Orange hammer Devils in semifinals

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — On Duke’s first offensive possession against Syracuse on Saturday, junior attackman Max Quinzani was hoping to make something happen via penetration.

It never even came close to happening.

“Right off the bat, they pressured all over the place,” Quinzani said. “We couldn’t get around. I know that first play, I wanted to make a wing dodge. We couldn’t even get it to my side.”

That’s how things went all game long for Duke.

Second-seeded Syracuse, behind four goals apiece from Kenny Nims and Patrick Perritt, hammered the third-seeded Blue Devils, 17-7, in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament at Gillette Stadium.

The 10-goal margin of victory was the most in an NCAA semifinal since Johns Hopkins beat Syracuse by 11 in 1999.

With the win, Syracuse advanced to its 15th championship game. The Orange will be gunning for their 10th title on Monday afternoon against Cornell.

“I’m very happy with how we played,” said Syracuse coach John Desko. “I thought our defense understood their personnel and what they were trying to do.

“We got some saves from our goaltender, especially early, so that was a very good defensive effort. And offensively, we were able to score in settled situations and unsettled situations. To put the number of points up that we did, we certainly have to be happy with that.”

Syracuse (15-2) outshot Duke and won the ground ball battle. But the biggest discrepancy was in faceoffs, where the Orange had an 18-10 edge.

“What a great performance by them,” said Duke coach John Danowski, whose team’s nine-game winning streak was halted. “We certainly respect so much of their history and tradition, and they certainly lived up to that today. We thought they were terrific. If we made a mistake, they capitalized. We tip our caps to Syracuse for a job well done.”

Duke (15-4) was led by Quinzani and Zach Howell, who each had three goals.

But Syracuse never let the Blue Devils up for air. After leading 8-4 at halftime, the Orange exploded in the third quarter to go up 14-6.

Perritt, who set a career high with four goals and tied a career-high with five points, said it felt great to come up big on the sport’s biggest stage.

“Fortunately, the shots I was taking were finding the spot and I had a good day of shooting. Their goalie takes up a lot of space in the cage and I just wasn’t trying to shoot too hard.

“Coach said during the week just try and place the ball, shoot it overhand and put it in the far corners and that’s what I tried to do.”

Perritt’s teammates followed suit. Nine players scored on the afternoon.

“We have about 10 guys who are capable of putting up big numbers,” Nims said. “Any given day, someone new can have a huge day.

“That’s been the story of our season pretty much all year and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone new stepped up and had a huge game on Monday.”