Duke Runs Past Bellarmine, 20-12, to Open 2024 Season

Saturday, February 3

Durham, N.C.

12 p.m.

Duke University

1-0

Bellarmine

0-1

Bellarmine

Duke University

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Duke Runs Past Bellarmine, 20-12, to Open 2024 Season

2/3/2024 4:06:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score Box Score Photo Gallery

DURHAM – Duke attackmen Brennan O'Neill and Josh Zawada combined for seven goals and eight assists to lead the second-ranked Blue Devils to a commanding, 20-12, victory over Bellarmine in men's lacrosse action Saturday afternoon.

Zawada registered three goals and five assists, while O'Neill had four goals and three helpers in the win. The Blue Devils move to 15-3 in season openers under head coach Danowski and push their Koskinen win streak to 12 games.

Overall, 11 different Blue Devils scored at least one goal and 12 notched at least one point. Duke played four different goaltenders in the game, holding the Knights to only 22 shots in the first three quarters.

How it Happened

Duke fired an impressive 21 shots in the opening quarter, taking a 6-3 lead after 15 minutes of action. O'Neill opened the scoring for the Blue Devils as he notched his 154th and 155th career goals to give Duke the 2-0 lead at the 10-minute mark.
Bellarmine cut the lead in half midway through the opening stanza, but Duke answered with a 4-1 run over a span of 4:26 for a four-goal advantage. The Knights closed out the scoring in the period with an unassisted score with 48 seconds left.
Bellarmine tacked on two more goals at the start of the second quarter before the Blue Devils put together a 14-0 run over the next 16:10 for a 20-5 lead halfway through the third stanza. Zawada and high school teammate Dyson Williams keyed the run with a combined five goals and two assists. Zawada started the spurt at the 9:45 mark of the second quarter. Williams, who finished the day with three goals, had three of the next four. Two of the three came on extra man off assists from Zawada.
O'Neill and Andrew McAdorey had two apiece in the 14-goal run, while Jake Wilson, Jack Pappendick, and Alex Slusher each added one goal in the spurt.
Bellarmine ended its drought at the 4:32 mark of the third quarter, a span of 20:57. The Knights scored the final seven goals of the game to bring it to a 20-12 final score. Benny O'Rourk led Bellarmine with five points from two goals and three assists, while John Alie had three goals and one assist.
In goal for Duke, freshman Patrick Jameison got the start and made four saves. William Helm made three stops in his seven minutes of action, while Griffen Rakower and Evan Barr, both had one save each. Bellarmine goalie JC Higginbotham had 18 saves.
At the faceoff dot, Duke's Jake Naso won 18-of-23 restarts and picked up 11 ground balls. Sophomore Luke Engelke was 4-of-7 with three ground balls.
Defensively, Duke forced Bellarmine into 16 turnovers with Jake Caputo leading the charge with three caused turnovers. Cole Krauss forced two turnovers and scored a goal.

Notes

Brennan O'Neill extends his goal streak to 29 games, notching 94 in that span. Dyson Williams has scored at least one goal in 23 straight contests, totaling 73 over that time. The hat tricks are the 30th 31st for the respective Blue Devils, while O'Neill's seven points mark his 23rd game with at least five points.
O'Neill moves to eighth on the career scoring list at Duke with 233 points. He climbs to sixth in career goals at 157.
Jake Naso won 18 faceoffs to give him 801 victories in his career – just the 15th player in NCAA Division I history to do so. He is 16 faceoffs away from breaking Brendan Fowler's Duke record of 816. Naso is just 20 faceoffs away from also breaking Fowler's career mark for faceoffs taken.
Patrick Jameison became the first Duke freshman goalie to start the first game of the season since Dan Wigrizer in 2010.
Sophomore Max Sloat and freshman Benn Johnston registered their first career goals, while Alex Slusher and Josh Zawada notched their first career points in a Blue Devil uniform. Zawada dished five assists to give him 99 for his career.
Duke fired off 62 shots, marking just the fourth time since 2007 the Blue Devils have taken at least 60 shots in a game.

Quotes
Head Coach John Danowski on the win
"February 3rd – it's so early, but we look at are we better than we were last week when we scrimmaged Marquette and VMI. It's a new team. Seniors adapting to the transition of being seniors. You've got new guys like Josh [Zawada], Alex [Slusher] and Griffen Rakower and other fifth years who are trying to figure out where they belong in terms of chemistry. Overall, it was a good day."

On having Josh Zawada at attack this year
"You know Brennan is going to draw our opponent's number one defender. Dyson is going to draw our opponent's best inside guy. [Josh] is a classic attackman. He figures out how to get points, on extra man, in transition, on rebounds so by the nature of the position he was able to make plays."

On McAdorey moving into the midfield
"It's because of Josh. Josh is new to us, but with his skills and the fact that Andrew [McAdorey] is so dynamic between the lines [the change made sense]. [McAdorey] can play two ways. He can play defense, he can play wing on faceoffs. He can break down players to start the offense. He may not score off the initial dodge, but he creates opportunities for the team. He's just so explosive."

Josh Zawada on the win
"I think it was a great start to the season. It's going to look a little sloppy at times because it's our first of 17 regular season games. It was a great start and we're just trying to build upon that."

Zawada on his first game as a Blue Devil
"It's a good group of guys to do it with. Obviously, I grew up around the corner and I came and watched these games when I was a little kid so it's special to walk onto that field for the first time."

Brennan O'Neill on this being his last first game in Koskinen
"Koskinen always brings the juice. You've gotta love it. They're always there for us, whether the weather is good or bad they're there cheering us on, which gives us a lot of motivation. As for my last year, it's great and I just want to enjoy each day because this place is so amazing and everything it's done for me is amazing. I just want to enjoy my last year."

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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