Balanced Effort Pushes Duke Past Saint Joseph’s, 12-9

Saturday, March 25

Philadelphia, Pa.

12 p.m.

Duke University

9-1

Saint Joseph's

4-4

Duke University

Saint Joseph's

Kenny Brower plays defense against North Carolina

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Balanced Effort Pushes Duke Past Saint Joseph’s, 12-9

3/25/2023 5:15:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – Duke junior Brennan O'Neill scored three goals and added three assists and the Blue Devil defense locked down the Saint Joseph's offense to come away a 12-9 victory in men's lacrosse action on Sweeney Field Saturday afternoon.

The fourth-ranked Blue Devils have won seven straight and improve to 9-1 overall. Saint Joseph's falls to 4-4 overall, with the three-goal loss being the largest for the Hawks this season. Andrew McAdorey had two goals and an assist as the Blue Devils had nine different goal scorers in the win.

How it Happened

Saint Joseph's opened the scoring midway through the first half before Duke responded with two goals in 1:34 for a 2-1 lead. The Hawks evened the score with a man-up goal with 3:25 left in the opening stanza.
The Blue Devils killed off the final 40 seconds of the full-time penalty and registered a pair of goals 12 seconds apart to take a 4-2 lead into the first break. Garrett Leadmon fired a shot past the Saint Joseph's goaltender and Jake Naso notched his fourth of the season 12 seconds later.
Duke and Saint Joseph's traded goals in the early minutes of the second period before the Blue Devils put the clamps on the Hawks, outscoring them 6-0 over the span of 23 minutes to take an 11-4 lead late in the third quarter.
O'Neill keyed the run with two goals and an assist to send the Blue Devils into halftime with an 8-4 advantage.
Rookie Charles Balsamo made it a five-goal contest four minutes into the third and Aidan Danenza notched his lone goal of the game 32 seconds later to stretch the Duke lead to six goals.
After the Blue Devils extended their lead to seven, 11-4, with a McAdorey goal the Hawks ended their scoreless stretch at 23:20 with a goal from Carter Page.
Page's goal sparked the Hawks in the fourth quarter as Saint Joseph's scored four of the five goals in the final quarter for the 12-9 final. Two of the four tallies came on extra-man in the final 90 seconds. The Hawks finished the game 3-5 on man-up offense.
Wilson Stephenson and Kenny Brower anchored the Duke close defense with phenomenal performances. Stephenson had six ground balls and three caused turnovers, while Brower had two caused turnovers and a season-high five ground balls while holding Saint Joseph's top scorer Levi Anderson scoreless.
Duke won the ground ball battle 27-15 and outshot the Hawks 41-38. In goal, William Helm made nine saves to earn his ninth victory of the season.

Notes

Jake Naso won 15-of-24 faceoffs against Zach Cole, marking just the fourth time Cole has not won 50 percent of his draws in a game. Naso pushes his career faceoff win total to 632.
Kenny Brower held Levi Anderson without a point for just the second time in Anderson's career.
Brennan O'Neill registered his seventh game with at least five points this season and 18th of his career. The hat trick was the sixth of the campaign and the 26th of his career. The three assists mark the fifth time he has three-plus assists this season and eighth time of his career.
Freshman Jack Pappendick registered his first career goal finishing a feed from O'Neill.
Duke held Saint Joseph's scoreless for a stretch of 23:20, marking the 10th time the Blue Devils have held an opponent without a goal for at least 15 minutes this season.
Tyler Carpenter finished his afternoon with four ground balls and two caused turnovers.
Saint Joseph's entered the game averaging 15.71 points per game and were held to just nine goals – the fewest the Hawks have scored this season. The nine goals are the fewest by Saint Joseph's since scoring nine March 20, 2021.
Duke has not allowed double-digit goals since giving up 13 March 5 at Syracuse. The Blue Devils goals against average in the past four games is 8.00.

Up Next

Duke resumes ACC play Friday, March 31 at No. 3 Virginia. Faceoff is set for 5 p.m., on ESPNU. The Blue Devils close out the road swing at No. 1 Notre Dame April 8 at 4 p.m.

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