Our #1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (4-0) beat the #14 Maryland Terrapins (1-3) 11-8 in College Park this past Saturday.

Irish crush in College Park

Domination is the only way this game can be described. While the final score ended up being a 3 point win, taking out a couple Maryland garbage time goals tells a more accurate story.

Specifically, the middle half was completely controlled by the Irish, out-scoring the Terps 9-3 in the second and third quarters, including a 7-1 run.

Of the scorers, Behrman and Miller both had outstanding days with 3g 3a and 3g 2a respectively. The two of them were the only multi-goal scorers, with a total of 7 FightingIrish finding the back of the net.

Even more impressively, 7 of the 11 goals came with an assist. This highlights what the current offensive identity is: everybody eats. Consistent assists and a range of scorers has been a continuous trend across all 4 games this season, and we are loving it. 

Looking at it from an opponent’s defensive perspective, not having a “hero” on offense and rather playing a team-first style makes this team infinitely harder to control. Being able to pull this off in back to back games against top teams in the country solidifies how unified this team is. The ball movement is crisp, players move off-ball, dodging is assertive and skip lanes are patiently found.

With the personnel losses the offense has faced over the past few seasons, this year had a lot of question marks about identity. The boys certainly stepped up to dispel that rumor. It’s a long season so we can’t get ahead of ourselves, but so far this is looking like one of the better offenses in recent history.

Defense as dominant as offense

On the defensive side of the ball, it’s a similar story: control.

4 goals against before garbage time speaks for itself. Our Irish have always been a defense first team, going all the way back to the Byrne days with Landis and the Unholy Trinity. This year is no different. 

Our one struggle in this game came at the face-off dot, going 8-23. With this being the first time the crew has struggled, we aren’t too concerned, but will have to be wary. At the end of the day, as long as we can continue to win the ground ball battle this shouldn’t be too big of an issue.

#7 Ohio State up next

Looking to Saturday, the boys will take on the #7 Ohio State Buckeyes (6-0) in Columbus.

Notably, the bBuckeyes will be missing former co-Schmeisser Award winner (with  ND’s Lyght) Bobby Van Buren due to a season ending injury. We wish Bobby a speedy recovery. It always sucks to see a great player injured, no matter if they are against you.

With Van Buren gone the Buckeyes most notable player is goalie Caleb “Big Tasty” Fyock, who is noticeably less big and less tasty this year. 

Fyock sits at 60% so far this year and has established himself as one of the great goalies this season. The Irish have a history of a bit of a struggle against Fyock so the shot selection will need to be that much better

Offensively, Ohio State is led by Garrett Haas with 14g 14a. Alongside him is Alex Marinier with 16g 3a, Khalif Hocker 10g 1a, and Liam White 9g 4a. Unlike previous teams this season, Ohio State is very assist heavy which will pose a new challenge to this defense and require unity. 

 

This game will once again be one B1G+ so we hope your free trial is still active because why would college lacrosse ever unify its streaming platforms? It will be played Saturday at 2pm eastern. Tune in!

 

#GoIrish

Luke Burgar

ND-Atl 2.0