North Carolina Holds Off Duke’s Late Charge in 15-12 Setback; Duke Turns Attention to ACC Tournament

Saturday, April 27

Chapel Hill, NC

12 p.m.

Duke University

11-4, 1-3ACC

North Carolina

7-7, 1-3ACC

Duke University

North Carolina

Photo by: Peyton Williams for Duke Athletics

North Carolina Holds Off Duke’s Late Charge in 15-12 Setback; Duke Turns Attention to ACC Tournament

4/27/2024 3:14:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score Game Notes

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—North Carolina outscored Duke, 9-4, in the first half and held off a late charge by the No. 2 Blue Devils to post a 15-12 victory Saturday afternoon in the ACC men's lacrosse regular season finale at Dorrance Field.

The Tar Heels (7-7, 1-3) used a 6-0 run over the span of the second and third quarters to break open a 6-4 game. Duke (11-4, 1-3), trailing by nine early in the fourth quarter, scored the game's final six goals to bring it to the 15-12 final score.

How it Happened

North Carolina jumped out to a 2-0 run in the opening 1:45 with a pair of unassisted tallies.
Duke senior Brennan O'Neill cut the lead in half with a man-up strike on a pass from Josh Zawada at the 11:48 mark.
Aidan Danenza scored again for the Blue Devils to make it a 3-2 game, but the Tar Heel offense was firing on all cylinders, scoring twice in five seconds to put the home squad up 5-2 with 2:44 left in the first quarter.
O'Neill answered 11 seconds later, and freshman Benn Johnston sent a shot low past Colin Krieg to make it a one-goal game again, 5-4, at the end of the first period.
After combining for nine goals in the first quarter, the scoring pace slowed in the second with neither team scoring in the first 10 minutes despite combining for 19 shots.
North Carolina was the first on the board with a strike from Pietramala at the 4:59 mark of the stanza. The Tar Heels added three more goals in the final 30 seconds, including one at the buzzer, to head into halftime with a 9-4 lead.
After the Tar Heels extended their advantage to seven, 11-4, in the first couple of minutes of the third quarter, Zawada ended Duke's scoring drought at 19:18 to make it an 11-5 game.
North Carolina, like it had all afternoon, answered with two more goals to take a 13-5 lead with five left to play in the third stanza. The teams traded goals in seven seconds, putting the Tar Heels up 14-6 after 45 minutes of action.
The Blue Devils, facing their largest deficit of the season at nine goals, went on a 6-0 run in a span of 5:18 to bring it back to a three-goal game with 1:48 to play. Grant Mitchell started the run with his second goal of the year before Danenza scored twice and Aidan Maguire added a fourth to bring the score to 15-10.
Junior Andrew McAdorey dropped in his first of the afternoon and Will Frisoli capped the run after forcing North Carolina's Krieg to pull the ball back into his own net to make it 15-12. It was the closest Duke had been since it was 7-4 in the second quarter.
North Carolina was able to run out the clock in the final 1:48 to secure the victory. Logan McGovern led all scorers with four goals and three assists for seven points. Pietramala had four goals and an assist. Krieg made 15 saves in goal for the win.

Notes

Brennan O'Neill had two goals to extend his goal scoring streak to 43 games, netting 134 goals in that stretch. He now has 197 career goals to rank fourth in Duke history and tied for 10th in NCAA history.
O'Neill's one assist moves him into sole possession of ninth on the Duke career chart. He now has 293 career points to rank fourth and seven shy of becoming the fourth Blue Devil to 300 career points.
Dyson Williams had a goal and an assist to bring his career goals total to 195 and point total to 219, fifth and 12th, respectively in Duke history.
Jake Naso won five faceoffs to give him 969 for his career. He picked up four ground balls to give him 547 in his career – eighth in NCAA history.
Duke was held without a goal in the second quarter, marking just the second time this season the Blue Devils did not score in a quarter.

Up Next

Duke will turn its attention to the ACC Tournament next weekend in Charlotte. The Blue Devils are the No. 3 seed and will face No. 2 seed Syracuse, May 3 at 8 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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