The Opening Faceoff<\/p>\n
By the Numbers
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Youth Movement<\/p>\n
Lockdown Defense<\/p>\n
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\n\tDuke continues its five-game homestand to start the season Saturday, hosting Jacksonville at 12 p.m. The Blue Devils are 3-0 and No. 7 in the USILA poll and 8th by Inside Lacrosse and USA Lacrosse.
\n\tOn the strength of his eight points against Vermont, Kyle Colsey<\/a> paces the offense with nine goals and five assists for 14 points. Benn Johnston<\/a>, also having six goals versus the Catamounts, has 13 points (12 g, 1a), while Max Sloat<\/a> is the top midfield goal scorer with nine goals. Thomas Mencke<\/a> is the quarterback with nine assists.
\n\tThe Blue Devils’ stalwart defense is proving why it’s considered one of the best in the country, holding teams to 7.0 goals and to just 31 shots per game. Henry Bard<\/a> (4), Charlie Johnson<\/a> (5) and Will Pedicano<\/a> (5) have combined for 14 caused turnovers and 20 ground balls. Johnson leads the charge off the ground with 11 ground balls. In goal, Patrick Jameison<\/a> has a 5.23 goals against average and a .600 save percentage.
\n\tJacksonville is 1-2 and receiving votes in the USILA poll. Both of the Dolphins’ setbacks came against top-20 foes by a single goal, – 11-10 (OT) vs. Utah and 11-10 at North Carolina. Preseason All-American Jack Taylor paces the offense with five goals and nine assists, while Nicky Brown has five goals and six assists. Senior defenseman Aaron Toguri has six caused turnovers to lead the charge on defense, while Ryan Della Rocco has been stellar between the pipes at 8.44 goals against average and .671 save percentage.
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\n36 – Percent of Duke’s points this season that have come from freshmen
\n53 – Career caused turnovers for Aidan Maguire<\/a>, 14 shy of moving into the top five in Duke history
\n8 – Points for redshirt freshman Kyle Colsey<\/a> against Vermont, joining Zack Greer as the only other Duke freshman in the past 20 years to record eight points in one of their first three career games
\n151 – Saves needed by Patrick Jameison<\/a> to move into the top five in Duke career history
\n9 – Assists this season for graduate student transfer Thomas Mencke<\/a> – surpassing his total of six in 42 games at Virginia
\n3 – Blue Devil freshmen in the past 20 years who have registered at least seven goals in one of his first three career games
\n487 – Career wins for John Danowski<\/a> – 13 away from becoming the first Division I men’s lacrosse coach in NCAA history to reach 500
\n.537 – Duke’s shooting percentage against Vermont – the highest by a Blue Devil squad since shooting .606 (20-of-33) against Georgetown March 19, 2016
\n.667 – Faceoff win percentage for junior Cal Girard<\/a> – second in the ACC and 10th nationally
\n34 – Faceoff wins by Girard after three games, eight fewer than he had in 12 games last season
\n5.36 – Patrick Jameison’s<\/a> goals against average after two games
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\nSeries History<\/p>\n
\n\tDuke and Jacksonville match up for the 16th consecutive season. The Blue Devils sport a 13-2 lead in the series and have won two straight after the Dolphins won two consecutive in 2022 and 2023.
\n\tThree of the past four contests have been decided by five or fewer goals, including last year’s 14-9 Duke victory in Jacksonville. The Blue Devils were one of three teams to hold the Dolphins to single digits a year ago.
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\nOrtlieb and Colsey Join Elite Company<\/p>\n
\n\tWith three goals in his debut against Bellarmine, Michael Ortlieb<\/a> joined an elite group of Duke attackmen. Ortlieb is the fifth Blue Devil since 2004 to record at least three goals in his first game as a true freshman.
\n\tThe most recent player to do so was Brennan O’Neill in 2021 against No. 7 Denver.
\n\t\u00a0Ortlieb added two goals and two assists against Utah, giving him seven points in his first two games – the most by a Duke rookie since Justin Guterding had 10 in 2015.
\n\tKyle Colsey<\/a> inserted himself into the conversation of stellar rookies with a sock trick – six goals – against Vermont. He is the third freshman in the past 20 seasons to record at least six goals in one of his first three collegiate games.
\n\t\u00a0Colsey’s eight points against the Catamounts push him to 14 for the year. His 14 points rank fourth among freshman scorers in their first three contests since 2004, sitting behind Zack Greer (17), Matt Danowski<\/a> (15) and Justin Guterding (15).
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\n\tThe Blue Devils started two true freshmen on attack in a season opener for the first time under head coach John Danowski<\/a>. The last time Duke had two freshmen start regularly at attack was 2011 – Jordan Wolf and Christian Walsh. Michael Ortlieb<\/a> and Brady Scioletti<\/a> combined for five goals in their debut and seven points in the second game.
\n\tIn game three it was Colsey and Ortlieb getting the nod and combining for eight goals and two assists for 10 points.
\n\tOverall, nine of the 10 Blue Devil true freshmen have seen action with Ortlieb, Scioletti, Anthony Drago<\/a>, Will Tantillo<\/a>, Will Pedicano<\/a> playing significant minutes. After three games, Duke freshmen account for 36 percent of the team’s total points.
\n\tThe trio of Colsey, Ortlieb and Scioletti have combined for 31 points – the most by any rookie trio in the past 20 seasons.
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\n\tDefensively, Duke was excellent last season, holding opponents to 10-minute scoreless stretches 23 times, including a season-long 31:00 against North Carolina in the ACC Championship semifinal.
\n\tIn 2026, Duke has forced all three of its opponents to scoring droughts of at least 15 minutes, including keeping Vermont off the board for 27:50 and to just four goals in the first 45 minutes.
\n\tThe Blue Devils return each of their top three caused turnover artists and five of the top seven. Duke is allowing just seven goals per game this season to rank second in the ACC and seventh nationally. Opponents are shooting just 23 percentage after three games and averaging just 31 shots per game.
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\nUp Next<\/p>\n
\n\tDuke is back in action next Sunday, March 1 versus Saint Joseph’s at 1 p.m.
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\nTo stay up to date with Blue Devils men’s lacrosse, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching “DukeMLAX”.
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\n#GoDuke
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\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Opening Faceoff
Duke continues its five-game homestand to start the season Saturday, hosting Jacksonville at 12…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-162784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}