PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's lacrosse team was down by four late in the first half, by three with about eight minutes left in the fourth, but scored the game's last four goals—the final two coming seven seconds apart with just three minutes to play—as the Quakers knocked off No. 1 Duke, 10-9.
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Penn has now played Duke three times at Franklin Field, and won all three. The Red and Blue improved to 2-1 overall on the season, while the Blue Devils fell to 4-1.
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Kevin McGeary figured in both the tying and winning goals on Saturday, the cap on a four-point day. He assisted
Simon Mathias' tying goal with 3:07 to play in regulation, and then after
Connor Keating won the ground ball on the ensuing faceoff he quickly found McGeary who dented the netting himself.
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It was Penn's only lead of the day, and it turned out to be enough. Duke had a chance to tie in the final minute, but lost control of the ball behind the goal in the waning seconds and could not get a final shot.
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Adam Goldner also had three goals on Saturday, while Mathias had a goal and three assists as he moved his point-scoring streak to 31 games (every game of his Penn career). For Duke, Justin Guterding and Brad Smith both had two goals and an assist, while Nakeie Montgomery also scored twice.
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Duke and Penn traded goals throughout the first quarter, which ended at 2-2. The Blue Devils then opened it up in the second quarter, scoring four times in a span of 5:32 with the goals coming from four different scorers.
Tyler Dunn got one of the goals back for the Quakers, but Smith made it a four-goal game again with just 1:54 left in the half.
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For the second time in as many periods, Penn scored late. After Goldner had scored with just 14 seconds left in the first period, this time he scored with six seconds left off a nice feed from Mathias. That sent the teams to the locker room with Duke up, 7-4.
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Goldner then had the only goal in the third quarter, off a Keating feed, and when
Sean Lulley finished a Mathias feed just 1:30 into the fourth it was a 7-6 game. Duke looked like it might put this one away shortly after that, Guterding scoring with 12:07 left and then Montgomery unassisted with 9:53 to play. That gave the Devils some breathing room, with a 9-6 lead.
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The Quakers had one final winning run in them. McGeary finished an
Alex Roesner feed with 8:21 to play, and less than a minute later McGeary rang a shot off the crossbar that
Reilly Hupfeldt collected and fired home on the rebound. That set the stage for Penn's final two goals and the win.
Penn outshot Duke 16-3 in the final quarter, 24-10 for the second half, and 35-32 in the game.
Reed Junkin had 10 saves in the Penn goal, five of them in the first quarter when Duke outshot the Quakers 11-4.
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Up Next
Penn hosts No. 16 Penn State next Saturday at 1 p.m. at Franklin Field.
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