Who is Duke even playing against?
It was almost 10 minutes into ESPNU's broadcast of Saturday's match-up between Dartmouth and No. 6 Duke, and there was still no mention of the Big Green as Duke's opponent. Instead, it was a reel of one feel-good video clip after another as ESPNU previewed the Blue Devils first game since its much-anticipated 2006 season was canceled following rape allegations.
"The story was Duke, we happened to be the team that was playing them, so really, that was what it was," Nick Bonacci '07 said. "We weren't looking for any special treatment from the media, we just wanted to play our game."
Dartmouth appeared unfazed by the media hype and controlled both the game's opening faceoff and the tempo early on. On its first possession, the Big Green spread the Blue Devil defense wide enough for Ari Sussman '10 to create space for a scoring chance as he slashed through the middle of the Duke defense and fired a shot that narrowly missed the goal.
Duke cleared the ball and scored a quick goal as Duke midfielder Brad Ross put Duke's first shot of the game past the stick side of Dartmouth goalie Mike Novosel '10.
The 1-0 Blue Devil lead would stand for almost five minutes, until Bonacci drove from behind the cage and shot a high-to-low bounce shot that eluded Duke keeper Dan Loftus.
"Coming out and being a senior attackman with a lot of experience, he really set the tone for us," Brian Koch '09 said. "Coming out and scoring that first goal really set a tone and set an example, and he really led the way for us."
Bonacci finished with four goals and two assists to lead the Big Green offense comprised mainly of sophomores and freshmen.
After Bonacci's first goal, Dartmouth gained possession and Sussman swept across the center of the field and ripped a shot into the upper right corner of the goal for the Big Green to take a 2-1 lead.
Following the goal, Dartmouth's defense of Ryan O'Connor '07, Andy Gagel '10 and Connor Anderson '10, held off the Duke attack until the Big Green could move the ball into their offensive zone. With 3:07 remaining in the first quarter, Jon Livadas '09 fed a wide-open Bonacci on the crease. Bonacci bounced the ball past Loftus while falling towards the middle of the crease. Dartmouth took a 3-1 lead.
Through all the hype that surrounded Duke's return to the lacrosse field and Duke's quest to reestablish itself as a national championship contender, it was Dartmouth who was stealing the show in front of 6,485 fans and a national television audience.
The Blue Devils, however, bounced back on a run that would set the tone for the rest of the game. For the remaining three-plus quarters of play, it would be Duke going on runs and the Big Green doing their best to control the damage.
With 1:48 remaining, All-American Blue Devil attackman Zach Greer beat his man and defensive help slid from the crease, leaving fellow attackman Gibbs Fogarty wide open just in front of the goal for an easy score before Dartmouth's second slide arrived to cover the crease.
"Mike [Novosel] had a great game. He had a lot of inside shots to deal with," senior captain O'Connor said.
The atmosphere in Durham certainly had to be a challenge for a freshman goalie to make his first start. Head coach Bill Wilson decided to make a change in the depth and start Novosel over returning starter Pat Marshall '09 based on what he had seen in practices and three scrimmages leading up to the faceoff with Duke.
"He made a lot of saves that he should have made and then a lot of saves that he shouldn't have made," O'Connor, the team's only senior defenseman, said of Novosel's effort on Saturday.
Greer scored the first two goals of the second quarter to give the Blue Devils a 5-3 lead with 6:43 remaining in the half. Steve Schoeffel scored on an unassisted drive to make the score 6-3 and add to Duke's streak of five unanswered goals. Koch stopped the bleeding with 3:30 remaining in the second quarter, taking a feed from Bonacci and firing a hard right-handed shot past Loftus' right shoulder. The teams traded goals until the half and Dartmouth found itself trailing by a score of 8-5.
Throughout the second quarter, Dartmouth faced a series of unlucky breaks including multiple Big Green shots hitting pipes instead of finding net after Loftus had been beaten. Dartmouth took a blow right before the half as Matt Danowski fired a poorly placed shot from close to the restraining line with 13 seconds remaining in the second quarter. A group of players in front of the goal screened Novosel's view of the shot, and by the time he located the ball, he could not react in time to make the save.
After the half, the teams fought a scoreless battle until Koch scored his second of three goals on the day more than five minutes into the third quarter.
With 7:25 to play, the Blue Devils began another run that would put the Big Green away for good and show why Duke's return to the field was worthy of the hype. Fogarty scored at the 7:25 mark, Dan Oppedisano took a pass from Loftus to score with 7:09 to play in the third quarter, and with 6:55 remaining, Danowski scored his second of three goals on the day. In total it was three goals in 30 seconds, and the Blue Devils led 11-6.
"They would go on a run and then we would cut the lead and it was pretty much like that -- until in the third quarter when they went on a run that we couldn't bounce back from and then they pulled away from there," Koch said.
Christopher Root '10 cut the lead to 11-7 with a gritty goal with 3:52 remaining in the third quarter, getting his shot off as he was hit from behind by a Duke defender. The Blue Devils' run, however, had not been extinguished and continued into the fourth quarter. Duke scored the next three goals, and during their 6-1 run, had amassed a 14-7 lead.
Ultimately, the Blue Devils survived Dartmouth's early scare and claimed a 17-11 victory to begin their 2007 season. The loss for the Big Green is not disheartening, and in fact encouraging in O'Connor's eyes.
"I think we played great. With a lot of young guys it's tough, because we're so young and pretty inexperienced and we're going up against one of the best teams in the country. A lot of the mistakes we made today are correctable," he said.
It appeared that after all the added media hype surrounding the game, the distractions affected Duke's players more than the Big Green men.
"We kind of expected there to be a lot of distractions, so we put an added focus on doing what we do. We were able to run our stuff and it was just a real fun experience playing in front of that type of crowd," Koch said.
