Duke U. senior Ned Crotty hopped from one foot to the other, back and forth. He stared down the goalie in front of him, Adam Ghitelman, in a game of cat-and-mouse that seemed bound to end in a shot attempt from Crotty.
After what seemed like an eternity, Crotty made his move. He faked right, ran left, then, instead of shooting as the play was designed, he did something he’s statistically better than anyone else in the country at.
He passed.
Fellow senior Max Quinzani, finally free for the first time all night thanks to a bruising pick from junior Zach Howell, streaked across the field and snagged Crotty’s toss, then, whipping his stick, found nothing but the back of the net with only 12 seconds left in the game. After a bumbled attempt by top-seeded Virginia to answer, which failed when Brian Carroll was called for offsides, fifth-seeded Duke had the 14-13 win and its first trip to the title game since 2007.
“[The goal] was unbelievable. That game was so emotionally draining,” Crotty said.
Quinzani added, “My head went blank. I just was so tired but so happy.”
The goal capped a rollicking, back-and-forth affair between the two teams.
After a sloppy first half, Duke and Virginia had a combined 21 turnovers, and the attacking line of Quinzani, Crotty and Howell combined for only one point.
“We came in at the half and said, ‘Alright it can’t get any worse than that,'” Crotty said. “That was it. I would say that, overall, we played one of our worst games so far in the tournament and one of our worst games of all time, but the effort was always there and we made the plays when we needed to.”
Coming out of the locker room into the second half, the Blue Devils began to clear the ball better, clearing it 5-of-6 times in the third quarter, and 2-of-4 times in the fourth.
They also stayed consistent on the faceoff. In the first half, Duke was unbeatable from the X, winning 10-of-13 faceoffs. That percentage dropped a bit in the second, but the Blue Devils still proved to be the better faceoff team.
Still, after a goal from Virginia’s Chris Bocklet, Duke found itself down 8-5 early in the third quarter. An incredible scoring run was about to change that.
Duke rolled off seven unanswered goals, three of them by Quinzani, to completely change the momentum of the game from a three-goal Blue Devil deficit to a four-goal lead. With only 12:11 left in the game, Duke, which seemed lifeless and inert for much of the game, suddenly had a commanding lead.
But Virginia wasn’t quite done yet. Taking advantage of a couple of faceoff wins, the Cavaliers scored twice in rapid succession to cut the lead to two. “There was a time in the end of the third quarter, early in the fourth quarter, where maybe [the Cavaliers] were going to get a little tired,” head coach John Danowski said. “And their kids fought valiantly and fought hard and played just tremendously in that fourth quarter.”
With 6:55 left in the game, Virginia’s Carroll, who would later be called offsides on the last play of the game, scored with an assist from Matt White to pull the Cavaliers within one. Howell scored his second goal of the game with 4:27 left to put Duke up two and seemingly out of reach, but back-to-back scores from Steele Stanwick and Carroll tied it up.
Quinzani’s wrist flick a minute later decided the game for the Blue Devils.
For the first time since Crotty and Quinzani were freshmen in 2007, the Blue Devils are playing for the national championship. Their path to the game has mirrored that of a Shakespearean revenge drama, with Duke picking off each team that’s given them trouble over the years.
First, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, it was Johns Hopkins, who had a well-documented history of ending Duke’s seasons. The Blue Jays beat the Blue Devils in the national championship games in 2005 and 2007, and pulled off an upset in the national semifinal to topple Duke in 2008.
Then, in the second round, Duke took down North Carolina, which handed it a 13-7 loss back in March. And now, a win over Virginia, which previously won 16-12 against the Blue Devils this year’s ACC Championship semifinals.
Up Monday at 3:30 p.m. is another team Duke looks to settle a score with—Notre Dame, which won a February 20 matchup in Koskinen Stadium 11-7. According to the Blue Devils, they have improved tremendously since that loss.
“The team that we are now, as opposed to what we were then, is just night and day,” Crotty said.
“To be able to avenge that loss and get another shot at them is something we’re definitely looking forward to.”