WRAL Sports Fan

Duke

MLAX: No. 3 Notre Dame defeats No. 6 Duke, 13-5

Feb 16, 2013

Durham, N.C. — Notre Dame goalkeeper John Kemp recorded 10 saves while attackmen Matt Kavanagh and Jim Marlatt combined for nine goals as the third-ranked Fighting Irish defeated sixth-ranked Duke, 13-5, in men’s lacrosse action on a snowy Saturday afternoon at Koskinen Stadium in Durham, N.C.

The Fighting Irish improve to 1-0 on the year while the Blue Devils fall to 1-2. The win is the fourth straight regular season victory over Duke.

Notre Dame scored the game’s first six goals – two each by Kavanagh, Marlatt and Steve Murphy – before the Blue Devils found the back of the net just 39 seconds prior to halftime. Rookie midfielder Myles Jones netted Duke’s lone first-half score. Kavanagh and Marlatt responded with a goal each in the final 13 seconds of the second quarter to provide the Irish with an 8-1 lead at intermission.

“We certainly were not pleased with the effort in the first half,” said head coach John Danowski. “Certainly Notre Dame is a terrific team and terrific defensively, but we thought were tip-toeing around a lot in the first half. I thought in the second half, with the realization that we had nothing to lose since we were losing 8-1, we played a lot harder and the guys had more fun. I don’t think anybody had fun in the first half. And it showed.”

The Blue Devils opened the third period with three straight markers from Jordan Wolf, Josh Offit and Jake Tripucka, but Notre Dame halted the spurt with four consecutive goals of its own to lead, 12-4, following Kavanagh’s tally with 6:32 remaining in the contest.

“Early in that third quarter I thought that when we scored that first goal it gave us a lot of life,” Danowski said. “Someone made a play. And then I thought we got a lot of energy off of that, created a bunch of turnovers, picked up a bunch of ground balls. It was a huge lead that Notre Dame had at that point for us to try to come back, but at least we fought to the end.”

Marlatt finished the day with five goals and one assist while Kavanagh logged four goals and one helper. Murphy and Sean Rogers chipped in two goals each.

For Duke, Offit posted two goals while Brendan Fowler secured 15-of-22 faceoffs thanks in part to a game-high 10 ground balls. Long stick midfielder Luke Duprey was credited with a career-best five caused turnovers and four ground balls.

Duke starting goalie Dan Wigrizer allowed eight goals against six saves in 46 minutes of work.

Duke looks to even its season record Sunday when it welcomes Mercer at 12 p.m.