WRAL Sports Fan

Duke

MLAX: Lawson and Wolf Guide Duke Past Mercer, 15-3

Feb 17, 2013

Durham, N.C. — Senior midfielder David Lawson and junior attackman Jordan Wolf scored four goals apiece to lead sixth-ranked Duke to a 15-3 win over visiting Mercer on a cold but sunny Sunday afternoon at Koskinen Stadium in Durham, N.C. Wolf now has four goals in three of his four games this season, while the four tallies tied Lawson’s career-high mark.

The Blue Devils improve to 2-2 on the year while the Bears fall to 1-1.

“It’s very difficult to play two games in two days and for two weeks in a row we’ve done that,” said head coach John Danowski. “I feel good about the number of people who contributed again today. I thought it was very workmanlike, which is what we have to get back to. You earn victories. You have to learn to win the small battles and I thought certainly at the end of this weekend we are a more experienced team than when we began the weekend.”

Duke’s defense held the Bears scoreless for the first 34:17 of the contest as the Blue Devils led 8-0 at halftime and 11-1 following three periods. . All four of Wolf’s tallies came in the first half, including a man-up score in the second quarter. Three other Blue Devils got into the scoring action in the opening 30 minutes.

At the faceoff X, Duke’s Brendan Fowler continues to excel by winning 16-of-20 draws while securing 11 ground balls. He has double-digit wins at the X in all four games and has collected at least eight ground balls in each of the contests.

“Brendan so far in these first two weekends has been tremendously consistent and we’ve been delighted by his performance,” Danowski said. “Overall we’re delighted with our special teams, faceoffs, man-up, man-down. Clearing the ball, we were much better today than yesterday and we continue to ride well.”

Wolf added two assists on the day for a game-high six points, while Josh Dionne chipped in three markers. Myles Jones and Jake Tripucka also had two assists each. Four goalkeepers – Dan Wigrizer (0 GA; 1 save), Kyle Turri (0 GA; 3 saves), Ben Krebs (1 GA; 3 saves) and Luke Aaron (2 GA; 7 saves) split time in the Duke net, with each seeing one quarter of action.

For Mercer, Harry Baker and Zack Ward scored goals while goalkeeper Mike Nugent logged 18 saves.

Duke travels to face Pennsylvania on Friday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m.