Our #6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (7-3) beat the #9 North Carolina Tar Heels (9-3) this past Saturday. It was a great win for the Irish and cemented the Irish as the current #1 team in the ACC. This game was a bit out of the ordinary for the boys, but ultimately in a good way.
The Plot
The boys started uncharacteristically slowly. And by slowly, we mean very slowly.
Neither team found the back of the net until North Carolina scored with 8 minutes left in the first. This was the start of a mild run for them, as they added 3 more goals to end the quarter with the Irish down 0-4.
The second quarter was more of the same with neither team making any sort of scoring progress. With under a minute left in the half, CKav finally put the Irish on the board.
Anyone who claims they were not concerned for Irish at this point in the game would be lying to you. Scoring 1 goal in 30 minutes of play, and at the very end of that 30 minutes, is not even close to an ideal situation. The specter of the many Notre Dame scoring lulls of the past five weeks cast a big shadow on the game.
However, we can learn to live with that if it means we outscore them 11-2 in the second half.
Opening the second half, Taylor traded a goal with the Tar Heels to make it 2-5 before the Irish offense had a furious resurgence. The boys went on a furious 5-1 run with goals from Seymour, Maheras, and 3 from CKav interrupted by a single North Carolina goal to put the Irish up 7-6 after 3.
This is the type of quarter we expect from the Irish. It was by no means perfect, the Tar Heels still got a few on the board and it took a few minutes for the boys to get going. But even with those struggles, it was very obvious that the Irish were the more dominant team and in control.
If the Irish are able to replicate this quarter, even a slightly more imperfect version of it, more this season there is little teams will be able to do to stop them. This season has been full of ups and downs both within and outside of individual games. Having more consistency would be a life saver for this team and keep them out of many bad situations. They boys don’t even need to play consistently at the level they did this second half (though it wouldn’t be a bad thing at all), But going 30 minutes unable to score is digging a hole for the team they cannot consistently dig out of.
The fourth quarter was arguably the best we have seen all season. The Irish held the Tar Heels scoreless while adding 5 of their own from Faison, Jeffery, Seymour, Ramsey, and McLane. It is worth the note that this quarter was very consistent. The goals weren’t scored back to back off face-offs, but rather every 2 minutes or so off of a more settled possession.
The comfortable 12-6 final was entirely unexpected 30 game minutes earlier. But we’ll take it and are glad for it.
The Scoring
CKav led the team with 4 goals, Seymour had 2 goals and an assist, Ramsey, Jeffery, Taylor, and Faison each had a goal, McLane had a goal and an assist, Busenkell had an assist, and Maheras had a goal and an assist.
Ricciardelli had a great day between the pipes with 9 saves, going 60% on the game.
At the dot, the boys went ever so slightly below 50%. Lynch went 8-15 while Hagstrom went 2-7. Maybe not the same as some of the early season numbers, but against much better opponents 50% is still great.
Our friends at lacrosse reference calculated a 33% offensive efficiency for the Irish. Looking into it in more detail, it shows the same trends we mentioned earlier. The first and second quarters were 0% and 10% respectively, while the third and fourth were both 55%. Both halves were on the extreme end, just in opposite directions. The boys deserve a huge shout-out though, because having above 50% efficiency for even a quarter is crazy and for a whole half is an unheard of level of effectiveness
Stat wise, the boys tied the GB battle (28v28) but won the shot battle (41v36). With a team this good, keeping these close and even winning them played a big part in winning this game. The boys only had 10 turnovers, which is amazing on its own but especially compared to North Carolina’s 19. The Irish caring about possession played a major part in this win.
Same Problems New Solutions
The most noticeable struggle the boys have had offensively is that they are running a similar offense to last year with different players. The geometry is different with current personnel and vulnerable to a defense that packs the inside.
The lack of a Dobson-like player or other wrinkle to consistently stretch the field has teams hedge heavily to the interior. The main recipient of the trouble has been Taylor who has been taking a beating on the inside. On the stat sheet this is evident in his production and in the the amount of unassisted goals by the team. More problematically,it often results in huge time gaps between goals as Notre Dame struggles to find solutions.
The first time this problem was in focus was the Maryland game earlier this season which ended with a heartbreaking loss. At that point we weren’t exactly sure what we would need to change, but keeping it the same seemed to work against teams less eager to stuff the interior.
However, once ACC play started and most visibly in the Syracuse game, Taylor was getting abused in the interior and the offense stalled. The Orange shutting down Taylor was a big reason they were so successful against us, just like Maryland.
While we didn’t really have an answer for it during that game or even in the following game against Virginia. It seems that the team has finally discovered a working method to stretch the field and open up the interior more. A welcome part of the solution has been the second midfield.
The second midfield has been putting up critical production the past few games. On this line, it seems that Seymour is the most impactful. He has started to use his size and takes more stepdowns and outside shots on the move. This forces teams to respect the outside threat, which forces the defense to open up. This opens up Taylor open and allows us to run the style of offense to what the team wants to.
We do not mean to suggest the first line is unproductive. The first midfielders are finding solution differently, relying on the speed and athleticism of Jeffry and Faison to exploit longer slides. But their success is only meaningful if supported by scoring from the second line. The ability of the Irish to sustain pressure all the time, as opposed to half the time, is critical to great performances like we saw in the second half against North Carolina.
The boys are almost there. The last step is to be able to implement these solutions earlier in the game and avoid the long lulls. We are becoming increasingly optimistic and excited!
Next week is the end of the regular season vs Penn! The boys will be looking for a strong senior day performance at Arlotta. The Quakers are not ranked currently, but that by no means makes them a bad team. This will be a good opportunity for the Irish to iron out the last few wrinkles before going into the ACC and NCAA playoffs!
#GoIrish
ND-ATL 2.0
