Looking to grab their first ACC victory of the season, the Blue Devils are hoping they can recreate last season’s postseason magic.
In a rematch of last year’s national championship game, No. 7 Duke will face its third No. 1 team this year in Notre Dame Saturday at Koskinen Stadium at 5 p.m. Last season, the Blue Devils captured their second consecutive national title by defeating the Fighting Irish 11-9.
“Last year was a long time ago. Teams change,” head coach John Danowski said. “We don’t have our starting defense [from last year]. We lost our starting attack except for Case [Matheis].”
This year, Duke (7-3, 0-2 in the ACC) has gotten younger at every position on the roster from last year’s championship squad. The attack is now paced by freshman Justin Guterding, the defense has been run by freshmen and sophomores, faceoffs are taken by first-time starter Jack Rowe and redshirt freshman Danny Fowler—brother of former faceoff specialist Brendan Fowler—made his first career start in between the pipes last weekend against North Carolina.
Offensively, the Blue Devils’ returning midfield duo of Deemer Class and Myles Jones have carried the team through stretches as Guterding has become an excellent scoring punch. The freshman has racked up 32 goals and nine assists on the season and has fit into the offense well.
The Fighting Irish (6-1, 2-0) have similarly welcomed a new face to their offense in freshman Mikey Wynne. The attackman leads the team with 21 goals and joins returning veterans Matt Kavanaugh and Sergio Perkovic. Although Danowski preaches a defensive strategy that doesn’t focus on shutting down a few specific players, he did acknowledge the skills of Wynne and Kavanaugh.
“You have got to defend them properly,” Danowski said. “You look at tendencies and formations and how they like to play. We have to slide and help appropriately. Kavanaugh is more of a dynamic dodger while Wynne is an off-the-ball finisher inside, crafty, very smooth. They are two very different players.”
For the first time this season, Duke is coming off two straight losses—a 19-7 blowout to Syracuse and a 15-14 heartbreaker to North Carolina. Against the Orange, the Blue Devils came out flat en route to a 13-1 halftime deficit, but came out as a re-energized squad that just fell short in the closing minutes of a back-and-forth battle against the Tar Heels.
Saturday, Duke will have to bring more than its A-game against a talented Notre Dame squad. The Blue Devils are glad to be back at Koskinen, where they are undefeated thus far this season.
“It’s a place where we’re comfortable,” Class said. “We’ve got the new press box, the new scoreboard. We’ve only had a couple games at Koskinen this year, so every time we’re home, it’s exciting.”
In four home games this year, Duke has won by an average of 7.8 goals per game, with wins against then-No.10 Harvard and then-No. 12 Loyola in that stretch. Notre Dame is on a different level, however, and Duke’s record with elite teams this year has a lot of room for improvement.
An early-season loss to then-No. 1 Denver by a score of 17-13 was one Danowski chalked up to inexperience and a young team finding its footing. Five straight wins later, the Blue Devils traveled to the Carrier Dome to play its second No. 1 opponent of the season.
Duke was overmatched from the opening whistle, as a constant barrage of Syracuse offense put the Blue Devils on their heels. The week after, No. 4 North Carolina outlasted the Blue Devils as sloppy play and turnovers cost Duke a chance at bouncing back from the previous week’s fiasco.
“We thought we brought a lot more energy after the Syracuse game, so that was good to see,” Class said. “Obviously, we had a couple mistakes here and there we wish we could get back, so we’ve been working hard all week to fine tune some of those things.”
Faceoffs were a problem last week for the Blue Devils, a major part of their failure to close out the game. As a team, Duke lost 22 of 33 faceoffs, with Rowe taking all but five. The lack of possessions kept the Blue Devils from establishing an offensive rhythm and giving the defense a breather. Fortunately for Duke, Notre Dame has struggled mightily with faceoffs this year, winning less than 50 percent of them throughout the season.
Another key to the Blue Devils’ success will be Jones finding his rhythm again after a small slump. He shot just 2-of-10 against North Carolina, but Danowski had positive encouragement for his star midfielder.
“Shooters shoot. We have a saying we took from Billy Tubbs at Oklahoma, ‘Shoot to get hot, shoot to stay hot,’” Danowski said. “Good players have to shoot the ball. Sometimes they go in and sometimes they don’t. You want your best players shooting the ball. If he can get 10 shots against Carolina, it’s a good omen. It means he’s getting his hands free and get open. The hope is he will keep shooting with confidence and eventually a couple more will fall.”
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