Justin Guterding had to hold back his emotions in the press conference following Duke’s loss to Yale in the NCAA Championship game at Gillette Stadium.

Guterding, the Blue Devils’ de facto leader for three seasons, stepped off the field for the final time, leaving behind a legacy in his four years — one that includes setting the NCAA record for goals, finishing his career with 212.

It’s a career that he knew would end Memorial Day, he just didn’t know how. Unfortunately for Guterding, it was Yale and fellow Tewaaraton finalist Ben Reeves that rushed onto the field celebrating a national championship.

A bitter end of a historic run for Duke’s star.

“It's been an incredible ride,” Guterding said, while coach John Danowski put his arm on his shoulder. “I can't believe it's over, and that's why I'm so upset. Obviously, I'm not happy that we didn't win, but I would have been upset either way because these are some of my best friends. Coach Danowski and Matt [Danowski], and Coach Caputo and Ned [Crotty] have been like fathers to me. It's going to be so hard to say goodbye to them.”

Guterding’s career ended with a loss, but there’s no way this game would define it. After four years and many, many goals, he’ll hang up his cleats as one of the best players in college lacrosse history.

Could Danowski have foreseen this when recruiting Guterding?

“Oh, absolutely not. No, absolutely not,” Danowski said. “You know, we never — we recruit young men to be part of a team, and we certainly have no crystal ball on those kind of careers. We're delighted and ecstatic about what he's accomplished, but there was no way we could have predicted that kind of success.”

Emotional postgame comments from @DukeMLAX star Justin Guterding, who ends his college career as the @NCAALAX all-time leading goal scorer. FREE National Championship Postgame coverage at https://t.co/oJkK8CQ2nw & the LSN app #NCAALax pic.twitter.com/9AvlX9bGBS

— Lax Sports Network (@LaxSportsNet) May 28, 2018

Guterding came to Durham from Long Island after leading Garden City (N.Y.) to state titles in 2012 and 2013. The son of a former Penn State lacrosse player, Joe Guterding (his mother, Pam, led the cheers all day long for Duke), Justin was an Under Armour All-American and came into the Blue Devils program fresh off a national title.

He was the ACC Rookie of the Year while starting all 18 games for Duke in his freshman year, scoring 52 goals to finish second behind Zach Greer on the all-time freshman scoring list. He already had the ninth-best points season in Duke history, and he had three years to go.

Guterding dropped a team-high 71 points in 2016, earning USILA All-American Honorable Mention for a team that lost to Loyola (Md.) in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

He broke out onto the national scene his junior year, scoring 51 goals and adding 46 assists to finish fourth in Division I in points per game. He emerged as a leader for the Blue Devils, and he didn’t just score. Guterding accounted for 33 percent of his team’s assist during 2017, a season in which, again, Duke fell one goal short of Championship Weekend. 

He did, however, finish the season as a Tewaaraton candidate.

But all the talk entering Guterding’s senior season in 2018 surrounded the absence of a final four appearance for his class. It didn’t take long to see that Guterding and his offense would put the Blue Devils back in position to compete.

His debut came in the form of a 10-point performance in an 18-4 win over Air Force on Feb. 3. The follow-up? Eight points in a win over High Point and nine against a pesky Jacksonville team. 

Guterding finished the season with eight games of four or more goals. Although Duke lost in the ACC semifinals, he was ready for another shot at an elusive Championship Weekend appearance.

He scored twice and added an assist in the first-round win over Villanova — a game in which he didn’t need to be the star, but found a few timely goals. He followed with three goals and two assists against Johns Hopkins in the NCAA quarterfinals, where he broke the NCAA record for career goals, passing Zach Greer late in the game to seal the win.

The demon had been exercised, and Guterding played a huge role in doing so.

“People know that if a team is giving a push, we’ve got Justin,” Crotty, an assistant on Duke’s staff, said. “He’s going to do something, with an assist, a pick, something. He’s going to be the guy to help us. … He knew that this was his team. It was his time to be a leader. He did a great job in the postseason and regular season.”

“For him, it ends,” Danowski said. “But the goal was to get here. It was almost that he put the team on his back at times with his work ethic and his drive and his commitment to what was going on. We just fell two goals short at the end.”

Guterding was big again in the semifinal victory over Maryland, scoring three goals and adding three assists. He beat Maryland goalie Dan Morris twice in the fourth quarter to clinch the victory. After the game, Guterding reflected on his own performance, saying he spoke with coach Matt Danowski about not playing "you versus Maryland" and the need to trust his teammates. It was an answer that caught the attention of his head coach.

"I think the fact that Justin shared that with you, among all these strangers in this room, is an example of that," Danowski said. "He's very comfortable. He's becoming very comfortable in who he is. Justin wants to win. You know, it's -- the great ones, the thoroughbreds that we've been really allowed to coach here, they all have that in them. They have this drive, this belief that they can get it done,"

And although the result didn’t end in his favor on Monday, Guterding did all he could while being guarded by All-American Chris Fake and the Yale defense. He finished his final game with two goals and an assist.

He’ll be joining four other NCAA men’s lacrosse stars in Washington D.C. this week for the Tewaaraton Award ceremony — an honor that may have been decided with the outcome of Monday’s matchup.

Regardless of the accolades, Guterding has left his mark on the Duke program. He’ll go down with the likes of Crotty, Matt Danowski and Jordan Wolf.

“We wanted the championship for the whole team. but especially a guy like Justin who you could see was putting in extra work whether it was before or after practice,” Crotty said. “He’s one of the best Duke attackmen of all time, if not the best.”