Duke Rallies for 12-11 Victory Over Delaware

Sunday, May 14

Durham, N.C.

5 p.m.

Duke University

14-2

Delaware (First Round)

13-5

DELAWARE

Duke University

Charlie O'Connor celebrates winning goal

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Duke Rallies for 12-11 Victory Over Delaware

5/14/2023 10:05:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

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DURHAM – Duke senior Charlie O'Connor scored with 4:25 remaining in the fourth quarter and the top-seeded Blue Devils held off 19th-ranked Delaware in the final minutes to earn a come-from-behind 12-11 victory in the opening round of the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Tournament.
The Blue Devils finish the season undefeated at home, 9-0, and improve to 14-2 overall. Duke will play Michigan in the quarterfinal round, May 20, in Albany, N.Y. Delaware finishes its season 13-5 overall. Duke led for just 10:13 in the game and trailed by as many as four.
Sophomore Andrew McAdorey, playing in his first career NCAA Tournament game, had three goals, while senior Dyson Williams also had a hat trick. Junior Brennan O'Neill had a goal and three assists. Defensively, Duke held the Blue Hens to just three goals in the final 39 minutes and allowed Delaware only nine shots in the second half overall.
How it Happened

Delaware, after falling behind in the third quarter, scored consecutive goals at the end of the third and the start of the fourth to regain a 10-9 advantage. Junior Aidan Danenza scored at the 9:27 mark of the final frame and then O'Neill followed 2:01 later to break the deadlock for good. Danenza finished with two goals.
Leading by one in the final minutes, O'Connor took a pass from fellow defensive middie Aidan Maguire and gave the Blue Devils a two-goal cushion. Delaware came down and scored with 2:35 left to make it, 12-11, but Jake Naso won the ensuing faceoff and Duke's defense came up with a huge stop to ice the victory. Senior Tyler Carpenter had the ground ball to give Duke possession in the final 30 seconds.
Delaware jumped all over the Blue Devils in the first quarter, taking a 4-1 lead after 9:08. Tye Kurtz had three of the four goals. He finished the game with a game-high four. The Blue Hens forced Duke into uncharacteristic turnovers in the early going and were shooting lights on the other end with four goals on their first six shots.
Williams scored the first of his three on the evening at the 5:01 mark, but Delaware had the answer two minutes later to keep the three-goal advantage. Graduate student Garrett Leadmon got on the board with 37 seconds left in the first quarter to pull Duke within two at the first break.
Delaware's hot shooting continued in the second quarter as the Blue Hens scored twice in the first 2:47 to go in front, 7-3. After a goal from Danenza made it a three-goal game again, Delaware's Cam Acchione stretched it back to four with 9:15 to play.
The Blue Devils' defense took over from this point on in holding Delaware scoreless for the next 18:14 as Duke chipped away at the lead. Duke held the Blue Hens to just nine shots in that span, while scoring five unanswered to take its first lead of the game, 9-8 with 8:48 left in the third quarter.
McAdorey and Williams scored all five goals in the run, which included three goals in a span of 2:51. Starting the spurt was Williams with 5:39 left in the second quarter off an assist from O'Neill. McAdorey put the Blue Devils on his back in the third quarter with a hat trick, including the first two goals of the period to put the Blue Hens on their heels.
Delaware stopped the streak at the 6:01 mark of the third stanza but would only score twice in in the fourth as the Duke defense stepped up down the stretch.
Naso went 15-of-25 at the faceoff dot with eight ground balls overall. The junior faceoff specialist was 7-of-10 in the second half. Carpenter finished his day with five ground balls. The close defense unit of Kenny Brower, Wilson Stephenson, and Keith Boyer combined for eight ground balls and three caused turnovers.
In goal, William Helm made 11 saves for the Blue Devils. Delaware netminder Matt Kilkeary made 15 saves in the setback.

Notes

Duke improves to 41-21 overall and advances to the quarterfinal round for the 19th time in its 25 NCAA Tournament appearances. The Blue Devils improve to 10-2 overall as the No. 1 seed and are 2-0 against Delaware in the NCAA Tournament. The 12-11 victory is Duke's 11th victory by one goal in NCAA Tournament action. The Blue Devils are 11-8 in one-goal games.
Head coach John Danowski improves to 36-19 in NCAA postseason action for his career and to 32-11 as the leader of the Blue Devils.
Duke finished the season undefeated, 9-0, at Koskinen Stadium. The Blue Devils have gone unbeaten at home four times under Danowski (2008, 2012, 2021) and are 141-25 all-time in Durham under his watch.
The Blue Devils outscored Delaware, 3-2, in the fourth quarter, marking just the fifth time in 16 games this season Duke has outscored an opponent in the final frame.
Junior Brennan O'Neill moves into a tie for 11th on the Duke career points chart with 212. O'Neill pushes his season points total to 84 this season, ranking 11th in school history and just two out of the top 10. He registered at least three assists for the eighth time this season and for the 11th time of his career.
With three goals this evening, Dyson Williams has 145 career goals to rank 11th in Duke history and is five away from becoming the eighth Blue Devil to record 150 in a career. The hat trick gave him 54 for the season to rank nine in program lore. He now has 165 career points to take over 25th on the Blue Devil career chart.
O'Neill extended his goal streak to 25 games, while Williams moved his to 19 contests.
Jake Naso's 15 victories give him 737 for his career, ranking 24th in NCAA history. He is 13 shy of becoming just the 21st player in NCAA Division I history to win 750 career faceoffs. He is 79 away from tying Brendan Fowler's Duke record of 816.
Wilson Stephenson has 25 caused turnovers this season to rank sixth in Duke single-season history. The record is 37 set by Luke Duprey in 2013.

Up Next

Duke heads to the University of Albany to take on Michigan in the NCAA Quarterfinal, May 20 at a time to be determined. The game will be televised on ESPNU with the winner advancing to Championship Weekend in Philadelphia. Tickets are available for purchase here.

Quotes
On going undefeated at home this season
"To go undefeated in Koskinen - there's only been four teams since I've been here that have done that. It's not an easy thing to do, but we take great pride in that. This is a special place to the guys who play lacrosse here." – John Danowski

On Andrew McAdorey
"He works so hard every day. It's the first time since I've been here that we have to take [a player] out of practice because his motor just doesn't stop. Scoring goals is awesome, but the way he celebrates is contagious and the other guys around him can relax." – John Danowski

On Tyler Carpenter's ground ball to seemingly seal the game
"Those are the plays that [go unnoticed]. There was a play earlier in the game where their faceoff guy got the ball out to the wing and he had position, but Tyler with his longer stick checked the faceoff guy just as he was trying to pick up the ball and took it from him. Those plays are all the invisible plays we talk about that are necessary in order for a team to be successful." – John Danowski