Greer & Loftus Guide No. 2 Duke Past Villanova, 13-2

Saturday, February 25

Durham, N.C.

3:00 p.m.

Duke University

Villanova

Greer & Loftus Guide No. 2 Duke Past Villanova, 13-2

2/25/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

By: Duke Sports Information

Sophomore attackman Zack Greer netted four goals and junior goalkeeper Dan Loftus logged 10 saves while holding Villanova to one goal in just over 56 minutes of action as second-ranked Duke defeated the Wildcats, 13-2, on Saturday afternoon at Koskinen Stadium.

The Blue Devils improve to 2-0 on the year while winning their 13th consecutive home game. The victory also marks the 225th of Duke head coach Mike Pressler's career. With the defeat, Villanova falls to 1-1.

Duke jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the opening six minutes with goals from Dan Flannery, Brad Ross and Matt Danowski. Matt Starker got the Wildcats on the board with just 42 seconds remaining in the first quarter with an unassisted goal. The second period featured only a goal by Greer at the 4:07 mark as the Blue Devils took a 4-1 lead into intermission.

Consecutive goals by Greer to open the third quarter pushed the advantage to 6-1, and Kyle Dowd sandwiched a pair of tallies around a Danowski goal for a 9-1 lead with 3:50 left in the period. Matt Zash followed with a goal off an assist from Greer, and Greer scored on a feed from Danowski with just five seconds remaining as Duke outscored Villanova 7-0 in the quarter for an 11-1 lead.

Zash and Josh Coveleski scored goals in the final quarter before Garrett Hohendorf's tally with just 25 second left accounted for the final margin.

Flannery finished the day with one goal and a career-high matching four assists, and moved into a tie for 19th place on Duke's all-time scoring list with 135 career points. Greer has now scored 64 goals in 22 career games at Duke, and has tallied three or more goals 14 times including both games this year. With his two-goal, one-assist outing, Danowski pushed his career point total to 140 on 76 goals and 64 assists.

In the net, Loftus had 10 saves and allowed one goal in 56:08 of work, lowering his goals against average on the year to 1.17. Defensemen Casey Carroll and Tony McDevitt were credited with five ground balls apiece while long stick midfielder Nick O'Hara had four ground balls and one assist.

Duke outshot Villanova by a 45-26 count on the day including 17 during its 7-0 run in the third quarter. Villanova goalie Joe Caruso registered 18 saves and seven ground balls.

Duke hosts Bellarmine on Tuesday at 3 p.m. while Villanova travels to face Pennsylvania on Saturday at 1 p.m.