DURHAM, N.C.—Duke University freshman Jordan Wolf tallied his third goal of the game 1:01 into overtime to lift the 15th-ranked Blue Devils to a 9-8 overtime victory over No. 3 Maryland in ACC men’s lacrosse action this afternoon at Koskinen Stadium. Wolf led Duke in scoring as the Blue Devils netted the game’s final two goals for the crucial ACC victory.

“I went out in the corner and Christian Walsh set a really nice pick to seal his guy,” Wolf said. “All I really did was run by the net and saw a little bit of space and I just went for it. [When I saw it go in] it was the best moment of my life. It’s why everyone comes here, to play a game like that. It was really special.”

After Maryland rallied back from a three-goal deficit to take an 8-7 lead with just over a minute left in regulation, the Blue Devils successfully cleared and called their final timeout. Duke came out of the huddle and got into its offensive set and let the seconds tick away as it looked for the best scoring opportunity. With less than 10 seconds on the clock, senior Zach Howell got the ball right on the doorstep amongst Maryland defensemen and was able to slip the ball past Terrapin goaltender Niko Amato to tie the game with three ticks left in regulation and force overtime.

Junior CJ Costabile came out in overtime and won the opening draw and got Duke into the box where the Blue Devils called a timeout. Much like they did on the previous play, the Blue Devils set up their offense. The ball eventually landed in the stick of Wolf in the corner on the left side of the cage. The rookie attackman was able to get enough space between him and the Terrapin defenseman and he unleashed a shot that sailed past Amato to clinch the victory for the Blue Devils.

Duke sophomore goaltender Dan Wigrizer was outstanding between the pipes with 17 saves, including 10 in the second half. The 17 stops match his career high, which he posted in his career debut against Bucknell in 2010.  Offensively, Howell added two goals for the Blue Devils, including the score in the final three seconds of regulation to force overtime. Jake Tripucka added two tallies, while rookie Christian Walsh handed out two assists.

“Our defense stuck to our plan perfectly. They were able to give up shots that they were supposed to give up. I saw shots that I should save and because of the defense doing everything worked in our favor. There’s nothing better than this. An overtime win, ACC win against Maryland, it doesn’t get much better than this.”

Defensively, Duke (2-2, 1-0 ACC) was outstanding as it held the Maryland attack, which accounted for seven goals and four assists the week before, scoreless and to just 10 shots overall. John Haus led Maryland with three goals and Joe Cummings and Landon Carr both had two apiece.

It marked the second consecutive season that Duke and Maryland have gone into overtime and the eighth time overall in the series. The Blue Devils improve to 3-5 in extra sessions against the Terrapins.

Maryland (2-1, 0-1 ACC) registered the game’s first two goals in the opening five minutes before Duke collected itself to even the score at the 4:51 mark of the first quarter. The Terrapins notched the final goal of the first stanza for a 3-2 lead, but it was all Duke over the next 30 minutes as it built a 7-4 advantage after three quarters.

The Blue Devils outscored Maryland 5-1 in the second and third quarters with four different goal scorers. Howell tied the game at three in the early minutes of the second frame and Tripucka added two more, including with three second left until halftime to give Duke a 5-4 lead after 30 minutes of lacrosse.

Duke controlled the third quarter, scoring twice and outshooting the Terrapins 13-6. Amato had eight saves in the third period to keep the Blue Devils within reach at 7-4 heading into the final session.

After being held without a goal for 20:53, the Maryland offense caught fire. The Terrapins netted three goals in 3:11 in the fourth quarter to tie the game at seven apiece with 8:44 left to play. Duke and Maryland continued to trade possessions over the next five minutes. With less than four minutes left in regulation, Haus came up big again for the Terrapins with his third score of the game to give them their first lead since the 2:49 mark of the first quarter and set up the thrilling finish by the Blue Devils.

Duke held a 38-35 advantage in shots and won the ground ball battle 33-21. The Blue Devils were 1-of-4 on man-up opportunities, while Maryland was 1-of-2. Amato finished with 19 saves for the Terrapins. At the draw for Duke, Costabile won 10-of-18 and picked up 11 ground balls and had two caused turnovers.

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The Blue Jays lead this 106 year series, dating back to 1895 with a tally of 58-37-1. Johns Hopkins’ Coach, Dave Pietramala does a weekly check in with a local Baltimore radio station. With much admiration for Coach Cottle and the Terps, Pietramala had this to say about getting some steam with a win over Albany and looking ahead to the Smartlink Day of Rivals “they (Maryland) are an extremely emotional, hard working, talented team; I think it’s important that we took a little confidence from our last win as we head into a game in this kind of venue with a team like them” (Mark Viviano show 105.7). Meaning that this game

Hopkins is going to need the confidence as they have been struggling through the beginning half of the season. Last year they came into M & T Bank for the inaugural Day of Rivals with a 5-4 record. Having dropped one to Hoftra back in March, they just broke even with a domineering win over Albany 19-7. Hopkins has had to play a bunch of young talent these past couple weeks with names like Tom Palasek and John Ranagan jumping in for Senior Max Chautin so we will have to see how this young group will fair when it comes down to dealing with an experienced Maryland defense.

The Terrapins come in as the favorite with a 7-2 record. Their only losses coming from the #1 (Virginia) and #3 (North Carolina) teams in the nation (That’s certainly going to be a great ACC tournament). But I regress as this one is much more that another game. This one is for the first win against the Blue Jays that Maryland has seen in four years. This is also for pride, power, standings, with a splash of revenge thrown in for good measure.

Maryland has been on a rampage this spring as their win column have seen great victories over Georgetown, Duke, and last week’s victory over Navy, who will also be in “the house that Ray built” on Saturday. With all three attackman: Grant Catalino (18,16), Ryan Young (10,18), and Travis Reed (10,11) above 20 points scoring, they will lead this well balanced offense into battle this weekend. This “very emotional, hard working, talented team” can also add youth to that list of characteristics as both the starting close defensive and attack units are all made up of juniors with a sophomore thrown in the mix as well. With that type of talent being directed by a veteran, senior captain goalie in Brian Phipps, the Blue Jays might have a long ride back across town Saturday night.

But time will only tell when the final whistle sounds at M & T Bank this weekend at the 2nd Annual Smartlink Day of Rivals. It’s the 106th meeting but the century old rivalry won’t be the matter of concern Saturday night, as much as the two hours that these teams will have to battle it out for rights to this year’s crown.

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