DURHAM, N.C. — Bellarmine Knights Lacrosse suffered a 23-8 opening day defeat on the road at the hands of the Duke Blue Devils on Monday afternoon in a game that was pushed back from Saturday afternoon due to adverse weather conditions.  It was the Knights' fourth consecutive season opening loss on the road against the Blue Devils, a perennial powerhouse in the sport of Lacrosse.

The Blue Devils jumped ahead early, scoring two goals in the first four minutes of action.  Sophomore attack Joe Alie got the Knights on the board with a goal off a pass from fellow sophomore attack Ezra Moore at the 6:05 mark of the first quarter, but Duke responded with two more goals to take a 4-1 lead into the second quarter.  

After Duke scored the first goal of the second quarter, Joe Alie once again found the back of the net at the 12:57 mark, this time off of a pass from older brother John Alie.  The Blue Devils answered back with five straight goals to take a 10-2 halftime lead.

Duke kept up their intensity in the second half, scoring the first six goals of the third quarter to up their lead to 16-2.  John Alie scored with 2:17 remaining in the period off a pass from Moore, but Duke quickly responded with another goal, followed by two more goals in the last 10 seconds to make it 19-3 going into the fourth quarter.  

The Blue Devils scored the first goal of the final stanza before Joe Alie scored his third goal of the game and freshman attack/midfielder Jack Fischel followed up with his first career goal.  The two teams then traded goals as another Duke score was followed up by John Alie's second goal of the afternoon.  Duke added two more goals, after which Moore scored a goal off an assist from John Alie, who then scored his third goal off a pass from Moore to make the final margin 15.

The Alie brothers were the stars of the afternoon for the Knights, each scoring three goals.  Joe Alie led the Knights with eight shots, while John Alie and Moore each recorded six shots.  The Alie brothers each had four shots on goal, while Moore had three.  Moore also tied the program recrod with five assists. Junior faceoff Niko Madden led the Knights with four ground balls, matching his total from a season ago.  

Sophomore goalkeeper Nolan Hudnut recorded 15 saves in the face of a relentless Duke offensive attack.

As a team, Bellarmine was outshot 58-29 by Duke, who also finished with a 23-11 edge in faceoff wins and a 39-21 advantage in ground balls.

Head Coach Andrew Whitley:

"Any time you play a top-10 level team, the margin for error shrinks and they will take advantage of your mistakes. Today was no exception.

"We knew coming in that Duke was very good in the middle of the field and that would be an area we needed to be quick with decision making and precise with execution to be in the game.

"Unfortunately, we were hesitant, missed open looks when they presented themselves and had too many physical errors in the clearing game to compete against an opponent like Duke. To have 17 unforced turnovers is frustrating because those have more to do with us than our opponents. The fact that over half those unforced turnovers occurred in the clearing game made for a very frustrating afternoon because we kept beating ourselves after getting stops defensively.

"When your starting attack accounts for 14 points and only three turnovers, you can be very efficient offensively and that is a great sign for this season ahead. John, Joe and Ezra are the foundation of our offense and played like it today.

"Defensively, we talked all week about defending the middle of the field against sweeps from their offense--Ben Johnston and Max Sloat in particular--and we did not do a good job of that today. That will be a massive point of emphasis when we return to practice this week.

"This is the first step in the journey and there is a lot to build on. We are closer to the level we aspire to be at, but the mistakes from today need to be cleaned up.

"We'll be back at and I'm still very excited about this team's potential."

Up next, the Knights will face Mercyhurst on Saturday, February 8 at 12 PM ET.

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