Balanced Effort Pushes No. 2 Duke Past Jacksonville, 23-7

Friday, February 23

Durham, N.C.

6 p.m.

Duke University

4-0

Jacksonville

1-2

Jacksonville

Duke University

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Balanced Effort Pushes No. 2 Duke Past Jacksonville, 23-7

2/23/2024 9:36:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

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DURHAM – Duke men's lacrosse senior attackman Brennan O'Neill registered seven points while the Blue Devil defense held Jacksonville to a season-low seven goals in a 23-7 victory over the Dolphins Friday night at Koskinen Stadium.

O'Neill finished his night with five goals and two assists to headline the Blue Devil offense. Dyson Williams had four goals and Josh Zawada rounded out the attack unit with three goals and an assist. Sophomore midfielder Max Sloat had three goals and an assist to headline the midfield group.

Senior Jake Naso was excellent at the dot once again, winning 13-of-21 faceoffs and picking up eight ground balls. He surpassed Brendan Fowler as Duke's career ground balls leader with 477.

How it Happened

Jacksonville scored the opening goal before Duke answered with a 7-0 run over the next 10 minutes to take a 7-1 lead. The Dolphins tacked on a goal in the final 90 seconds of the first quarter to bring the stanza to a close at 7-2. The Blue Devils held Jacksonville scoreless for a span of 12:50.
Five different Blue Devils scored in the first period and O'Neill had a hat trick with 2:15 left in the quarter.
Williams notched goals 1:19 apart to start the second quarter, extending Dukes lead to 9-2. Zawada scored his first of the evening just over a minute later to make it 10-2.
The Blue Devils were firing on all cylinders in all areas of the game in the second and third quarters. After Jacksonville got a man-up goal from Jack Taylor at 9:36 of the second quarter, the Dolphins wouldn't score again until 39 seconds left in the third quarter - a span of 23:57. Duke held Jacksonville to just six shots in the second quarter.
On the offensive end in that span, the Blue Devils scored eight goals off five different sticks.
Graduate student Connor Drake and junior Reed Landin scored their first goals of the season to cap the scoring for the Blue Devils in the fourth quarter.
In goal, rookie Patrick Jameison had nine saves and three goals against in 37 minutes of action. Griffen Rakower made five saves and let in just two goals, while Mac Fotiades made his first career save as a Blue Devils in the final 4:38 of the game.
Graduate student Tyler Carpenter had four ground balls as Jacksonville won the battle off the ground, 34-33.

Notes

Duke finished February 4-0 and extends its home win streak to 14 games. The 23 goals are the most since the Blue Devils had 27 against High Point in 2021 and the second most by a Duke team under head coach John Danowski.
Duke has scored at least 20 goals in three games this season – the first time the Blue Devils have done so against three Division I programs in school history. The 1999 squad had four 20-goal games with the fourth coming against St. Andrews.
Naso picked up eight ground balls to give him 477 for his career, besting Fowler's record of 474. The native of Holtsville, N.Y., moved to 13th on the NCAA career chart and is 23 away from becoming the 11th player in Division I history to reach 500.
Naso's 13 faceoff wins give him 851 for his career to rank 11th in NCAA Division I history. He needs 49 more to become the ninth player in Division I to win 900 restarts. His 1,399 faceoffs taken rank 12th in the NCAA records book.
O'Neill moves into a tie for fifth on the Duke all-time scoring chart with 254 points. He tied Matt Danowski for fifth all-time at Duke with 170 goals.
Overall, 10 different Blue Devils had a goal and 11 had at least a point. Duke's attack unit scored 15 points in the game.
Sloat registered his first career hat trick as a Blue Devil, while Williams posted his 34th, O'Neill his 32nd and Zawada his 22nd. The seven points for O'Neill mark his 26th game with at least five points.
Carpenter forced two turnovers to take over the No. 3 spot on the career caused turnover list with 69. He passes Cade Van Raaphorst.
Duke shot 46.9 percent for the game, marking the 27th time since 2007 the Blue Devils have finished a game shooting at least 46 percent. Duke has shot at least 46 percent in three of its four games this season. None of Danowksi's previous 17 Blue Devil teams have done so more than three times in an entire season.
The 20 turnovers by Jacksonville were a season-high for a Duke opponent this season.

Up Next

Duke opens a busy March slate with a pair of matchups against Ivy League foes. The Blue Devils host Penn, March 1 at 6 p.m. and Princeton, March 3 at 12 p.m.

To stay up to date with Blue Devils men's lacrosse, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeMLAX".

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