No. 2 Duke Wins Thriller against No. 3 Virginia, 15-14

Saturday, April 15

Durham, N.C.

12 p.m.

Duke University

11-2, 4-1

Virginia

8-3, 2-2

Virginia

Duke University

Photo by: Duke Athletics

No. 2 Duke Wins Thriller against No. 3 Virginia, 15-14

4/15/2023 4:32:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

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DURHAM – Duke men's lacrosse goaltender William Helm made a save on the doorstep in the final seconds to help the second-ranked Blue Devils secure a thrilling 15-14 victory over No. 3 Virginia Saturday afternoon at Koskinen Stadium. Helm had seven of his 12 saves in the fourth quarter.

Duke sophomore Andrew McAdorey paced the Blue Devil offense with three goals and an assist, while Brennan O'Neill, Owen Caputo, Dyson Williams and Tommy Schelling each had two goals and an assist. The story of the game, however, was junior faceoff specialist Jake Naso, winning 21-of-32 faceoffs and picking up nine ground balls.

How it Happened

Duke led by as many as five in the fourth quarter, but a late 4-1 run by the Cavaliers pulled the game within one, 15-14, with 63 seconds remaining.
In the final 1:03 of the game, Duke senior Jake Caputo forced a turnover and the Blue Devils cleared. O'Neill, looking to seal the victory, was denied by Virginia goalie Matthew Nunes. Virginia cleared and found Cormier wide open on the crease, only to be denied by a body save from Helm. The graduate student goaltender made one final stop on a rolling shot from Jeff Conner as time expired.
Duke jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the opening quarter behind four goals from the attack trio of Williams, O'Neill and McAdorey. Schelling also threw in two unassisted scores for the four-goal lead.
Defensively, the Blue Devils held Virginia to just six shots in the opening frame and forced five turnovers. At the faceoff dot, it was all Naso in winning seven of the nine restarts.
Virginia's Payton Cormier cut the lead to three early in the second quarter, but it was all Duke for a 10-minute stretch. Junior Aidan Danenza sparked a 4-0 run over 3:12 with a man-up score at 7:29. Freshman short stick middie Aidan Maguire notched his third of the year 18 seconds later and Caputo made it three in 39 seconds off a pass from Williams. O'Neill capped the run before the Cavaliers scored with 59 seconds left to go into halftime trailing 10-4.
Momentum shifted in Virginia's favor in the early minutes of the third quarter as the Cavaliers registered three unanswered to make it a 10-7 game.
The Blue Devils responded with two goals in 11 seconds from rookie Charles Balsamo and McAdorey for a 12-8 lead after 45 minutes of action.
Through three quarters, Duke held Virginia to 27 shots and forced 12 turnovers. Naso was 17-of-22 in the faceoff game and the Blue Devils held the 30-21 advantage in ground balls.
With the Cavaliers looking to make a fourth-quarter push it seemed as if Duke always had an answer. McAdorey made it a five-goal game, 13-8, two minutes into the period. Virginia responded with goals from Xander Dickson and Evan Zinn to bring it back within three at the 9:17 mark.
An offside call against the Cavaliers on the clear attempt gave the Blue Devils the ball back with a wide-open net. Jack Gray took advantage and threw it into the cage from distance to make it a four-goal game once again.
It was all Virginia in the final five minutes, scoring four goals in 4:34, including three in 2:44 to make it a one-goal game. Caputo's man-up score with 4:01 left to play proved to be the difference on the scoreboard.
Cormier led the way again for Virginia with four goals. Connor Shellenberger had a goal and two assists – two points under his 5.33 points per game average this season.
In goal, Helm had 12 saves overall with nine of those coming in the second half. Virginia backstop, Nunes had 17 saves.
Duke won the ground ball battle 37-34 and outshot the Cavaliers, 48-41.

Notes

Duke has won 18 consecutive regular season games against Virginia. The Blue Devils are 23-2 against the Cavaliers since 2005. Head coach John Danowski is 22-2 versus Virginia at Duke and 25-4 for his career. Virginia has won four national titles in that span.
The Blue Devils held Virginia to 14 goals, four goals under its average of 18.20. Duke has held the Cavaliers to 14 goals in each contest this season. They only scored fewer goals in a 14-13 overtime loss to Maryland.
Andrew McAdorey registered his first career points against Virginia, scoring three goals and an assist.
Jake Naso had his best game against a Virginia team, winning 21-of-32 restarts. He entered the game with a .472 win percentage against the Cavaliers and won .656 today. Virginia specialist Petey LaSalla entered the contest winning 62.5 percent in his career against the Blue Devils. His 34.4 percent today is the fifth lowest percentage when the main draw man in his career.
Naso pushed his career faceoff win total to 689. He is 11 faceoffs away from becoming the 30th player in NCAA history to reach 700 career faceoff wins. He is 127 off Duke's record of 816 held by Brendan Fowler. Only 10 players in NCAA Division I history have amassed 800 faceoff victories in their careers. His 221 this season are 20 off his total in 16 games last year.
Duke improves to 42-21 in ACC play under Danowski and sits in first place with a 4-1 record.
Brennan O'Neill stretched his goal streak to 22 games, while Dyson Williams is at 16 straight contests with a goal. O'Neill has 194 points for his career, leaving him six shy of the 200-point benchmark. Williams is at 148 points in his 52 outings.

Up Next

Duke gets a week off from action before returning home to host Syracuse in the regular season home finale. Faceoff is set for April 29 at 12 p.m.

For more information on Duke men's lacrosse, follow the Blue Devils on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching "DukeMLAX.

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