Our #6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (8-3) beat the Penn Quakers (4-10) last Saturday, 10-8. After a very slow start, the Irish found a way to bounce back and get the win on senior day! Once again, thank you to all our seniors for the lacrosse memories!
After our recap, we’re going to take a stroll down memory lane to show the perils of slow starts. We are at the beginning of May, and these ups-and-downs (or downs-than-ups?) may just be in this team’s DNA. But if a look back helps propel the team to a full sixty minutes of excellence, we will take the time to examine history.
The Plot
Penn opened up the scoring early in the game. After almost 10 minutes of back-and-forth, CKav tied it up at 1 with just a few minutes left in the first quarter. But Penn’s Griffin Scane responded In the last minute with two goals to give the quakers a 3-1 lead.
The second quarter continued with much of the same action that we saw in the first. After a 10 minute drought from both teams, Penn scored 3 goals in 3 minutes to give them the 6-1 lead. Luckily for the Irish, McLane was able to score with 13 seconds left in the half to make it 6-2 and gave the Irish a pinch of momentum going into the locker room.
All in all, while the score at this point was bad, the game felt a lot closer than it was. Still, only 2 goals in a half is a problem and one the boys need to fix to retain championship hopes. We won’t stay held up on this point, because if one thing is for certain, the Irish halftime speech needs to be studied in a lab as they again emerged with an intense energy
Going into the second half, CKav opened up the scoring very quickly to cut the lead to three. At this point, McLane took over scoring back-to-back-to-back on his own to tie the game at 6. Penn scored to retake the lead and tried desperately to regain momentum, but goals from Finley, Maheras, and Taylor kept everything in the Irish’s favor and gave the boys their first clear lead of the game going up 9-7.
If the boys are going to start slow, a 7-1 quarter is the perfect way to make up for it. They should find a way to bottle and sell this energy. This is the level of offense that we have expected to see from the boys all season, and it’s good to finally have back to back games where we played at that level. The hope is, however, that we can find more than ten minutes of it at a time, and for it not to emerge only in times of desperation.
The fourth quarter was very slow. The Quakers scored early into the quarter to cut the Irish lead to 1. After that, the Irish defense held firm the rest of the quarter until CKav scored with just under 3 minutes remaining to bring the Irish lead to 2 and give us the final score of 10-8. Jordan Faison survived some Penn chippiness to run out the final seconds of the game.
The Scoring
CKav lead the team in points with 3 goals 3 assists, McLane led with 4 goals, Taylor had a goal, Angrick and Faison had an assist each. Finley had a goal, Lynch had an assist, and Maheras had a goal. There wasn’t a lot of scoring, but it was reasonably balanced across positions and lines.
Stat wise, the boys led the shot battle (44-32) and had 17 turnovers. Winning the shot battle is always nice, but the 17 turnovers leaves a good bit of room for improvement.
The stat we would like to draw the most attention to is the dominant win of the ground ball battle, over doubling Penns GBs 40-18. This is the stat that made the difference. As any youth coach will tell you, ground balls win games. Getting that many ground balls is what allowed that 7-1 run in the third because simply the Irish had more possessions because of it. The Irish had 14 ground balls in the third alone compared to the 2 by the Quakers. This is something the boys can hang their hats on and be proud of. Winning the GBs by this much is unreasonable to expect every week, but continuing to win them even if not at this level will help a ton in close games like this one.
For our specialists, Lynch and Hagstrom both had great days, going 13-19 and 2-3 respectively. That puts the Irish at a 15-22 face-off edge which is once again amazing. Between the pipes, Ricciardelli had 7 saves at 47%, another good day for him. Coming to the end of Ricciardelli’s first regular season as a starter, he has done amazing. With the shoes he had to fill after Enti left, he has certainly stepped up to the challenge and been amazing!
Our friends at lacrosse reference gave the boys a 25% offensive efficiency rating for the game. That is a completely normal amount to be at and is nothing to complain about, but looking at the by quarter once again tells a different story. The first, second, and fourth hovered around the 10-12% rate which is lower than what we need from a team of this caliber (less so for the fourth when the boys were us and it was more so just burning clock). But, the third was a stunning 50%. This game adds to the trend of extremes, and while a win is a win, consistency would make everyone’s lives a whole lot easier.
If there is a particularly problematic line in the stat sheet, it is that the man-up unit failed to fire again. The group is operating at a 31% success rate compared to a near 43% adjusted efficiency for the offense overall. This is not sustainable as it invites opposing defenses to cross the line physically knowing there is no penalty for their transgressions. Say an extra prayer for Jake Taylor if Notre Dame can’t get this unit operating better.
Blasts from the Past
Comeback games that come down the wire are not something entirely new to the Irish program. Throughout the team’s history, these late furious charges down to the wire have been part of their lore. But, they have ended in both ways, and not all the successes were moments the team likes to remember. There are a few in specific that we would like to point out.
2013 vs Detroit Mercy (NCAA Round 1)
This Penn felt almost exactly the same as the 2013 Detroit Mercy game, even down to the winning by 2. For those who (understandably) don’t recall the specifics of a 12 year old game, the Irish were ranked #2 coming into this game and were projected to dominate. But, as a shocker to everyone, the Irish were coming into the fourth down 7-3 after a 1 goal first half.
This game came down to a single quarter where Matt Kavanagh went crazy, similarly to McLane’s 3 goals in a row.
We point out this game specifically for a few reasons, not just its very similar nature.
As a positive, this game reminds us to not freak out. While the situation was not ideal, it isn’t unheard of for teams to struggle against teams they should dominate late in the season. Kids sometimes overlook their opponent. But every cocky team forgets the fact nobody is going to give up, especially in the playoffs. The boys were reminded of this lesson, regrouped, and ultimately prevailed.
As a negative, this game reminds us that emotional well from which to draw these comebacks is not limitless. Again, for those who understandably can’t recall the 2013 playoffs by memory, the following week the Irish lost to a Duke team that was much worse than them. Plain and simply, they were off their game after an unexpectedly close one against Detroit Mercy. We don’t want the boys this year to fall into the same trap, especially since they have the potential to go so far.
2015 vs Denver (NCAA Semi-Final)
Now this is a game everyone remembers, mainly from Sergio Perkovic’s incredible 5 goal run. This is still well remembered as one of the greatest playoff lacrosse efforts of all time.
But while that run was absolutely amazing (and we still watch it from time to time), let’s not forget the reason that the comeback was remembered is because the Irish were down 9-5 with 4 minutes left. But in the context of the 2025 Notre Dame team, we need to remember most that the boys lost that game. This game should serve as a somber reminder to this team that comebacks are much harder against great teams, and that not every exciting comeback results in a win.
While Perk’s comeback was absolutely amazing, Denver did what all good teams do and kept fighting. They didn’t let the momentum get too far out of reach and were able to regain some in overtime which led to their win.
While we won’t stay on this game for too long since it is a particularly sad one, the main point still stands: that comebacks are great until they aren’t. If this year’s team wants to define themselves as “the comeback crew” good for them, but if an opponent can eat the haymaker and throw a punch back at them, they need to be ready to keep going which is hard to do after giving your all to even be there. The simpler way to stay out of close and heartbreaking situations is to not let yourself be there in the first place and take over the game, forcing the other team to make the comeback.
ACC Playoffs!
Why is the history lesson important this week? It’s because the boys will be facing Syracuse this Friday at 5:00 in the ACC Championship semifinal in Charlotte. The regular season Syracuse loss is a reminder of comebacks that fall short. We will learn a lot about this Notre Dame team by how they apply the lessons of that loss.
The Irish are the ACC regular season champions so they are coming into it as the #1 seed. They boys get their redemption chance at Syracuse this Friday, and if they are able to win they get another game on Sunday vs. the winner of Duke/North Carolina. It’s shaping up to be a fun weekend of lacrosse!
#GoIrish
ND-ATL 2.0
