the ACC) was poised to even the score to send the contest into overtime, but late game heroics by Tar Heel goalie Kieran Burkeon on a shot by junior midfielder Myles Jones sealed the game. The Tar Heels (10-1, 1-0) rode out the remainder of the clock to drop the Blue Devils to 2-3 against ranked opponents this season.
Junior midfielder Deemer Class led Duke, scoring five goals for the visiting squad in the loss, and freshman attackman Justin Guterding—the top goal scorer in the ACC with 3.22 goals per game entering the contest—returned to his scoring ways. The Garden City, N.Y., native scored three goals and added three more assists.
“Justin Guterding is starting to get a real feel for the offense, so he’s starting to make the looks that are usually there in the offense,” Class said. “[My scoring] is nothing special. It’s scrapping here and there, but the guys are putting the ball in my stick and that’s all I can really ask for.”
The Tar Heels got off to a fast start in the first quarter against the Blue Devils by going up 2-0 early with goals from sophomore attackman Luke Goldstock and senior attackman Joey Sankey. But Duke would not go away so easily.
With 2:10 remaining in the quarter, goals by senior attackman Kyle Keenan, Guterding, Class and senior midfielder Tanner Scott would put the Blue Devils up 4-2. By the end of half, the Blue Devils had turned the momentum from that run into to a 7-5 lead.
Despite having the two-goal edge heading into the locker room, Duke was outshot by the Tar Heels 22-18, only grabbed 20-of-42 ground balls and had four more turnovers for a total of 10. The sloppy affair was highlighted by two failed conversions on three extra-man opportunities.
“We made some mistakes here and there, but that happens and we were able to keep fighting through,” Class said.
In a game of runs, North Carolina did not waste any time grabbing back the lead, as four goals in as many minutes gave the home team an 8-7 advantage. Jones attempted to end the run with his first goal since Duke's win against Georgetown March 14—ending the midfielder's 102-minute goal drought—but the Tar Heels had other plans.
“I said to the guys at halftime, ‘We know they’re going to make a run,’” Class said. “They’ve got a lot of great players and their guys stepped up. We knew it was going to be a close game.”
Jimmy Bitter—the top points scorer in the ACC with 5.20 per game—answered Jones with two goals of his own, but again the Blue Devils refused to go away. Three straight goals to end the third period put the visitors up 11-10 going into the final quarter.
“We knew we needed to slide to [Bitter and Sankey], but a couple of times we did not,” Danowski said. “They’re seniors. They’re terrific players. If you take a look at their seniors, I think [they] scored 10 out of their 15 goals and that’s what seniors do. Older kids are experienced, they are leaders on the field and those are two dynamic players.”
A strong fourth quarter by senior midfielder Chad Tutton kept Duke at bay. With the score knotted at 11-11, Tutton scored three goals in the final quarter to move the lead to 14-12, and the Tar Heels would hold on for the win in the closing minutes.
Aside from Tutton’s goals, the lack of success at the faceoff X by the Blue Devils in the fourth quarter put the nail in the coffin. North Carolina won 8-of-9 faceoffs in the period to keep bragging rights in Chapel Hill for the coming year.
“It was a close game—a big rivalry game,” Class said. “There are obviously some things in a game like that you want to have back, but we’re just going to get back to work. We’ve got the No. 1 team in the country coming on Saturday.”
Duke will host No.1 Notre Dame Saturday at 5 p.m. at Koskinen Stadium.
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