Our Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse (5-2) dominated the Duke Blue Devils (8-3) this past Saturday with a score of 14-7. It was a great one to watch and felt like it was the big win the Irish were looking for to validate their recent domination of Michigan.

The rain did not stop the Irish from putting on a show for the 2000+ fans at Arlotta.

The Plot

It was good to see Tyler Buchner back in the SSDM rotation for Notre Dame, but the fans began the day concerned about the availability of Max Busenkell and Shawn Lyght.  Freshman Matt Jeffery and graduate student Greg Campisi started the game in their places.

Duke opened up the scoring a minute into the game, but just 30 seconds later Faison tied it up at one, accelerating past the All-American Aidan Maguire like he wasn’t even there. After a few minutes of back and forth, Freshman Matt Jeffery gave the Irish the lead, also running right past Maguire. Duke response tied it at two all. The ease by which Faison and Jeffrey cut through the defense suggested that opponent was going to have to risk opening up the interior defense to help the shorties.

The second quarter was completely dominated by the Irish. Taylor opened the second with a man-up goal only 30 seconds into the quarter. This was followed quickly by goals from Seymour and McLane. Fisher Finley and Taylor added another two before Angrick tallied the final one, to make the score 8-2 going into the half.  The Blue Devils were clearly on their heels trying to limit the Irish onslaught.

While in the second half, the scoring went a little more back and forth, it is worth noting that the feel of the game was that of domination by Notre Dame regardless of the few Duke goals put up in their effort to fight back.

After a slow start to the half, Duke opened up the scoring. Taylor replied with another goal, giving him a hat trick on the day, before the Blue Devils and Jeffery “Agent Zero” Ricciardelli traded goals to go into the third with the Irish up 10-4.

After an opening goal from the Blue Devils, the fourth was once again completely dominated by the Irish. The boys went on another run with goals from Ricciardelli, Taylor, CKav, and another from Tayor. Duke put in two dignity goals to end the game after the Notre Dame reserves were put in, but it was far too little far too late, giving a final score of 14-7.

The Scoring

The attack led the scoring today. Taylor lead the team with 5 goals and 2 assists, CKav had 1 goal 4 assists, McLane had a goal and 2 assists. Angrick, Faison, Jeffery, Finley, and Seymour all had a goal, Ricciardelli had 2 goals, Alacqua had an assist, and Ramsey had an assist. 

A lot of scorers on the day and 10 of 14 goals were assisted, which is just what you want to see to in a smoothly-running offense. None smoother than this Jake Taylor BTB to Ricciardelli.

Our specialists once again were stellar. Lynch dominated the dot going 12 of 19, and Thomas Ricciardelli registered 10 saves to go just under 60%.

The Irish won the ground ball battle 27-23, and were able to put up more shots (38 vs 32). These two factors, combined with a much lower turnover total than we have previously seen this season (12), were key to the win. The limited turnovers was particularly significant given the rainy conditions. This is something we are going to need to maintain continuing ACC play with how difficult it will be.

Circling back a bit, it is worth mentioning again for great it is to see so many assists. Assists are the best indicator of whether an offense is running well and moving the ball around well, so having so many shows the big improvements the group has made. We know we are repeating ourselves, but this critical redevelopment of the Irish offense is exactly what we hope to see after the stagnant few weeks when the team hovered around a 10 goal per game average.

Finally, our friends over at lacrosse reference tell us that the offense ran at a crazy 41% efficiency overall, with a crazy 60% efficiency in the second quarter. Defensively, we were great at 21.9% and with a perfect second quarter.  That just goes to show how game changing the second quarter was.

Our Questions

Our pregame focus didn’t exactly target the way the game unfolded, but we did emphasize a few things that were critical factors to the Irish win.

  1. Slowing down their offense: Even without Shawn Light our defense was stellar. Holding Duke to 2 goals in the first half, with none in the second quarter, and 7 goals it total is much better than we could have expected. Notably, the excellent Eric Malever was held to just 2 assists and Andrew McAdorey to just 2 goals and an 1 assist. With their main threats under firm control, there was little the Duke offense could do to answer the Irish assault.
  2. Dealing with Adversity: The boys finally played a full 60 minutes of lacrosse. It may seem unusual to re-emphasize adversity in what was a comfortable win, but outside of the second quarter which was won by the Irish 6-0, the three others were played relatively closely. There were times this season when the boys did not respond well to an opponent that didn’t just lay down after an Irish run, but in this outing there was never a concern to the viewer that Notre Dame was at risk of losing control of the outcome.
  3. No Sloppiness: Similarly to our previous point, it seems the boys are back to what we are used to seeing. They limited their turnovers to just 12 which is a perfectly reasonable amount, especially in the rain. They also won the GB, shot, and extra-man categories. If we are able to keep up similar numbers, there isn’t a single team who can beat us. However, we can’t let one good game get to us and cause us to play sloppy again. Stringing together great games will be necessary for it to become a habit.

 

Opening up ACC play with a win is always great! But, now it’s time to move on to Syracuse. The Orange have proven themselves to be a great team this year with their normal high powered offense, so it will be a great watch!  April 5 at 2:00 PM on the ACC Network will be appointment television as the boys look to continue their 2025 progress at the Dome.

 

#GoIrish

ND-ATL 2.0