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NCAA MEN'S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIPSMay 24, 2014John DanowskiMyles JonesKyle KeenanJordan WolfBALTIMORE, MARYLAND Duke – 15 Q. Jordan, good effort today, three goals. You were up 6‑4, then you scored those three quick goals to put you up 8‑4. Describe those shots. JORDAN WOLF: Yeah, I had a little tight stick in the beginning, just a little bit of nerves, and I was fortunate that Myles shanked one off the goalie, and those little plays sometimes can get you going, and I took little advantage of a couple of match‑ups and I tried to let the game come to me as much as possible and just be the best for my team that I could be. Q. Kyle, we talked this week about next man‑up mentality, filling in for Josh. How do you feel about your performance today, being able to get four goals in such a key situation? KYLE KEENAN: I think, I don't know, I just was in the right place at the right time. I've got to credit my teammates. I got a bunch of great feeds, and just working with Jordan, Case and Dionne all week on my spacing and just being in the right place at the right time, and I think I was just fortunate enough to be there today. Q. Kyle, to follow up, it was down to one goal and you got a big one in the slot. Did you get the sense that you needed to score right there to slow them down a little bit and get back a little bit of what you had, and what do you remember about that play? KYLE KEENAN: Yeah, I just remember I kind of wanted to stop that run. We were just trying to get a good offensive position and I just saw a cut, Case put it right on my stick, and that was that goal. And then Deemer came in the next time, took the middle of the field and put one in, and we kind of slowed their run down and broke away a little bit at the end. Q. Can you speak on the play of Kyle Turri down the stretch, how he came in and really shut the door on a surging Denver offense? MYLES JONES: Kyle Turri is a great player. It's very hard to come off the bench, especially without a warm‑up, and he came in there, commanded the defense, and when we needed big stops to stop their runs, I think he was a leader out there. The defense followed suit, and it was huge for us coming into that fourth quarter, and especially the third quarter when they had runs. We needed the ball to stop their runs, and time and time again, they came up with good stops when we needed them, crucial stops, and I think that was the reason why we got goals that were able to stop their runs. KYLE KEENAN: Yeah, Kyle came up big, and he's always ready to go off the bench. He's the best teammate anybody could ask for. He's actually my roommate. I don't know, he's just always ready to go, and you can always rely on Kyle to step up big, especially at a moment like that. JORDAN WOLF: Yeah, I mean, just watching Kyle go in in the middle of the game, all the confidence in the world in that kid. I've been shooting against him for two years. I know what he brings to the table, he's won a National Championship before. He has all the experience in the world and has all the confidence of our team and coaches, so it was no big deal. He did an unbelievable job. Q. Myles and Kyle, Denver went on a little bit of a run there and then, Myles, you had a goal to kind of stop the initial run, and Kyle, you had a bounce‑back goal to stop what could have been a second run. Can you talk about those two goals and the thought process of the team when Denver went on that run? MYLES JONES: I mean, the game is full of runs. We had ours in the first going into the game, and we knew they were going to have theirs. It was a matter of how we reacted and responded. I think Coach reiterated this in the locker room. When we needed the goals, we stepped up, and I think our team really needed that. Our defense, sort of let a little pressure off team seeing when we had the ball we were successful and that, no matter what, if they got a stop for us, we were going to get the ball. We were going to do something with it. I think those goals were huge for us. You kind of get down a little bit even though you have the lead when a team starts making runs, but it's just focus and try to put one in to stop the bleeding. KYLE KEENAN: Yeah, credit to Denver. Didn't matter how big of a lead we got, they didn't stop fighting. But we always kept our composure, and we just had this sense about the team that we were going to push back and make a little run there. We were just very calm, especially on offense, and I think that's why we were able to stop their run. Q. Myles and Jordan, just talk about the job that Kyle did today and maybe the different presence that he brings at that attack position in place of Josh. MYLES JONES: Well, I'm not surprised about Kyle's performance. Natural attack man, lefty, so him filling in that spot was just natural for him. It was natural for us. It's very hard to put a short stick on him. He's a great dodger, dodges with his head up and he's a great feeder, so it kind of changes the way our offense is, but it also changes the way defense has to play us. There was one time out where they tried to sort of slow down our doubles offense and then we just‑‑ just having Kyle back there kind of confused them, and Kyle is a very vital part to the offense now, and moving from midfield to attack, he just looks like he's been there all season, so that's awesome. We need him strong for next game, and I know he's going to step up. JORDAN WOLF: Yeah, not surprised whatsoever. I've been watching Kyle in practice, in games all year, the last two years, and he's having a great, giant year. He's a huge part of our offense. And no one is going to replace Josh Dionne. He's an unbelievable player, and with his loss, there's no one that's going to step in like Josh, but we just encouraged Kyle to be himself all week, and he was. He brings a great repeating aspect to our game. Like Myles said, he's a natural attack man, a natural quarterback‑type attack man, so he brings a left of calmness to our attack, and I'm just so happy for him. Q. Jordan, you talked earlier about taking advantage of your match‑ups. You saw short sticks probably a little more than you were used to. Is that something that helped you open up the offense a little bit. JORDAN WOLF: Yeah, with our offense there's always a lot of movement so you get different match‑ups and I recognized a couple and was able to get a quick step and score. Credit Denver's defense. They're unbelievable. Their poles and their short sticks were great, and they're really well coached, so I was just lucky to be in some good spots. Q. Kind of two parts here. One, just Keenan obviously comes in and has the sort of game he had. Was that kind of what you were looking for out of him and kind of expecting? And the second part, just two straight weeks where you guys get yourselves in a tight game and it just‑‑ you get that sense from the outside that it's just a matter of time before there's a couple goals. What's that like as a coach having that explosiveness like that? JOHN DANOWSKI: Well, I don't feel that way, but they certainly can. No, I don't think any of us were surprised by Kyle. We've talked about this pretty much ad nauseam, that he's a three‑sport athlete, quarterback in football, basketball player, lacrosse guy. His father is a coach, natural lefty, but he was always like that fourth attack man, seventh middie, didn't get a lot of run his first two years, but this year was healthy and he was banged up a little bit as a sophomore, but healthy and was having a very productive year as a midfielder. But he's really an attack man, and I've never met an attack man who really wants to play midfield. Christian Walsh is another one. If he could trade I'm sure he'd say the same thing. So I don't think any of us were surprised by today. It just wasn't surprising. Q. What went into the decision to make the change in goal in the early fourth quarter, and then what do you think about the performance Kyle gave you? JOHN DANOWSKI: Well, certainly the starter kind of lost his fast ball, so bring in the reliever. You know, I don't think there's really too much science to it, but we needed a spark and needed something, and just didn't look like that Luke was getting his hands down quick enough and was getting beat. A lot of‑‑ I'm going to say the first 10 goals, they probably had eight dunks. They were right inside. They were on the crease. But at some point you make that decision, and we trust‑‑ the guys just said, they trust Kyle, and we all do. His record last year as a starter was like 14‑1, and so coming into this year, I think he's actually credited with a victory against Denver the first time, although we pulled him after the first quarter. He didn't make a save in the first quarter against Denver. So it's a little bit of somewhat vindication for him. Q. Did you sense guys were getting a little rattled there maybe defensively early in the fourth quarter, and besides the goalie change, were there things you did to maybe calm the team down a little bit? JOHN DANOWSKI: No, I thought we got a little bit rattled last week in the second quarter against Hopkins, and we had actually talked about that at length during this past week, thought that‑‑ I thought defensively we actually played good defense. They made some spectacular plays, good look on man‑up where they throw the ball right on the crease, Berg scores cross‑handed, great shot. That's not Luke's fault. But I thought overall we defended them for long periods and I thought we did a really good job. They've got some just dynamic offensive players. A couple of fouls that you'd like to have back. Brian Dailey's, Casey Carroll's, even Henry's at the end of the quarter, would have liked to have played less man down, but certainly overall, I can't wait to see the film, but I thought we played good defense. Q. Heading into Monday, how does the experience of having been there before help you guys? JOHN DANOWSKI: You know, I'm not sure yet for this team until you talk to them and look at them and listen to them. But I don't think it hurts for sure. I thought the younger guys, Tommy Zenker, I thought was really pretty close to spectacular today as a short‑stick D‑middie. I thought that Jack Bruckner and Chad Cohan for playing in their first big games, acquitted themselves really, really well. That's the thing you worry about in these big venues and the big stadiums that guys will be a little bit star struck, and I thought the younger guys really did a nice job. Q. John, talk about just after that run gets as close as it can get to you, do you sense in the huddle, is there a presence about this team that it's going to be okay? Are they looking at you like for an answer, or are they just looking like we've done this and we got it? What's that feel you get off of them? JOHN DANOWSKI: Well, first, they know by now that I have no answers in those situations. (Laughter.) But I think, again, you're together for‑‑ this is, what, game No.19? We play a lot of games, get a lot of experience. You're behind at half, you're ahead at half, you come from behind, you score under leads, sometimes your opponent just beats you, sometimes you allow your opponent to come back. So I think at this point in the year the guys have drawn from all these different experiences, and I do think our senior class in general has provided exceptional leadership from day one, and they have been in these‑‑ Chris Hipps, I think, has played in something like 78 Division I games, where at some schools that would be like five years, five seasons. We schedule a lot of games anyway, and making‑‑ advancing in the tournament, you gather all this experience. Losing to Syracuse probably in some ways has helped us a lot in that we know there's no lead that's safe, and you've got to keep playing for 60 minutes. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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