Complete Team Effort Sends No. 4 Duke Past UNC, 15-8

Friday, March 17

Durham, N.C.

6 p.m.

Duke University

7-1, 2-0

North Carolina

4-3, 1-1

North Carolina

Duke University

Photo by: Nat LeDonne / Duke Athletics

Complete Team Effort Sends No. 4 Duke Past UNC, 15-8

3/17/2023 9:53:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

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DURHAM – Duke men's lacrosse senior Dyson Williams scored five goals and the Blue Devils' defense held 14th-ranked North Carolina scoreless for the final 26:37 of the game to earn a 15-8 victory over the rival Tar Heels Friday night at Koskinen Stadium.

Duke (7-1, 2-0) has won three straight against North Carolina (4-3, 1-1) and six of the previous 10. Junior Brennan O'Neill had a goal and four assists, while graduate student Garrett Leadmon registered three goals and an assist.

How it Happened

The game got off to a slow start with the Blue Devils scoring first 5:01 into the game on a strike from Williams. Owen Caputo provided the assist, finishing his night with a goal and two assists. Andrew McAdorey and Leadmon added markers 1:15 apart to make it a 3-0 game.
North Carolina got on the board with 5:10 remaining in the stanza, but it was all Blue Devils in the final two minutes as they built a 6-1 lead at the first break. Freshman Aidan Maguire scored in transition for Duke to register his first career goal as a Blue Devil in that 3-0 spurt to end the quarter.
Duke added two more goals midway through the second quarter to open up an 8-1 advantage. The Tar Heels ended their scoreless drought at 15:33 to jumpstart a 7-1 run that pulled them within one early in the third quarter.
Six different Tar Heels scored in the spurt with Lance Tillman having two. Tillman and James Matan both totaled two goals on the night. North Carolina was red-hot to start the third, scoring four goals in a span of 1:54 to make it a one-point game.
Leadmon put the Blue Devils back in front by two with his second of the evening with 10 to play in the third quarter. Williams tacked on a goal to cap the third-quarter scoring and the Blue Devils added four goals in the final period for the 15-8 victory.
Wilson Stephenson and the Duke defense were outstanding all evening in holding North Carolina scoreless for at least 15 minutes twice during the game. Stephenson finished with six ground balls and a caused turnover. Tyler Carpenter had a caused turnover and four ground balls.
Senior Kenny Brower matched up with North Carolina leading scorer Logan McGovern, holding him to a goal and two assists – one point below his season points average. He came into the game averaging 2.33 goals per game.
The Blue Devils were excellent on the ride as well as North Carolina finished the night 19-of-25 on clears (.760). McAdorey had two caused turnovers to go with his goal.
At the faceoff dot it was junior Jake Naso winning 16-of-25, picking up eight ground balls and scoring a goal.
In goal, William Helm had 14 saves to earn his seventh victory as Duke's backstop. Collin Krieg had eight saves for North Carolina, ending his night with a .347 save percentage.

Notes

The win was head coach John Danowski's 450th of his career. He is 450-211 and 231-72 at Duke. The victory pushes him to 20-6 all-time against North Carolina as the head coach at Duke.
Duke has won the past three games against North Carolina by an average of eight goals per game – +9, +8, +7.
With the 16 faceoff victories, Jake Naso becomes just the second Blue Devil to reach 600 career wins. He is 604-of-1000 for his career for a .604 win percentage. He also has 342 ground balls.
North Carolina's Collin Krieg's .347 save percentage was his lowest of the season. He came into the game ranked fifth nationally with a .589 save percentage. Duke has faced five of the nation's top 10 goalies in save percentage this season, going 4-1 in those games. The Blue Devils have forced three of those five goalies to under a .500 save percentage.
Dyson Williams recorded his 23rd career hat trick and fifth of the season. Brennan O'Neill dished at least three assists for the fourth time this season and for the seventh time of his career.
Garrett Leadmon registered his second hat trick of the season and fourth of his career. He has 13 goals this season, surpassing his 12 he had in 18 games as a rookie. He had 17 in the previous three seasons combined.
North Carolina's 26:37 drought is the third longest by a Duke opponent this season. The Tar Heels are the first team Duke has held without a goal for at least 15 minutes twice in a game this season.