(Photo Courtesy of Duke Athletics)
With 19 seconds left in regulation, Brennan O’Neill drove from X, got his hands free on a question mark dodge, and found the back of the net to knot things all up at 13 and force overtime. O’Neill would come up clutch once more on Friday night, putting in a feed from Andrew McAdorey on a man-up situation with 3:38 remaining in the overtime period to secure the victory for the Blue Devils.
O’Neill ended the night with four goals and three assists for seven points to lead the way for the Blue Devils. McAdorey (2G/3A) had five points on the night while Charles Balsamo (2G/1A) and Dyson Williams (2G/1A) each had three points.
Duke held a took a 4-1 lead at the end of the first and remained ahead 6-4 at the half. However, a pair of Denver man-up scores early in the third frame coupled with a later 3-0 Pioneers run saw Bill Tierney’s squad jump ahead 9-7. Until jumping ahead during that run, the Pioneers hadn’t held a lead since Stephen Avery scored the first goal of the game less than a minute into the contest.
Denver put together another 3-0 run in the fourth quarter and a Richie Connell score with 2:01 left in that final stanza gave the Pioneers a 13-12 lead late. However, the Pioneers were never able to fully complete the comeback with O’Neill’s game-tying and subsequent game-winning scores.
Jake Naso and Alec Stathakis went 50/50 in the battle at the faceoff dot with each going 14-for-28 (50%). William Helm made eight saves with a 38% in cage for Duke. Jack Thompson and Maclom Kleban split halves in cage for Denver with Thompson each making four saves. Thompson put up a 33% save percentage while Kleban posted a 40% save percentage.
Duke moves to play at Penn next Saturday while Denver will face Merrimack on the road next week.
UMass, 11 UMass Lowell 3
The UMass Minutemen moved to 2-0 on the season with an 11-3 victory over in-state foe UMass Lowell on Friday afternoon.
Will Abbott (4G) and Gabriel Procyk (3G/1A) led the way for the Minutemen offense while Caleb Hammett went 10-for-15 (66%) at the faceoff dot. Matt Knote made nine saves with a 75% save percentage, anchoring a defense that held the River Hawks to just one score in the second half of play. Chris Campbell helped lead the way out in front of the cage, recording three ground balls and three caused turnovers in the victory.
Jake Davis got UMass Lowell on the board first, but the Minutemen would get things rolling midway through that first frame and never look back. A Tim Hoynes score with 7:48 in the first quarter got UMass on the board before Will Abbott put one home just over two minutes later to make it a 2-1 UMass lead. The Minutemen would hold that lead for the reminder of the contest, pushing ahead 4-2 at the half and having and 8-3 edge entering the fourth quarter.
Luke Renaud made 18 saves with a 62% save percentage for the River Hawks.
UMass moves to face Boston U. next Saturday at home. UMass Lowell will travel to Siena next Saturday.
High Point 17, VMI 11
In a battle between old SoCon foes, the High Point Panthers defeated the VMI Keydets 17-11.
The Panthers got on the board first and led the entire way, taking a 10-7 lead into the half and a 14-11 advantage into the final stanza.
Lacrosse Bucket 