Duke dethroned in season opener

So much for being a gracious host.

Penn lacrosse dominated defending national champion Duke Saturday, 7-3, behind strong play from freshmen Brian and Danny Feeney.

The Quakers (1-0) held the tenth-ranked Blue Devils (1-2) to their lowest scoring output since March of 1986.

Playing in their first-ever collegiate game, the Feeney twins gave the Red and Blue an edge in the goal and in the face-off circle.

As draw-control specialist, Danny helped Penn gain a 3-0 lead after the first quarter, coming out on top in all four face-offs in the opening frame.

Winning seven of 14 face-offs overall — all against upperclassmen — Danny took some of the pressure off his brother Brian between the pipes.

“[Danny] did a great job scrapping on the draws,” Penn coach Mike Murphy noted.

“Just the fact that I had that barrier in front of me was great,” the goalie said of his brother’s effort.

In Duke’s first loss on the road since falling at Georgetown in 2007, the Blue Devils never managed to get going offensively.

Hounding defense by the Quakers largely eliminated Duke’s transition game, and Brian made key saves on two of the Blue Devils’ four man-up opportunities.

“Whenever a team’s man up I always get pretty pumped,” he said. “They’re supposed to score on us, so if we get a stop that’s a huge momentum boost for our team.”

Momentum — for both teams — was a deciding factor throughout.

After Penn stymied the Duke offense the entire first half — leading 5-0 at the break — the question was how the Blue Devils would respond coming out of the locker room.

Junior Justin Turri answered by burying a goal for Duke less than a minute into the third quarter, but Rob Fitzpatrick responded for the Quakers and netted his second score of the game just minutes later to push the lead back to five.

“That was one of our big objectives going into this game, to not let them have a lot of momentum plays,” Murphy said.

It looked as if the Blue Devils might repeat last year’s matchup — when Duke came back and rattled off eight fourth-quarter goals to beat Penn — after making a run early in the fourth quarter.

What was the difference?

“Max Quinzani, Ned Crotty,” Duke coach John Danowski said, referring to the two All-Americans he lost to graduation.

“I don’t know that we’re a good offensive team,” Danowski added. “In fact, we may be a poor one, but [Feeney] made the stops he needed to make.”

When the Blue Devils cut the lead to three with ten minutes to go, Penn stopped the momentum shift again with smothering defense that kept Duke scoreless for the remainder of the game.

Senior Al Kohart sealed the deal with eight minutes left with an underhand strike from the wing.

“Kohart stung one,” senior defender Brett Hughes said. “You kind of collectively felt the wind come out of their sails.”

Murphy stopped short of calling it a signature win for his program, but knocking off the defending champs is sure to turn some heads.

“This is very unexpected. I did not see this coming, but I’m more than happy,” Brian Feeny said. “Now it’s, ‘Forget about this — on to Bucknell Tuesday.’”

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