Danowski, Blue Devils pound men's lacrosse

With four minutes, 18 seconds remaining in the third quarter, Duke senior attackman Matt Danowski took the ball from behind the cage, charged forward, turned and fired a ball into the back of the net.

With that goal, Danowski tied a career-high with six goals as the Blue Devils (3-0, 1-0 ACC) stomped the Terrapin men's lacrosse team Friday night, 14-7. He sparked the Duke offense with a varied array of shots and befuddled two All-American Terp defenders in the process.

"He just had our number today," senior long pole Ryan Clarke said. "He was pretty much unstoppable out there. He could have shot the ball behind his back, and it would have went in."

Danowski and the Duke offense dominated the Terps (2-2, 0-1) from the early going, taking a 4-2 lead after the first quarter and never looking back. It was the second loss in a row for the Terps, and the second time they entered halftime trailing by five goals.

The Terps were unable to protect freshman goalie Brian Phipps from the vaunted Duke attack. Phipps, starting the fourth game of his collegiate career, only managed 13 saves on 27 shots on goal.

"I thought we left Brian Phipps out to dry a little bit out there," Cottle said. "They found different ways to put pressure on him."

Danowski, specifically, was seemingly unstoppable at times for the Blue Devils. He scored at will early, getting two goals and an assist in the first quarter. By halftime, he was single-handedly outscoring the Terps, 4-3.

In the third quarter, Cottle flipped his two All-American defenders, switching Steve Whittenberg off Danowski in favor of Ray Megill. But despite being closely defended by both, Danowski continued to score regardless of the defender.

"It's difficult to cover a good player," Duke coach John Danowski, Matt's father, said. "Tonight, he had a night. It's not going to happen every week. But it was just one of those nights tonight where things just happened to fall for him."

Byrd Stadium held 5,283 fans for the game, which was Duke's first since last year's rape scandal. Although Terp fans were heard yelling at the Duke bench, and a small group of fans held a sign reading "No Means No," the atmosphere was relatively quiet, and by the end of the third quarter many of the Terp fans had left.

John Danowski said he expected some hostility toward his team, but he didn't believe it affected the players.

"I think that [hostility from opposing fans] is something they're going to have to handle," John Danowski said. "I can't imagine it was any worse than last spring, when they were basically in hiding."

With the win, Duke made a national statement on a lacrosse level, handling a top-10 team with ease on both ends of the field. Despite getting two early fourth-quarter goals, the Terps never pulled within three goals after halftime and never found their rhythm after falling behind early.

"I didn't think intensity was the problem," junior attackman Max Ritz said. "We were very, very psyched for a game like this. ... You put yourself in an unnecessary hole playing five goals down each half, so we've got to change that - that's for sure."

Contact reporter Adi Joseph at ajosephdbk@gmail.com.