Sowers leads Duke to a 16-10 victory. Transfer student Michael Sowers, posted an eight-point game to lead #2 Duke (13-2) to a 16-10 victory over High Point (8-6) to move on to take on Loyola in the next round of the NCAA Tournament.
To the Action
The opening quarter was all Sowers (4g,4a), scoring the first two goals and assisting on a Brennan O’Neill (2g,1a) marker before notching his hat trick and with 2:13 remaining, Duke was up, 4-0. Braydon Mayea (2g,1a) put High Point on the board when he converted a turnover caused when Jack Vanoverbeke checked Duke netminder, Mike Adler, and Mayea had an easy slam dunk with just :08 on the clock.
Asher Nolting (1g,3a) cut the lead to 4-2. Sowers went back to work with his 34th to get the lead back to three, 5-2. Colin Clothier (1g) had an answer but Duke fought back with markers from Sean Lowrie (2g) converting a Sowers set up and Brennan O’Neill snagging his 40th to widen the gap to 7-3. Kevin Rogers scoring his first of two on the day, cut the lead back to 7-4.
Nakeie Montgomery (1g,1a), Lowrie with his 10th from… who else? Sowers and Jake Naso roared back to make it 10-4. Mayea closed the half with his 37th with the assist belonging to Nolting. Vanoverbeke became the playmaker. He set up Kevin Rogers for his 38th with just twenty-six seconds played making it 10-6.
Duke went on another run engineered by JP Basile (1g), Lowrie, and Dyson Williams (1g) to seemingly put it out of reach at 13-6.
Koby Russell (1g stopped the uprising to close the third quarter with Duke well up, 13-7. Owen Caputo (2g) and Garrett Leadmon (1g) scored :49 apart pushing it o 15-7 but Vanoverbeke (2g,1a) converted a Nolting set up and with 11:15 remaining, the question would be… can High Point pull off a miracle?
Tyler Stinson (1g) was a believer and drew it to a 15-9 game with 7:08 to go. Vanoverbeke was also a believer and made it a 15-10 game with 6:36 to play. Caputo squashed the comeback hopes to close out the 16-10 Duke victory.
By the Numbers
Mike Adler turned aside 14 High Point shots with Parker Green making 12 saves for High Point. Duke attempted 43 shots to 34 with 28 going on net to High Point’s 24. Duke turned the ball over more, 13-11 but controlled the battle for ground balls, 37-21. Sowers leads Duke to a 16-10 victory.
Kevin has followed and promoted the game of lacrosse since May 19, 1974.
The same day the Philadelphia Flyers won the Cup, the Philadelphia Wings were introduced to Neibauer and Philadelphia.
Kevin has covered many sports, including baseball, football, basketball, and.. lacrosse. A former licensed football referee and baseball umpire, Kevin brings a unique insight to his game coverage.
A published writer in JustHockey Magazine, Kevin covered the American Hockey League as well as a monthly story on a pugilist where Kevin used the pen name, The Rink Rat. Neibauer turned his attentions to lacrosse for a few years and does his part, whether podcasting or writing to grow the game. Kevin branched out to his roots and currently provides insight for all Philadelphia teams for Edge of Philly as well as his full-time duties with LaxPhilly.
