Heading into Saturday’s game, the Blue Devils were on the verge of their worst start to a season in two decades.
They sat at exactly .500 and were winless against teams that are still currently ranked. Sitting in the ACC’s cellar with only two regular-season league games left, it looked like time was running out for Duke to bounce back.
But the Blue Devils’ win against No. 14 Boston College—a team that had won four of its last five contests heading into Saturday’s matchup—could be just enough to get Duke back on track and push the team into the 26-team NCAA tournament.
Duke used seven different scorers to overcome a two-goal halftime deficit and secure a 15-12 upset against the Eagles at Newton Field in Newton, Mass. Saturday afternoon. Junior Grace Fallon and freshman Catherine Cordrey led the charge for the Blue Devils with three goals and an assist each, and All-American Maddie Crutchfield contributed a game and season-high six points off two goals and four assists to break the 100-point mark on her career.
The junior became the 26th player in program history to reach that total.
“We had so many different people who were willing to be threats and go to goal,” Duke head coach Kerstin Kimel told GoDuke.com. “It’s a testament to the hard work we put in this week. A lot of kids spent a lot of time before and after practice working on their individual game, and I think it really showed today.”
Although they managed to pull out the win in the end, the Blue Devils (7-6, 1-5 in the ACC) found themselves in an early rut and spent the majority of the game playing catch up. Boston College (10-5, 2-4) tacked on three goals through the opening 15 minutes before Duke graduate transfer Jessie Ambrose connected on a free-position goal to finally put the Blue Devils on the board with 14:12 remaining in the opening period.
Duke found some offensive success from there, answering after almost every Eagle score to prevent the home team from reeling off the same multiple-goal runs that have cost the Blue Devils all season. Although Boston College retained an 8-6 advantage heading into the locker room, Duke scored all six of its tallies in less than 11 minutes led by Crutchfield.
And as was the case last week in games against then-No. 18 Elon and then-No. 10 Syracuse, the Blue Devils used intermission to make adjustments on both sides of the ball—particularly defensively.
“We were scoring and we were getting the looks that we wanted offensively, [but] we just were really disorganized off of the draw and out of transition,” Kimel said. “We made a couple of adjustments, [and] defensively we buckled down. That was probably the biggest thing coming out of half time, those simple adjustments.”
Duke came out of the locker room firing on all cylinders, scoring two straight goals to knot the score at eight 7:08 into the period before the Eagles’ Laura Frankenfield responded with 21:05 to go. But sophomore Olivia Jenner and junior Kyra Harney responded with quick back-to-back goals to put the Blue Devils ahead for the first time with 18:35 left to play.
Junior Kaileen Hart—who led the Boston College offensive effort with three goals and two assists on the day—tied the score once more with 13:18 to go, but the Eagles could not pull back even again after sophomore Ellie Majure and Harney tallied goals set up by Crutchfield in the next two minutes.
Boston College star Kayla O’Connor brought the team within 12-11 just 12 seconds removed from Harney’s goal before Duke held the Eagles scoreless for more than 9:30 and used goals from Fallon and Cordrey to seal the win.
The Blue Devils’ uncharacteristically strong finish came down to freshman netminder Gabbe Cadoux, who had a career-high 11 saves in her third consecutive start. The Ellicott City, Md., native fended off a furious Boston College comeback attempt in the game’s waning moments, making three saves and allowing just one goal in the final five minutes of the contest with the outcome all but decided.
“Obviously Gabbe [Cadoux] came up huge at the end and was clutch for us,” Kimel said. “I’m just proud of the overall team. We’ve practiced well throughout the season, but it hasn’t always translated on game day. This week it did.”
Duke will try to take the momentum from its much-needed victory to Evanston, Ill., for the team’s final road game of the regular season. The Blue Devils will face No. 17 Northwestern, which is 6-6 on the season and, much like the Blue Devils, has struggled to accumulate quality wins during the course of the regular season.
“Moving forward, we have a great opportunity going out to Chicago next week,” Kimel said. “We’ll play a really tough Northwestern team who is probably in a little bit of a similar situation to [ours].”
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