DURHAM — As the cold, February air chilled the depths of Koskinen Stadium, a sea of royal blue was frozen in silence.

Two days earlier, the home crowd — fresh off a year-long hiatus caused by COVID-19 restrictions — roared with excitement after the No. 3 Duke men’s lacrosse team scored 21 goals in its season-opening victory over Robert Morris. Through 30 minutes on Sunday, though, the attacking unit was quieted by the pesky back line of No. 19 Vermont, and the Blue Devils entered the break at halftime trailing by two goals.

But after an opening half of playing over-aggressively against a physical Catamount defense, the Blue Devils reverted back to the basics and played with the flare that has launched the team into the top of the national championship discussion.

In the second half, the offense — and the crowd — came to life after the team scored 13 times and ran away with a 15-7 victory to extend the team’s home winning streak to 13 games.

“You can’t get too high or too low,” head coach John Danowski said. “These are the kind of opportunities that will define our character as the season goes on.”

The Catamounts, who arrived in Durham in unexpected fashion after three canceled flights and three multi-hour bus drives, had several opportunities to extend their lead early in the second half, but when they failed to convert, the Blue Devils wasted little time capitalizing on the chances they had been given.

Within a four-minute stretch, Duke scored four times, including twice by junior attackman Dyson Williams, to transform a two-goal deficit into a two-goal lead. From there, the unit added two more goals before Vermont could respond, which ultimately put the game out of reach.

“On the first night, we scored 10 goals in 10 minutes and you think, ‘Are we going to score a goal every minute?’ But that’s just not the case,” Williams said. “I think we did a good job keeping an even keel and knowing that if we got back to the basics and we just made the right plays and not the home run plays, we could really get it going.”

While the second half offensive resurgence paced Duke to the victory, the veteran defensive unit also provided key stops to keep the team within striking distance.

Goalkeeper Mike Adler made several difficult saves to keep the ball out of the back of the cage, and once the Blue Devils began double-teaming the ball, the Catamounts were held scoreless for the entirety of the third quarter.

“We all play off each other’s strengths, and that’s the new thing about us,” long stick midfielder Wilson Stephenson said. “In previous years, we’ve been kind of inexperienced, but even though it’s only our second game, it feels like we’ve been playing together for years — because we have been.”

As a team that is looking to capture its first national title since 2014, the Blue Devils are still searching for all the pieces to come together.

While an experienced defense should allow the team to overcome stagnant offensive performances such as the first half on Sunday, the final 30 minutes showed how the attacking corps can heat up in a flash.

Three players ended with a hat-trick — Williams, attackman Brennan O’Neill and midfielder Nakeie Montgomery. Despite there being plenty of mouths to feed and only so much individual hardware to go around, production throughout the lineup can make those lofty goals much more attainable.

“Scoring goals is really amazing, but our depth is unreal,” Williams said. “Once we get everybody scoring multiple goals, it makes it a lot more fun, and it gets that flow and that chemistry going early.”