People often laud Cameron Indoor Stadium for its significant home-court advantage, but if head coach John Danowski's squad keeps playing like this there might need to be some discussion about the most advantageous home venue on campus.
Behind big four-goal performances from veteran midfielders Deemer Class and Myles Jones, the No. 5 Blue Devils defeated No. 14 Loyola 14-8 for their 21st consecutive win at home—tying the program record set from March 2007 to Feb. 2009. The current streak appropriately started with a win against the Greyhounds back on March 8, 2013.
Duke started strong, with Case Matheis—who had missed the last two games due to injury—pouring in an early hat trick as part of a 6-2 run into the early second quarter to open the game. Despite a later lull, the Blue Devils would regroup to find their early rhythm and cruise to their fourth consecutive win.
“I think it was big for our defense to get a few stops early so being able to limit them early and get the ball to our offense to get into a rhythm a little bit really helped,” Class told GoDuke.com.
Despite Duke's strong start, Loyola dominated the remaining time in the first half to pour in four goals and tie the game at six. After the Greyhounds' spurt, the Blue Devils (6-1) enter the locker room with a one goal lead after faceoff specialist Jack Rowe won a long challenge, ran it down himself and scored the first goal of his career.
Early third quarter, Loyola (3-3) showed why it is a top-15 team, opening a 8-7 lead—their first of the game—thanks to back-to-back Zach Herreweyers goals less than three minutes into the period.
That was the end for Loyola, however.
The Blue Devils went on a tear—defensively and offensively—from there as the Greyhounds were held scoreless for the remaining 27:17 of the game while Duke unleashed an onslaught of seven unanswered goals entirely led by Jones and Class. Jones scored all four of his goals during the spurt and Class threw in a hat trick. Both midfielders had added an assist earlier on and finished with five points apiece.
“It’s a big game and it’s tough for the younger players to play in these games when you’re young and inexperienced,” Jones said. “The older guys took over and told the guys to calm down and once we got our feet settled and got the ball moving around we were able to dodge and see how the defense was playing us and we were able to attack and take advantage of what we saw.”
The ball movement was on point for the offense as a whole, with every starting offensive player contributing an assist. The team’s consistent passing allowed the Blue Devils to nearly double up the Greyhounds in shot attempts, 48-26, and successfully clear on all but one of its 15 tries. The crisp passing helped maintain long possessions that seemed to come so often for Duke thanks to its dominance in the ground game Saturday. Each offensive starter had at least one ground ball and every defensive starter had two.
“[Our success in the ground ball game] starts at the faceoff with Jack Rowe,” Danowski told GoDuke.com. “I thought we had terrific wing play today from a whole bunch of different people. A lot of guys came up with big ground balls as well as Jack. [Rowe] certainly kick-starts the attitude for the rest of the team.”
Goalkeeper Luke Aaron played the majority of the game, putting together a strong performance. He had eight saves compared to five goals allowed. Chris Coady, Brian Dailey—who collected four ground balls—and Kyle Keenan—who had two assists—also returned to action after missing the first six games due to suspension.
Loyola was led by midfielders Brian Sherlock and Romar Dennis, who contributed three points apiece.
Duke will take its four-game winning streak to Georgetown March 14 at noon.
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