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Message: [QUOTE="JeremyCuse, post: 2964032, member: 43"] A good read as always. As you noted biggest concern is how does SU mach up defensively and who does the Faceoff% look like. Now that Smith is running at attack Duke is hard to defend as it usually means you have Montgomery and whoever the third midfielder running around with a short stick. Duke doesn't appear to have settled on a starting mid line as only Seau has started every game this year with Montgomery up next with 7 starts. It seems to be those two and then they rotate between Walsh, Quigley and Leadmon. Montgomery hurt us last year but he runs hot and cold so I have to think we will try and short stick him and hope for the best. Seau has finally broken out after a very disappointing career at Duke and I am sure he will draw the pole on the 1st mid line. As for close defense, SU could go a lot of different ways. You hinted at it but if there was ever a game to bump Kennedy down low I think this is it. Going to be tough for Bomberry to match up with any of the three staring attackmen to be honest. Form a size standpoint Mellen matches up better with Robertson who is listed at 5'11 versus Brad Smith at 6'3. Manown is only 5'7 but his quickness I think rules out Bomberry. Personally I would go Mellen on Smith, bump Kennedy down to mark Robertson and then go Cunningham on Manown. I don't like this game for Bomberry as I don't see a matchup that sticks out and he has a bad tendency to lose his guy off ball which Duke will kill us with. It took us until the 4th quarter to bump Kennedy down last week, I hope the staff has a quicker trigger this week as I assume they will role with the normal 3 starters to begin the game. SSDM's will have there hands full as Duke will rotate a lot of guys and will have Montgomery initiate from up top. As you also noted really going to need Drake and the D overall to step up because giving Duke a 4 or 5 goal early lead will be a death knell. Hope Drake is dialed in like he was earlier in the year. Van Raaphorst, Giles-Harris, and Fowler are all upperclassmen with everyone but Giles-Harris being a Senior. Offense will need to attack the SSDM's and push transition when possible. As you noted I suspect Van Raaphorst will take Solomon and Giles-Harris on Rehfuss or vice versa. Duke may try and put a short stick on Voigt like Rutty did but they usually play it straight up so I would be somewhat surprised. The good news is that SU has had success the last few years scoring on Duke's defensive so even though its a pretty good unit we should be able to put up some points. I suspect we will see a lot of Cook and Buttermore on Sunday. Faceoffs will be fascinating as Dukes main guy Smyth has been excellent and is over 60%. He does take a majority of the draws so perhaps SU can wear him down a bit. Duke's been pretty good on gbs this year and they really hurt Loyola there earlier in the year. We need to really be strong here as we can't afford to lose a majority of loose ball scrums against these guys. Wing play especially could be critical on Sunday. Need to minimize the penalties as well on Sunday as a repeat of the UVA game would again be a death knell. Dukes been uncharacteristically bad on the EMO this year but no need to risk it. Think were going to need close to a complete game to get the W on Sunday as Duke is a good team that is battled tested and already has some impressive wins - Loyola, Towson etc. SU outside of that one blowout game a few years ago when we had no FOGO has played Duke very well since we joined the ACC so I expect a close game but we can't afford a horrible start or a quarter long scoring drought against this type of team. [/QUOTE]

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