PHILADELPHIA – Kevin McGeary was thrilled to add to Franklin Field’s history.

The Penn senior attackman finished off his hat trick at the 3:00 mark to give No. 17 Penn a 10-9 upset of No. 1 Duke on Saturday at the century-old stadium.

“That might have been the first time Penn beat a No. 1 team,” McGeary said. “That was pretty awesome. We were looking forward to this one. We haven’t played Duke in my career here yet. It was a lot of fun.”

Penn (2-1) never led until McGeary’s goal, but succeeded by chipping away at two three-goal leads for Duke (4-1) behind the strong faceoff play of Chris Santangelo, who won 15 of 22.

“That’s the biggest takeaway from the game, not so much offensively or defensively, but that we were down 7-3 and 9-6 and we showed resiliency to keep fighting,” Penn coach Mike Murphy said. “That says a lot. Winning faceoffs helps immensely. We’ve been on both sides of it. If Duke has a good faceoff guy, they’re a very different team. The fact that we were able to win faceoffs fueled both of those runs.”

Reed Junkin made 10 saves for a defense that withstood Duke’s firepower. Adam Goldner joined McGeary with a hat trick for Penn. Simon Mathias had a goal and three assists.

Connor Keating had two assists, including on the game-winner to McGeary on what turned into a fastbreak from the faceoff that Santangelo won to Keating, who then rifled a pass up to McGeary.

“That was spur of the moment,” Keating said. “Chris and I drew up that play. We hadn’t planned that at all [before the game]. They were kind of sleeping on the wing. Last second, I switched my position, Chris pushed it forward and I took it down and dumped it.”

Down goes Duke! There will be a new No. 1 on Monday, as @PennMensLax upset the top-ranked Blue Devils 10-9 on this eventual game-winner by McGeary (3G, 1A) pic.twitter.com/aMi6C0T8a1

— US Lacrosse Magazine (@USLacrosseMag) February 24, 2018

Santangelo then won the ensuing faceoff when Duke tried Sean Cerrone for just the second time in the game. Duke used a double team to get the ball back, but even after a timeout they never managed to get a shot off in the final 28 seconds after an errant pass. It touched off a roaring celebration from Penn.

“This is a great feeling, especially after a tough one Wednesday,” McGeary said. “It’s great to respond like this.”

The Quakers fell at No. 2 Maryland, 13-6, Wednesday. Returning home was the perfect solution. Penn moved to 3-0 all-time against Duke at Franklin Field.

“If we start thinking we’re hot stuff, it’ll probably be very big for us in a negative way,” Murphy said. “If we build on it, it could be good for us. Our issue I don’t think will be confidence or belief but discipline and consistency. I think that’s part of what won the game. We were disciplined and consistent in some areas. I don’t think it was Duke’s best game, but on this day it was ours to win.”

The win was especially sweet for Keating, who grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs and had connections to Duke as well.

“All my siblings went to Duke, so they were in the stands,” Keating said. “Two of my older brothers [Daniel and Michael] played there and my older sister [Caroline] played there and all their friends are here. This was a big one for me. To beat my siblings was the best.”

Penn’s defense kept the high-scoring Blue Devils in check for much of the game, including a scoreless third quarter that was the first time this season that Duke has been shut out in a quarter.

“We were a little slow on defense in the first half,” Keating said. “We had to fire around a little more and understand the matchups and tendencies and get out and play with some passion. We had to play harder. Down the stretch we did, and we had some balls roll our way. It was fun out there.”

Duke’s Justin Guterding, Brad Smith and Nakeie Montgomery finished with two goals apiece. Guterding and Smith added an assist apiece. Danny Fowler made 11 saves. Duke’s faceoff was badly overmatched for the second straight game, but the Blue Devils weren’t facing Denver’s Trevor Baptiste this time, and they couldn’t overcome losing seven of 10 second-half faceoffs.

“They have everything,” Murphy said. “Justin Guterding is fantastic, they have a bunch of athletic middies, their defensemen are as athletic as any three you’re going to find, very good goalie, their faceoff kid is decent. When people start to get on a roll against him, it’s a swing position and once you get on a roll or the wrong side of one, it’s hard to dig yourself out.”

The teams were tied, 2-2, after the first quarter before Duke’s offense had its best stretch of the game over the first 10 minutes of the second quarter. Four different players scored to stake them to a 6-2 advantage. It was 7-3 when Goldner fired one in with six seconds left in the half. Penn picked up momentum in the second half.

“We just stuck to our game plan,” McGeary said. “Chris Santangelo won a ton of faceoffs. He played incredible in the second half. We tried to keep long possessions on offense and grind them down and keep the ball out of their offense’s hands.”

Goldner scored the only goal of the third quarter, and when Sean Lulley scored 1:30 into the fourth quarter Penn trailed just 7-6. Guterding and Montgomery gave Duke some separation at 9-6, but Penn scored the final four goals of the game. Penn outshot Duke 16-3 in the fourth quarter.

“It’s unbelievable,” Keating said. “We felt good going in. Our coaches felt we had a great shot. We lost a tough one on Wednesday to Maryland coming off a Michigan win. We knew we needed to come out tough and turn it around.

“There was no point when we thought we couldn’t win this. We have the guys and personnel to play with and beat anybody in the country. We were looking forward to today and we came out and executed a little better than they did.”

McGeary’s second goal of the game got Penn’s final run started. Reilly Hupfeldt brought Penn within a goal of Duke a minute later, and Mathias’ rocket shot tied the game with 3:07 left. Seven seconds later, McGeary deposited the game-winner and three minutes later Franklin Field erupted with the final horn.

The schedule gets no easier for Penn with No. 14 Penn State visiting next Saturday then Navy and No. 7 Villanova before they get into the talented Ivy League.

“We’ll have more opportunities to play good teams and keep getting better,” Murphy said. “We’re probably not going to go undefeated from here. If we lose again, we’ll figure some things out. If we respond to our losses regularly like this, we’ll be pretty good.”

NIKE/US LACROSSE
DIVISION I TOP 20 SCOREBOARD

No. 17 Penn 10, No. 1 Duke 9
No. 3 Albany 18, Drexel 5
No. 5 Notre Dame 11, Richmond 7
No. 7 Villanova 7, No. 16 Hofstra 2
No. 8 Yale 15, Michigan 11
No. 9 Virginia 18, No. 20 Princeton 15
No. 10 Loyola 19, Lafayette 5
No. 18 Syracuse 11, No. 11 Army 10 (3OT)
No. 12 Rutgers 12, Fairfield 7
Robert Morris 12, No. 14 Penn State 9
Bucknell 13, No. 19 Colgate 10

MORE SCORES

Brown 18, Stony Brook 11
Bryant 15, Hartford 10
Canisius 14, Furman 13
Cornell 15, Hobart 8
Delaware 15, Monmouth 11
Georgetown 12, Towson 10
Harvard 16, UMass 11
Lehigh 15, Holy Cross 4
Marquette 13, Detroit Mercy 6
Navy 10, Boston University 8
Providence 4, Saint Joseph’s 3
St. John’s 16, High Point 11
Vermont 10, Quinnipiac 5
VMI 11, NJIT 9

DIVISION II

No. 19 LIU Post 9, No. 5 Adelphi 8
No. 15 Colorado Mesa 13, No. 3 Lenoir-Rhyne 12

DIVISION III

No. 12 Gettysburg 11, No. 3 Salisbury 10 (2OT)
No. 7 Cabrini 16, No. 19 Lynchburg 15
No. 5 RIT 9, No. 14 Bates 7