This story was originally published in US Lacrosse Magazine following the 2014 NCAA championship game. Because ESPNU is airing championship games from previous years this Memorial Day Weekend to fill the void left by COVID-19, we are resharing this article as it originally appeared.

As Myles Jones, Deemer Class and Christian Walsh took turns making their marks on another perfect postseason run by Duke University, it seemed hard to believe that three months earlier, the most lethal midfield in college lacrosse looked like a messy experiment.

Back in early March, when the Blue Devils hit their low point during a two-game slide at Maryland and Loyola, few could have foreseen how much this trio had in store for opponents down the road. Few could have guessed how Jones and Class, two lightly tested sophomores, would join forces with Walsh, a battle-proven senior, to transform Duke’s year.

By the time the Blue Devils cemented their second straight NCAA title on Memorial Day with an 11-9 win over Notre Dame, the lacrosse world knew plenty about the group that had started in the shadows of senior star Jordan Wolf and the heralded Duke attack. By season’s end, everybody knew about the midfield that shed its inexperience and inconsistency and morphed into the most potent offense this side of Albany.

Wolf, whose 103-point season and NCAA championship most outstanding player laurels any other year would make him an easy choice for the Tewaaraton Award that went to Albany’s record-breaking Thompson brothers, was the primary engine of an offense that produced 15 goals per game.

But the meteoric rise of the Duke midfield changed the Blue Devils’ season. After putting up barely five points per outing as a unit through the season’s first nine games, Duke’s top line tore through its last 11 games by averaging 12 points per contest.

“Once that first group started coming together, nobody could really defend them,” Johns Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala said after a 19-11 NCAA quarterfinal loss to the Blue Devils in which Jones pummeled the Blue Jays with three goals and four assists.

Nearly an hour after the win over Notre Dame clinched Duke’s third NCAA championship in five years, Jones stood in the service tunnel at M&T Bank Stadium, where he accommodated a cluster of autograph-seekers. Now a recognized, sought-after star, Jones sounded weary, relieved and in need of a plate of food to aid his tired 6-foot-4, 240-pound frame. He paused to savor the changes he helped effect, especially after Maryland and Loyola beat Duke, the latter in a 14-7 rout on March 9.

“After those two losses, we [midfielders] looked at each other and decided the reason we aren’t winning is that we aren’t producing,” Jones said. “Once we found some confidence, we felt like there was nothing we couldn’t do.”

Class, the first-year starting lefty who missed 27 of his first 30 shots  and remains obsessed with honing his technique, recovered nicely. He became the first Blue Devils midfielder to produce 60 points (38 goals, 27 assists) in a first-team All-American season.

Jones, who overmatched defenders running by them or through them as a shot creator, evolved as a passer and two-handed finisher and nearly caught Class statistically with a 21-point burst in the NCAA tournament. With 37 goals and 26 assists, Jones ended up as a second-team All-American.

Walsh, the converted attackman and caretaker of the unit, had his old nose for the goal (26 goals on 30.6 percent shooting). But it was Walsh’s passing (26 assists) and presence in the midfield that made Class and Jones better and made him something of an unsung hero in this championship journey.

“[Walsh] is the one who stirs the drink. He’s the one with the most coach-like mind,” Duke assistant Ron Caputo said. “He takes great pride in making ‘invisible plays.’ He’s the guy setting the pick, getting run over and allowing his teammate to score. He’s the one slipping off-ball, creating miscommunication in the [opposing] defense and causing the play that ends with somebody else getting patted on the back [for scoring].”

Assistant Matt Danowski called Walsh “the glue guy” of the Blue Devils offense.

“It really began and ended with Christian and the way he helped the young guys get through the growing pains we expected,” he said. “Without Christian keeping the other two guys level-headed and playing the right way, [Jones and Class] don’t have the years they’ve had and we don’t win a championship.”

Walsh was a top-three scorer at Duke in his first two seasons before taking on a more pronounced supporting role.

“Coming in and starting on attack for two years then being switched to midfield [early in 2013] was an adjustment. But I relish any opportunity I get to be on the field,” Walsh said. “My role this year was to keep everybody together and getting better. I’d do whatever it took for [Class and Jones]. They’re mature beyond their years. I can’t wait to see them play in the ACC for the next two years.”

Class and Jones will form an interesting backbone for Duke in 2015.

At 5-foot-11, 190 pounds, Class is the guy with a plan. As an All-American lacrosse player during his last two years at Loyola Blakefield in Baltimore, Class had long possessed the type of accurate, high-velocity shot that put him on a Division I trajectory. His father, Bill, said Class was consumed with the idea of becoming a great player well before he committed to Duke in the fall of his junior year of high school.

“Deemer started dreaming big years ago. He was writing down goals in middle school. He did not want to be a regular player,” Bill Class said. “In ninth grade, he made Loyola’s JV. They had a great year, and all he talked about was making varsity. I’ve never had to suggest to him to take another hour to practice on his own. He’s always pushed himself.”

For Jones, who grew up in the Long Island town of Huntington, N.Y., the path to Division I lacrosse was more circuitous. As a 5-foot-10 middle schooler, he excelled in football and basketball as a quarterback and point guard. No stranger to “playing up” on older basketball teams, Jones joined the Walt Whitman High program while still in middle school. He didn’t even know what lacrosse was until someone suggested he try the sport in sixth grade.

“I love lacrosse more than any other sport I’ve ever played,” Jones said. “It was awkward being taller than everybody else and weird seeing over the tops of people. I relied on swim moves too much. I started learning how to use my body to shield my stick and how to use my shoulder to lean in and create space for myself.”

Between eighth and 10th grade, Jones went through an unusual growth spurt of six inches, rising to 6-foot-4. The fact that his size and athleticism translated well to the lacrosse field eventually led Reggie Jones to redirect his son’s future on the playing field.

Football presented too much of an injury risk. And although Myles Jones earned league MVP honors and scored more than 1,000 career points with Walt Whitman’s basketball team and turned heads on the AAU circuit, Reggie Jones liked his son’s odds of standing out on the lacrosse field. Not even a scholarship offer by Syracuse that included an invitation to play football and lacrosse could sway Myles Jones, who wanted to move farther from home.

“It was easier for [Myles] to stand out in lacrosse than the other two sports. He was raw, but that kept him coachable and excited,” said Reggie Jones.

Myles Jones had to acquire a mean streak that barely existed when he was younger, unless he was provoked. That edge was in bloom by the time Duke signed him as a high school junior.

“Myles was the quietest kid who would bite his lip and not say a thing when he was being disciplined,” Reggie Jones said. “When he played rec soccer [in elementary school], he was the gentle giant who wanted to be the friend of the little kid he had just run over. Even now, he loves the assist because it makes other people happy. He used to have a complex about imposing his will.”

That was not the case with Class or Jones, once their development in Duke’s picking, read-and-react offense started to accelerate, following solid freshman years on the Blue Devils’ second line. Jones started 2014 on the second line but supplanted Jack Bruckner five games into the season.

“We were grinding along, getting a goal here or there, but it really wasn’t clicking yet,” recalled Class, who added at least 40 minutes of additional shooting practice to his lacrosse day. “Christian organized a lot of that, really embraced the role of bringing us along. Then we got so many great looks and started dropping shots against Syracuse, and things just took off from there.”

The turning point of Duke’s season was March 23, when the first midfield put up an astounding 23 points to help the Blue Devils embarrass the Orange 21-7 in a rematch of the 2013 NCAA championship game. That day, Jones bull-dodged, shot on the run with either hand and did what he pleased while scoring five goals. Walsh (six assists) carved up Syracuse with his feeding and Class (six goals, four assists) slipped open repeatedly for shots and found open teammates with equal precision.

“Once those [midfielders] started stepping up, defenses had to start sliding off of [the attack],” Wolf said. “Then it just became of question of who was going to step up each game.”

As for who will step up for the Blue Devils next year — following the departures of Wolf, Walsh, 2013 NCAA hero Brendan Fowler and Duke’s entire defense —  the list most likely starts with guys named Class and Jones.