Division I Men :      March 27, 2004 [ The Game Story]
Duke 8 Georgetown 9 Scoring: Scoring: Dan Flannery Bret Thompson Lee Skandalaris Chris Haunss Ben Fenton Peter Lamade Matt Zash (2, 1) (1, 1) (2, 0) (1, 1) (2, 0) (0, 1) (0, 1) Walid Hajj Trevor Casey Sean Denihan Neal Goldman Kevin Langtry John Lasky Nick Miaritis Derek Mills Keith Schroeder Garrett Wilson (1, 1) (1, 1) (0, 1) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) Saves: Saves: Aaron Fenton 9  (0.500) Rich D'andrea 6  (0.429) Current Record :     (4-3) Current Record :     (5-1) Team Page For 2004 Team Page For 2004       The Game Story: No. 6 Georgetown Outlasts No. 7 Duke, 9-8 Georgetown's Walid Hajj scored his only goal of the day with 3:14 remaining in the fourth period to snap an 8-8 tie and lift the sixth-ranked Hoyas to a 9-8 win over seventh-ranked Duke in men's lacrosse action on Saturday afternoon at Koskinen Stadium. Georgetown, a winner of five games in a row, improves to 5-1 on the year while Duke falls to 4-3. The Hoyas have now won four straight over the Blue Devils. Both teams are in action next Saturday when Duke travels to face Ohio State and Georgetown hosts Navy. The Blue Devils went on top 1-0 on a goal from Lee Skandalaris less than three minutes into the contest. Both squads went scoreless for almost 10 minutes before Ben Fenton put Duke ahead 2-0 with an unassisted tally at the 3:09 mark. After Georgetown answered with a goal from Garrett Wilson, Duke closed the quarter with Bret Thompson finding the back of the net with just two seconds on the clock. Georgetown dominated the second period, outscoring the Blue Devils by a 6-0 count to take a 7-3 lead into intermission. In the quarter, the Hoyas claimed six-of-seven face-offs, outshot Duke by a 12-2 count and picked up 16 ground balls compared to just five for the Blue Devils. Six different Hoyas -- Neal Goldman, Keith Schroeder, Nick Miaritis, Travor Casey, Kevin Langtry and John Lasky -- scored in the period. Duke tallied three straight goals to open the scoring in the third quarter as Dan Flannery, Chris Haunss and Skandalaris scored to pull within 7-6. Derek Mills then provided an extra man goal for the Hoyas with 3:17 left in the period for an 8-6 Georgetown lead. In the final quarter, Ben Fenton scored for Duke at the 13:29 mark, and then Flannery's second goal of the day knotted the game at 8-8 with 6:43 remaining. Hajj then tallied the game-winning goal with 3:14 left on the clock. Duke had several possessions in the final three minutes, but did not score. In goal, Duke's Aaron Fenton recorded nine saves against nine goals while his counterpart, Rich D'Andrea was credited with six saves, five of which came in the second half, against eight goals. Georgetown face-off specialist Andy Corno won 15-of-20 opportunities and tied for the team lead for ground balls with 12 with teammate Brodie Merrill. Casey and Hajj led the way with one goal and one assist apiece. For Duke, Flannery finished with two goals and one assist while Ben Fenton and Skandalaris had two goals each.

Last week Georgetown’s Head Coach Dave Urick was quoted as saying that the Duke game is one that rivals few others in term of importance, and if measured today in the same light, this was a huge win for the Hoyas. The one goal margin of victory, which unsurprisingly mirrored Georgetown’s win against Duke last year, was proof of how close this game was, despite the sizable leads that each team enjoyed during the first half. Georgetown put together their best team effort of the season, as all nine of their goals were scored by different Hoyas, including two freshmen. Duke enjoyed a similar team effort with their eight goals coming from five different Blue Devils; two each from Dan Flannery, Lee Skandalaris, and Ben Fenton. The loss drops Duke to 4-3, while Georgetown improves to 5-1, with this their fifth win in a row.

The game started as the Blue Devils had hoped, with a pair of quick scores that immediately gave them the confidence and momentum that they would need to counter Georgetown’s play. The first in the pair was initiated by a failed Georgetown clear and led Duke’s Skandalaris to scoring his first. The unassisted goal was due to Georgetown’s failure to stop the ball in transition and quickly put them in the hole, only 2:06 into play. Upon gaining possession, Georgetown’s offense looked flustered as they tried to deal with Duke’s extended defense that was pressuring the ball well outside the box, and consequently, the Hoyas hardly established an offense in the first quarter. Similarly, Duke’s offense produced little in the way of goals during the first 15 minutes of the game and it wouldn’t be for almost another 10 minutes until the second goal of the contest came from Blue Devil Ben Fenton, coming hard off of a teammate’s screen. Georgetown would respond with a goal that was the product of textbook ball movement. Freshmen Trevor Casey was credited with the assist, while classmate Garrett Wilson was responsible for the goal. Two minutes later, with less than a minute left, Duke called a timeout to retain possession. The decision proved advantageous for the Blue Devils, because with only two seconds showing on the clock, Duke scored their third goal of the quarter, and opened their lead to two.

The second quarter, unlike the first, was dominated by a run of six goals by the Hoyas. Senior captain Neil Goldman got things started when he took his defenseman one-on-one and beat a late slide to bring his team within one. Sophomore Keith Schroeder followed suit as he placed a shot in the lower left hand corner of the cage and tied the game. A strong and steady offensive performer for Georgetown, Nick Miaritis, would be next in line to score when he dunked in a rebound standing only a pace off the crease. The scoring streak continued with freshman Trevor Casey notching his second point of the game on an unassisted goal.

With that score and a 3-5 lead, the frustration on the part of Duke became almost palpable, and was evidenced by a 1 minute un-releasable penalty on Duke senior, John Wendling. Georgetown took advantage of the man-up situation when Kevin Langtry took a feed from Sean Denihan and found the back of the cage. The final goal of the half was unassisted and came unexpectedly from John Lasky with just over four minutes to play. The Duke timeout that followed seemed effective in stopping the Georgetown run, yet ineffective in producing any of their own scores, as the half would end with Georgetown leading 7-3.Just as Georgetown had come out with all cylinders fired up, so to would Duke. On a man-up situation that resulted from a interference penalty on Georgetown’s Brian Young, Duke notched their first goal in 16:38 of play. Only 30 seconds later, a newly energized Blue Devil team scored again. This time it was Chris Haunss who, while standing on the crease, faked high and shot low and beat Georgetown keeper Rich D’Andrea. The third and final Duke goal of the quarter, which brought the Blue Devils to within one, again came from Skandalaris. But the aggressive play of the Duke players cost them another man-up goal, this one coming from Georgetown’s Derek Mills. While padding the lead, the score didn’t give the Hoyas anything near a lead that they could be comfortable with, because 8:30 into the fourth the score would again be tied.

Duke senior Ben Fenton got the score back to within 1 with an un-assisted goal a minute-and-a-half into the quarter. Georgetown continued to struggle in the fourth quarter, much like they had during the third, as their shots were clearly not as accurate as they had been during the second quarter. Duke was able to take advantage of that one last time, as Flannery scored a transition goal to tie the game at 8, with 6:43 left in regulation. The tie score brought even more aggressive play onto the field and made an exciting game even more momentous. But despite the hard play of both teams, it was Georgetown’s Walid Hajj, who up until this point had been unusually quiet, who scored the go-ahead goal. It was an unassisted score that was the product of a hard move past his defenseman and through two others. And while 3:14 remained after the goal, a successful game of keep away and a strategic use of timeouts was all Georgetown needed to leave Durham with a critical win.