The referee’s flag came out, and senior Chad Cohan darted down the middle, straight to the crease. With little pressure from the defense, he took a pass from Jack Bruckner and snuck a shot past Syracuse goalkeeper Warren Hill.
“They were pressing out a bunch, so they let us play with the short sticks more, and we took it to them,” Cohan said. “Jack Bruckner found me in the middle and I’m fortunate enough to be the guy on the receiving end. I kind of blacked out there—I just had to put it in the dirt and make the coaches happy.”
Cohan’s shot made the coaching staff, the other Blue Devils and much of the crowd at Koskinen Stadium very happy indeed Saturday afternoon, as the senior’s third goal of the day stunned the No. 5 Orange 16-15 in overtime, completing a four-goal comeback.
Senior Deemer Class led the way for most of the afternoon for the No. 11 Blue Devils, pouring in a career-high seven goals and adding two assists as Duke controlled the game late and followed up Tuesday’s crushing overtime loss to Air Force with an uplifting extra-time win to kickstart ACC play.
It took a herculean effort to come back in the final period because of a lackluster effort in the first three. The Orange (5-2, 1-1 in the ACC) sped past the Duke close defense and found early uncontested shots, with Sergio Salcido and Tim Barber doing most of the damage. Both players notched first-half hat tricks, and Syracuse scored two goals in the last 25 seconds of the first half to build a commanding 11-6 halftime lead.
Salcido was particularly sharp, scoring from all over the field. From rolling behind the crease to finding big overhand shots with space from 15 yards out, the former scout team player-turned starter finished with four goals on five shots and two assists, including the key assist on the goal that tied the game late in the fourth quarter.
“[We fell behind] because of three things: our inability to clear the ball well, to value the ball on the defensive end, the faceoff game, in particular the wing play… and then riding. We were going to ride differently this week and we didn’t handle that well,” Duke head coach John Danowski said. “We thought we gave up five goals either off the face-off game or in the riding game and clearing that we needed to fix.”
But on an afternoon when Duke (7-4, 1-0) honored former Blue Devil midfielder and Army ranger Jimmy Regan—who wore number 10 in his time with the Blue Devils and was killed in combat in Iraq in February 2007—it was number 10 who stole the show once again.
Class tallied four of his nine points in the final 20 minutes of regulation to help jumpstart a Blue Devil offense that erupted for four goals in four minutes to start the fourth quarter. The Baltimore native moved freely without the ball, turning his alley dodges into catch-and-shoot opportunities without any pressure as the Orange defense never got the slide out to him.
The senior made a living at the right midfield spot 12 yards from the goal line and displayed a full arsenal of shots, including difficult low-angle underhand shots.
“People have played like that all season,” Class said. “They haven’t respected Chad and I, we know that we have to make shots and make them respect us. That’s their prerogative to not slide but…we’re really all working together and we have confidence in each other.”
Class and his teammates got their opportunities because the Blue Devils suddenly began to have more success in the faceoff game. Junior Kyle Rowe went 18-for-32 from the X and won 5-of-7 draws in the fourth quarter against a Syracuse team that entered the game controlling nearly 70 percent of its faceoffs.
Once Rowe got going and gave the Blue Devils more opportunities on the offensive end, the midfield solved a Syracuse defense that was pressing them out with longer dodges and overlapping passes that left the defense confused.
“Sixty-four minutes in a battle against Syracuse is going to wear you out,” senior midfielder Myles Jones said. “Being a senior, the team and coaches lean on you to make plays in the fourth quarter…so you give it all you’ve got.”
Jones, who scored his 200th career point with a third-quarter goal, got going with his trademark bull dodge to overhand shot that created a matchup nightmare for the smaller defensive midfielder tasked with stopping him. But Jones was not alone in the re-energized midfield as Cohan added three goals, including the overtime game-winner. Twelve of Duke’s 16 goals came from midfielders.
The Blue Devils will look to keep the momentum going Friday in the next iteration of the Tobacco Road rivalry. Duke takes on No. 12 North Carolina at 6 p.m. at Koskinen Stadium.
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