Division I Men :      March 10, 2007 [ The Game Story]
Duke 7 Loyola 8 Scoring: Scoring: Ned Crotty Matt Danowski Fred Krom Gibbs Fogarty Nick O'hara Michael Ward (3, 0) (2, 0) (0, 1) (1, 0) (1, 0) (0, 1) Paul Richards Ryan Rabidou Patrick Kennedy Cory Coffman Andrew Spack Greg Leonard Shane Koppens Dan Bauers Dan Kallaugher (1, 1) (1, 1) (2, 0) (0, 1) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) (0, 1) Saves: Saves: Dan Loftus 8  (0.500) Alex Peaty 12  (0.632) Current Record :     (4-1) Current Record :     (2-2) Team Page For 2007 Team Page For 2007       The Game Story:

San Diego, Calif. - The cardiac kids were at it again on Saturday night in San Diego. The Greyhounds, who scored two goals in the final 22 seconds of last week's win at Penn State, scored two goals in the final 73 seconds this Saturday night to defeat No. 1 Duke 8-7.

Playing the top-ranked Blue Devils in the featured match-up of the 2007 First Four Lacrosse Tournament at University of San Diego's Torero Stadium, the Greyhounds escaped with a thriller after surrendering a four-goal lead.

Loyola, which picked up 11 more groundballs than the Blue Devils, won 10-of-19 face-offs and shut the door on Duke's prolific scoring attack with outstanding goalie play from sophomore Alex Peaty, who finished the game with 12 saves.

The Greyhounds jumped out front early, scoring five of the game's first six goals. Junior Paul Richards scored first, and after an answer from Duke's Matt Danowski, the `Hounds caught fire, scoring three times in three minutes and thirty seconds.

Junior Shane Koppens started that run with his fifth goals of the season, senior Patrick Kennedy also scored his fifth goal of the year, and senior Dan Bauers notched his eight goal this season to put Loyola up by a score of 4-1 at the end of the first quarter.

The Greyhounds played a strong possession game in the second quarter, picking up key groundballs and keeping the Blue Devils off the scoreboard. Peaty played a major role in Duke's inability to score with five saves in the quarter alone. Three of those saves came at point-blank range to hold Duke to its lowest halftime score in over four years.

On the offensive side of the ball, Loyola added its fifth goal of the game with three seconds left on the first-half clock. Senior Ryan Rabidou took a feed from senior Cory Coffman and bounced a shot past Duke goalie Dan Loftus to give the Greyhounds a 5-1 edge.

Much like the second stanza, the third quarter only saw one goal, which came in the opening eight seconds of the half. Scored by Duke's Nick O'Hara, the Blue Devils cut the lead to 5-2, but once again were stymied by Loyola's defense.

Duke, however, played like the top-ranked team in the nation and never gave up. The Blue Devils rallied with five of the next six goals and just like the week before in Penn State, scored with less than five minutes left in regulation to take a one goal lead.

Trialing 7-6 with the clock winding down, the Greyhounds needed to make a play. Senior Dan Kallaugher, who gave Loyola possession with success in the face-off x all night, picked up one of his game-high 10 groundballs to get the `Hounds rolling.

With only 1:13 left on the clock, senior Andrew Spack fired a shot that embedded into the cage's back twine, and in the process, gave Loyola new life. With the crowd of more than 5,000 cheering on the Greyhounds, Loyola regained possession for senior Greg Leonard's last-second heroics.

Leonard scored with 38 seconds left in regulation and Peaty secured the win with a save with three ticks on the clock to give the `Hounds their second straight come-from-behind victory in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter.

The win improves Loyola's record to 2-2 this season and drops Duke to 4-1. The Greyhounds, who are 1-0 in the ECAC, return to conference play next week when they host St. John's at Diane Geppi-Aikens Field.