Duke Builds Early Lead En Route to 15-13 Win at No. 8 Denver

Saturday, February 15

Denver, Colo.

2:00 PM

Duke University

2-1

Denver

1-1

Duke

Denver

Photo by: Jamie Schwaberow

Duke Builds Early Lead En Route to 15-13 Win at No. 8 Denver

2/15/2020 4:45:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score Box Score Season Statistics

Owen Caputo Shines with Six Points

DENVER – Duke men's lacrosse sophomore Owen Caputo registered three goals and three assists for six points as the 11th-ranked Blue Devils used another balanced performance to upend No. 8 Denver 15-13 at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium Saturday afternoon. Eight different Blue Devils scored in the top-10 triumph.

The win pushes Duke to 2-1 on the year and drops Denver to 1-1. The home loss was just the 10th for the Pioneers since 2010. Jack Hannah paced the Pioneers with six goals and seven points overall.

Rookie Dyson Williams finished with three goals and an assist, while Joey Manown had three goals, including a crucial fourth-quarter score. Defensively, Duke was outstanding in forcing 13 turnovers and holding Denver to 33 shots. JT Giles-Harris collected three ground balls and two caused turnovers, while guarding top scorer Ethan Walker.

After trading goals in the opening few minutes, the Blue Devils went on a 7-1 run for an 8-2 lead early in the second quarter. Duke, trailing by one at 2-1, got a tying goal from Williams to spark the spurt of six goals to finish the first quarter, including three in a span of 1:54. Among the goal scorers was sophomore Jadon Kerry with his first career tally.

The Pioneers answered with consecutive goals to pull back within four, but Duke responded with two more of its own for the 10-4 advantage late in the second frame. However, momentum shifted again to Denver's favor with two tallies in 44 seconds to send the Pioneers into the locker room trailing just 10-6.

Williams, with a hat trick, was one of seven goal scorers in Duke's incredibly balanced offense. Caputo had two goals and three assists in the opening half.

Duke's offense continued to fire on all cylinders in the third quarter with Kevin Quigley getting on the board as the Blue Devils' eighth goal scorer of the afternoon. Nakeie Montgomery tied Duke's largest lead of the game with a bounce shot with 1:44 left in the period before Denver's Hannah notched his fifth of the day with four seconds left to put the Pioneers within five, 13-8 with 15 minutes left to play.

In a game that was bound to go down the wire, Denver made things interesting with two goals to start the fourth quarter to make it a three-goal game, 13-10, with 11:37 left to play.
And just like it had all afternoon, Duke had an answer as Manown beat his man one-on-one to give Duke the four-goal cushion. Caputo, after a couple of strong defensive stops by the Blue Devil defense, iced the victory with his third of the day with 2:10 remaining.

Denver closed out the game with goals in the final 28 seconds, but Duke's efficiency and success on offense in the early going was too much to overcome.

The faceoff battle went in Duke's favor as the Blue Devils won 18-of-31 at the X. Jordan Ginder won 18 of his 28 draws and picked up six ground balls. Overall, the Blue Devils edged Denver in ground balls, 28-27.

In goal, Turner Uppgren and Andrew Bonafede split time in the net. Uppgren finished with five saves in the first half and Bonafede had six in the second 30 minutes, including four in the fourth quarter.

Duke faces another top-10 opponent next week when it travels to Charlotte to face No. 6 Penn Feb. 22 at 2 p.m., at Matthews Sportsplex.

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