Duke men’s lacrosse uses big third quarter to take down North Carolina

With 7:23 left in what might need been the ultimate recreation of his collegiate profession, Tar Heel graduate attacker Chris Grey broke the all-time NCAA profession factors document that Lyle Thompson beforehand set at Albany in 2015 with an unassisted aim emblematic of the previous Tewaaraton Award finalist’s storied profession. 

However his parade was each actually and metaphorically rained on when, after a lightning delay of greater than an hour, Duke crushed rival North Carolina 19-11 in entrance of a packed Koskinen Stadium crowd. 

“It’s a kind of video games, proper?” junior attacker Dyson Williams, who completed with three targets, stated after the sport. “We get that lightning delay to start out off the sport….In order that was clearly powerful to take care of straight away, however we stored it free and got here again right here, warmed up and….We simply knew, that is the kind of evening, like Coach stated, the more durable group will win.”

After a quick begin for each groups, adopted by a second quarter with solely 4 mixed targets, Duke (11-5, 3-2 within the ACC) went to the locker room with the identical one-score deficit it entered the second quarter with. 

The Blue Devils had one thing to say about that, although, scoring 4 unanswered within the first 5 minutes of the second half, together with a two-goal eruption from graduate midfielder Nakeie Montgomery and a behind-the-back laser from Williams to complete off his hat trick. 

After two extra Blue Satan targets, Montgomery’s third put Duke up 13-7. Then, junior defender Will Frisoli discovered himself on the opposite finish of the sector the place he bypassed Tar Heel goalie Collin Krieg for his first aim of the season, capping off 1 / 4 through which the Blue Devils scored eight targets and gave up zero.

“We get rolling, we do our factor, we rating a bunch within the third,” Williams stated. “I believe that each ends of the ball…. Once we’re taking part in as a full group and…. All taking part in nice, it is a actually cool feeling.”

Whereas North Carolina (8-6, 1-5) was in a position to break its 20:25 scoring drought with a record-tying aim from Grey to open the fourth, one other flurry of targets from the Blue Devils—together with two every from graduate attacker Joe Robertson and freshman midfielder Andrew McAdorey—sealed the Tar Heels’ destiny. Grey’s record-setting evening couldn’t save them, and finally, that third quarter ended up deciding the sport.

Nevertheless, a bit forwards and backwards noticed the Blue Devils path 5-4 on the finish of the primary quarter. Nonetheless, they ended the interval on a excessive observe, with their fourth aim coming from Williams for his one centesimal profession level.

“Dyson is such a terrific younger man. He works extremely onerous. His proper hand has improved tremendously. He’s received an actual knack across the aim, as plenty of Canadian gamers do due to their field expertise. And we’re delighted that he’s on our group,” Danowski stated.

Now, with North Carolina firmly within the rearview, the Blue Devils look towards their ultimate regular-season recreation Saturday in opposition to Notre Dame, which can possible be the ultimate merchandise of their NCAA match resume.

“We’re simply gonna have a good time tonight, since you get one evening to get pleasure from. After which tomorrow, we’ll get again to work,” Danowski stated. “The great thing about our schedule is we now have no extra faculty, and we’re simply full-time lacrosse gamers. So we’ll spend some additional time taking pictures, we’ll spend some additional time within the weight room or watching movie, being collectively, plenty of group constructing…. And hopefully, we’ll be able to compete subsequent Saturday.”