From near extinction to redemption is where Duke?s men?s lacrosse team has traveled during the past year. Junior attack Zack Greer scored the last of his four goals with three seconds remaining in regulation as Duke advanced to Monday?s national championship game with a 12-11 victory over Cornell in front of a record 52,004 fans at M&T Bank Stadium.
The shot at a championship for Duke comes one year after the school cancelled the team?s season following what proved to be false rape allegations.
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Duke (17-2) will now play Johns Hopkins (12-4) at 1 p.m. Monday ina rematch of the 2005 finals, which Hopkins won. Johns Hopkins is going after its ninth NCAA title after advancing with an 8-3 victory over Delaware (13-6) in the first game of the afternoon Saturday.
For Cornell (15-1), the loss ended what had been an undefeated season for the Big Red, who reached the semifinals for the first time since 1988. Also, Cornell lost after rallying back from a 10-3 deficit late in the third quarter.
“At 10-3 lesser teams with less character would have folded and they really fought back and played hard,” said Duke coach John Danowski on Cornell?s comeback. “That said, our kids did, too. There?s a lot of different ways to win games and be successful. It?s something that we work on in practice and or guys also fought to the end, they didn?t give up, didn?t despair and made the play in the end.”
Both teams traded goals in the first quarter as Greer?s goal tied the score at 3-3 after 15 minutes of play. Duke then tried to pull away as the Blue Devils reeled off seven unanswered goals, eventually building a 10-3 lead following a goal from midfielder Fred Krom with 3:46 left in the third quarter.
However, Cornell refused to go away as the answered with a 3-0 spurt, including two from attack David Mitchell, over the final 2:33 in the third quarter to pull within 10-6 entering the fourth quarter.
Cornell?s comeback continued in the fourth quarter as it went on a 5-1 run capped by a midfielder Brian Clayton with 17 seconds remaining that tied the score at 11-11. But, any chance of a win or going into overtime for Cornell got dashed 14 second later with Greer?s game-winning goal.
Mitchell and Clayton scored four and three goals, respectively while attack Eric Pittard had four assists and goalie Matt McMonagle had 11 saves for Cornell. Midfielders Ned Crotty and Brad Ross had two goals and an assist each for Duke.
“It has been an amazing four years capped off with an amazing senior year,” said Cornell defenseman Mitch Belisle, a Severna Park High graduate. “It is frustrating to go out this way when we thought we had such a great chance to advance. But at the same time, it was a special season.”
