Jacksonville has been a bit of a bogey team for Duke in recent years. Two wins in two years against the Blue Devils — the Brennan O’Neill Blue Devils, mind you — is no mean feat.
But No. 7 Duke made sure those days were a distant memory Saturday afternoon, shaking off a difficult first half to take down the Dolphins 14-9 on the road. Luke Grayum and Jack Pappendick led the way with three goals apiece, while the defense improved drastically from a leaky first half to only allow three goals in the final 30 minutes of play.
“One of the things with this particular team, the sum must be greater than the parts,” head coach John Danowski said postgame. “The next guys have got to step up, and that's the kind of team that you hope for.”
Saturday was a true tale-of-two halves for the Blue Devils (2-0), who lumbered out the gates in the first period before breaking them down in the second.
Graduate transfer Eric Malever — who accounted for four goals and a couple assists against Bellarmine a week ago — was the architect of his team’s attack in the first quarter, sandwiching a Liam Kershis goal with a lethal pair of scores, one to the goalie’s bottom right and another straight into the top shelf.
But Jacksonville (0-2) was able to answer everything Duke threw at it, never once falling behind by more than a goal until late in the second quarter. This was mostly down to defensive lapses for the Blue Devils, rather than any attacking ruthlessness from the Dolphins.
Near the end of the opening frame, Duke’s crease defense was torn apart by Jack Taylor, who quick-sticked a feed from the X into the back of the net despite a triple-team from the visitors’ long-poles. And near the beginning of the second, Dalton Hubbs rifled a shot past sophomore goalkeeper Patrick Jameison from 20 yards. Both goals were the type of shots the Blue Devils shouldn’t concede, and the type it would stop conceding as the game wore on.
Out of the halftime break, Danowski substituted Jameison — who surrendered six goals on eight shots faced — for Buck Cunningham. Jameison was unlucky with many of the shots the defense in front of him allowed and made a couple stunning saves, but Cunningham’s command of the crease and ability to shut down lurking Jacksonville attackers was instrumental in shoring up the cage.
The other chief improvement from a poor first quarter was in the defensive midfield, which gave Duke an unexpected yet most impactful source of attacking impetus: Aidan Maguire.
The preseason All-American was absolutely everywhere on both sides of the ball for the Blue Devils, hounding the Dolphins’ midfielders into sloppy giveaways that he would promptly turn into attacking opportunities. Duke’s final two goals of the second half — that built a lead the Blue Devils wouldn’t relinquish — both came from Maguire’s hustle.
The first: a ground ball he took the length of the field before dumping it to Kershis. And the second: a caused turnover that he again took the length of the field, allowing Danowski to call a timeout and set up a play that let Grayum score with six seconds before halftime.
“You've got to create some turnovers or make some saves in order to play transition, and Aidan is a terrific athlete,” Danowski said. “That was a great play he made when he cleared the ball through to Liam (Kershis), very timely. Those are [the] type of plays that you expect from an All-American.”
After that flurry of goals, the Blue Devils never looked back. Senior midfielder Andrew McAdorey, fresh off a hat trick of assists against Bellarmine, finally got his name in this season’s scoring books with a couple shifty goals that ballooned the lead to 11-7.
Pappendick was a welcome, if not unexpected, source of offense for Danowski as well, contributing a crucial pair of first-half goals and an eventual hat trick, his first in a Duke uniform.
Even still, the Blue Devils’ lead could have and probably should have been larger after the Dolphins started to fall away. Duke went a paltry 2-of-5 on its man-up offense and caused 14 turnovers to Jacksonville’s eight, outshooting the Dolphins 27-15 on goal in the process.
“I think we got a little bit greedy at times [in man-up situations], and we tried to make a couple of passes that — we just got to be a little more patient,” Danowski said.
Danowski said preseason that he wasn’t sure what to expect with his faceoff unit, and for much of Saturday’s game it looked like that uncertainty would doom his team.
The Blue Devils got punished for their lack of dominance at the spot almost immediately. A faceoff violation gave Jacksonville the ball and an extended piece of possession that ended with Nicky Brown’s second goal in the opening four minutes. The Duke defense was not covered in glory for that sequence either, knocking Tucker Denault to the floor but allowing him to recover and eventually shuttle it to Brown on the doorstep, handing Jacksonville its first lead of the game.
Similar defensive lapses, in addition to the malaise at faceoff, plagued the Blue Devils throughout the first half and threatened to turn an early season test into an early season fumble. Jacksonville found itself leading 5-4 on the back of Duke’s struggles — the second and last time it would lead before the Blue Devils roared to life.
“It was great for us to be in a game that was a battle,” Danowski said. “It was a 60-minute battle. And this team needs to learn how to play.”
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Duke returns to Koskinen Stadium next Saturday for a date with St. Joseph’s.
Andrew Long is a Trinity senior and recruitment/social chair of The Chronicle's 120th volume. He was previously sports editor for Volume 119.