DURHAM, N.C. – For the third straight season, the Bellarmine lacrosse team opened their campaign at perennial powerhouse Duke. Unfortunately, the result was the same as the previous two as the Knights fell to the Blue Devils 26-7 Saturday afternoon at Koskinen Stadium.
 
"This was a good indicator of what we need to work on moving forward," said Bellarmine head coach Andrew Whitley. "When you play Duke, you need to be buttoned up in all facets of the game. I really feel like we're about 80 percent of the way to where we need to be, but Duke exposes the missing pieces. As long as we take the lessons from this game and grow we will be better in the long run.
 
Duke jumped out with a pair of goals in the first six minutes before senior captain middie Justin Wescoat ran around the back of the cage, battled through a defender and fired in Bellarmine's first goal of the season to cut the early deficit in half.
 
From that point, however, the homestanding Blue Devils would net 12 straight goals by eight different players to establish a 14-1 lead.
 
Preseason All-ASUN middie John Alie scored his first goal of the season, the final score of the first half, with 1:40 left in the second quarter as Duke rode a 12-goal advantage into halftime.
 
The Blue Devils came out of the break with the same energy that they carried in the first half and scored eight times.
 
For the Knights in the third, freshman attack Ezra Moore picked up a groundball after a save by Duke's goalie and fired an underhand shot for his first career goal in his collegiate debut. He would follow that up by assisting Alie on his second score of the day later in the quarter with a nice behind-the-back pass for his first career helper.
 
Duke piled on four more scores to start the fourth to go up 26-4 before Bellarmine scored the final three goals of the contest. Ethan Tunucci sent in his first career goal from right beside the cage and then Michael Blaymires joined Alie as the second Knight with a brace, netting his first two goals of the season with assists from freshman attack Ty Washington and Alie to bring the games final tally to 26-7 in favor of Duke.
 
Bellarmine was outshot by Duke 53-33, 36-20 on goal. Duke also held the edge in faceoff wins (20-16), ground balls (42-22) and caused turnovers (12-2). Bellarmine is now 0-5 all-time against the Blue Devils.
 
"Duke was able to take advantage of transition situations and odd-man opportunities," said Whitley. "They scored 10 times in transition and four times on the EMO. That is certainly a strength of theirs and their ability to swarm ground balls and turn them into immediate transition is ultimately how they were able to stretch their lead. We need to get better in that area in particular and we will get back at it on Monday."

"Our faceoff unit competed very well and I think could be a real strength as the season wears on," added Whitley. "Aidan Fearn, in particular, had a really nice afternoon at the X."
 
Fearn went 11-for-21 in his faceoffs.
 
Freshman keeper Nolan Hudnut made 10 saves in his collegiate debut against the unrelenting Blue Devils attack.
 
The Blue Devils used four goalies with freshman Buke Cunningham leading the way with six saves.
 
Maryland transfer and graduate attack Eric Malever led all scorers with four goals in his Duke debut. He added a pair of assists for a game-high six points. Sophomore middie Benn Johnston and fifth-year attack Luke Grayum each registered hat tricks. Grayum was seeing his first action with Duke since transferring from Richmond. Senior middie Andrew McAdorey handed out a game-high three helpers as the Blue Devils assisted on 14 of their 26 scores.
 
"This is the third year we've played Duke to open the season and the previous two kicked off the most successful seasons in program history," concluded Whitley. "I saw nothing today that gave me any indication that we won't be competing in the ASUN at the end of the season. We'll clean up some of the early-season errors this week and I am confident our guys will respond next Saturday for our home opener."
 
That home opener on February 8 will be the Knights' first-ever matchup with Mercyhurst. Opening faceoff is set for 12 p.m. ET.
 
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