After an entanglement with Ivy League powerhouse Princeton left the Blue Devils defeated 15-14 on Friday, then-No. 7 Duke bounced back and dispelled then-No. 13 Penn 11-6.
Two goals apiece from Luke Grayum and Benn Johnston, plus a dagger of a goal from long-stick midfielder Mac Christmas powered a 7-0 Blue Devil run that spanned nearly 26 minutes in the second half. Duke’s defensive physicality exhausted the 18th-ranked Quakers and ground their offensive prowess to a halt. Finally, Goalie Patrick Jameison contributed a sharper second half to quell the few opportunities Penn did create.
“I’m proud of our young men,” head coach John Danowski said. “Two games in three days against two real, high level opponents. Not easy. You’re a goal away from being 2-0 and you’re 1-1…there’s a razor’s edge here at this level.”
A seemingly innocuous offside by Penn’s Stevie Davis at the end of the first half was all the ninth-ranked Blue Devils needed. Duke began the second on the man advantage down 5-4, and Benn Johnston ripped a bouncing shot that tied the game and ignited the fire. He immediately followed up his effort with a bullet that ripped into the twine off a beautiful assist from Chris Cusolito.
Max Sloat joined in on the party, leaning one way to fool talented Penn goalie Emmet Carroll and unexpectedly shooting stick side while on the run. Another sequence of excellent passing on a man advantage opportunity allowed Grayum to cash in unmarked on the edge of the crease with ease.
The nail in the coffin occurred moments into the fourth quarter, when Christmas ran downhill in transition, deked through the Quakers’ defense and buried it, sending Koskinen Stadium into a holiday frenzy with the Blue Devils leading 11-5.
“The guys get energy from somebody else making a play,” Danowski said on the impressive streak.
The offensive explosion for Duke was nothing without the concurrent defensive lockdown, which forced 10 Penn turnovers. The Blue Devils set the tone for their hard-nosed, physical defending early, as Charlie Johnson annihilated Davis in the open field during a scrum for the faceoff.
Henry Bard spent the first half clogging passing lanes, intercepting and creating transition chances. The Quakers seemed unable to counter the pressure, resorting to a high volume of inaccurate long-range shots. Out of their 35 shot attempts throughout the game, only 15 managed to find the target.
During the 7-0 run in the third, the defense made play after play. Aidan Maguire forced a turnover with the game tied that immediately led to Johnston’s second in a row. Another play that added to the avalanche of momentum transpired when Bard forced another turnover with a hard stick check. Junior defenseman Johnson scooped the loose ground ball and spun with the grace of a ballerina between two charging Penn attackers, much to the delight of the Duke bench.
“Defensively, I thought it was one of our better performances,” Danowski said. “Guys are starting to understand some of the subtleties of not only individual defense, but team defense.”
Jamieson also played an integral role on the run. After a shaky first half that included a few weak goals allowed on his stick side, the sophomore denied Penn attackers from point blank range on multiple occasions. One example occurred in the fourth quarter, where Jameison had an elite stop on a charging Davis Provost.
“Patrick and I had a discussion,” Danowski said of his halftime talk with his goalie. “He was challenged. I thought defensively, he didn’t see those shots [in the second half] that he saw in the first half.”
Despite the resume-building win, the Blue Devils showed signs of growing pains in the first half. Offensively, Duke looked anemic at best, finishing the first quarter with just one tally on the board. Throughout the game, the Blue Devils also had no answer for Davis at the faceoff spot. The freshman phenom won 11 of his 19 draws, and neither Ben McCarthy nor Luke Engelke posed a challenge to the Penn draw specialist.
“I think we’re a little disappointed with our ability to win the draw,” Danowski said. “That’s something that we’re gonna have to get better at. But it also says to the team, ‘you don’t have to dominate at the faceoff X in order to win games. There are some games where you’re going to lose more faceoffs than you win, but you can still win the game.’”
The Blue Devils will hope to continue to gel and improve next Saturday when they host Air Force.
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