Inside Lacrosse rated Duke’s incoming freshman class the best in the nation and against High Point, the Class of 2020 played to a level worthy of its ranking with help from some veteran Blue Devils.
No. 10 Duke defeated the Panthers 10-5 Friday at Koskinen Stadium, earning its first win of the season against an equally young team. In a contest marked by sloppy passes, difficult clears and a defensive struggle throughout, the ever-so-slightly more polished Blue Devils emerged victorious.
“We’ve only been practicing for a month,” Duke head coach John Danowski said. “Three weeks going into the Air Force game [last Sunday] and four weeks coming into this weekend, which is really not a lot of time in the grand scheme of things, especially when we are playing a lot of younger players. The only way we’re going to get better is by playing. You saw a lot of freshmen and sophomores out there making plays.”
The Blue Devils (1-1) went down early due to freshman Terry Lindsay's inability to corral his man near the crease, allowing T. Moyer to make a quick pass to Jason Ashwood. Ashwood faked high and beat Duke senior goalkeeper Danny Fowler down low.
The Blue Devils would respond shortly after, thanks the efforts of junior Justin Guterding. One of the two elder statesmen in the Duke offense, Guterding added his fourth goal of the season on an assist from sophomore Sean Lowrie. Lowrie saw little action in his freshman year but has elevated himself to a starting position this season in relief of celebrated graduate Case Matheis.
The Blue Devils then took a slim 2-1 lead on a goal from midfielder Tripp Transou. Transou is another Duke player who played sparingly in his first three years in Durham but with Danowski electing to rotate his midfielders more often as compared to last year, the senior from Jacksonville, Fla., has cracked the second midfield line.
Following Transou’s fundamentally strong high-to-low shot, the new faces for the Blue Devils took over. Lindsay scooped two ground balls and caused a turnover as a force in the clearing game for a Duke team that was challenged bring the ball into the offensive half consistently. Rookie midfielders Joey Manown and Kevin Quigley also contributed four of Duke’s 10 goals, and JT Giles-Harris, brother of Blue Devil football linebacker Joe Giles-Harris, also started on defense.
“Every minute that those guys handle the ball on that end, Terry, even Leischow, we played JT and Cade Van Raaphorst.... So it’s a really young group,” Danowski said. “It’s a group we like a lot though. Jake Seau is coming off double-hip surgery in the summer, and didn’t play all fall, so he’s working his way back. It’s great experience for all of them anytime they get a chance to play in-game."
After the Panthers knotted the score at 2-2 with midway into the first quarter, Duke took a 3-2 lead on midfielder John Prendergast's shot on the run. Prendergast stands alongside Lowrie and starting defenseman Van Raaphorst as a sophomore who saw limited action last season only to take a prominent role this season. Manown, a freshman out of Deerfield Academy, added to the Blue Devil lead with his third goal of the season in an unassisted effort with just 35 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
The Panthers (0-1) would not allow Duke to run away with the game after the first period, though, as Sean Harrison tested Fowler from range and found paydirt to bring High Point within one. The Blue Devils then could not find the back of the net for nearly seven minutes as the offense stalled out like it did in the loss to No. 17 Air Force Sunday.
But Quigley broke the drought with his first score of the evening to put Duke up two late in the second quarter.
After a giving up another long shot to Michael LeClair, Fowler and the Blue Devils would retreat into the half clinging to a one-goal lead. Fowler did not take the field in the second half, as Danowksi opted to go with redshirt freshman Turner Uppgren between the pipes. Danowski said that Fowler is recovering from offseason surgery and the coaching staff sought to provide their defensive captain with a much-needed respite.
Duke rediscovered their offensive prowess throughout the second half as sophomore Brad Smith tallied his first goal of the season on an extra-man opportunity with 12:51 remaining in the third quarter. From that point forward, the Blue Devil defense blanked the Panthers as Guterding scored his 100th goal in a Duke uniform and Quigley, Guterding and Manown iced the game.
The Blue Devils return to the field Sunday afternoon against Cleveland State.
“We put in a lot of work, offensive and defensively,” Guterding said. “We fixed some things at halftime and I couldn’t have been more proud of the guys in the second half. 5-1 is something to be really proud of.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.