NCAA MLAX: No. 9 Duke suffers second straight loss, falls 12-10 to Richmond

Peter Koutroumpis, Triangles Sports Network
Peter Koutroumpis, Triangles Sports Network
Peter Koutroumpis, Triangles Sports Network

DURHAM, N.C. – Following a 14-9 loss at No. 7 Harvard on Saturday, the ninth-ranked Duke Blue Devils (4-3) suffered another setback, falling 12-10 to the Richmond Spiders (5-1) at Koskinen Stadium on Monday.

Richmond’s leading scorer Mitch Goldberg guided the way with four goals and an assist as one of eight different scorers who posted the Spiders’ biggest win in its short history.

Both teams met for the first time ever, and under the leadership of head coach and Duke alum Dan Chemotti, the Spiders went toe-to-toe with the Blue Devils throughout.

Myles Jones led Duke with four points (1 goal, 3 assists) while Justin Guterding and Chad Cohan posted hat tricks.

It was a back-and-forth affair as each team answered the other’s offensive finishes through three quarters of play.

Outshooting the Blue Devils 36-34, with 21 of them making it on goal, it was Richmond’s exceptional conversion rate that allowed the Spiders to put together their best offensive finish of the season to date.

Richmond goalkeeper Benny Pugh made 12 saves while Duke’s Danny Fowler finished with nine.

While Duke’s Kyle Rowe dominated at the faceoff-X, winning 18-of-24 draws against three different Richmond draw men, the Spiders managed to slow Duke’s clearing game.

From there, excessive turnovers (18), seven of them caused by Richmond, proved costly for Duke.

It all came down to the final quarter of play during which Richmond set the stage for the upset win to come to fruition.

Duke led 10-8 following Jack Bruckner’s lone goal of the game with 41 seconds remaining in the third.

Goldberg answered 38 seconds later and pulled Richmond to within one headed into the final 15 minutes of play.

The Spiders then extended their final scoring run with three more goals and finished the game shutting Duke out to win the historic game for the fourth-year program.

Richmond became the first unranked team to beat the Blue Devils at home since 2009.

In the end, the Spiders exceeded their season scoring average by 50 percent, having averaged just eight goals per game coming in, and took advantage of Duke’s apparent physical and mental fatigue in playing four games in 10 days.