Our #1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse team (2-0) welcome the #19 Georgetown Hoyas (1-2) to Arlotta Stadium this afternoon at 2:00 EST (ESPNU). It will be the first ranked test of the season for the Irish.

Our schedule kept us from a recap of the 21-8 decimation of Marquette, so we promise a mega-recap after this contest.

The Opponent

Georgetown lost a great deal of production to graduation last year (4 All-Americans) and had a rough start to the season this year beginning 1-2. They got squashed by Loyola, 10-18 to open the season, recovered a good bit in their 9-11 loss to #9 Johns Hopkins, and played very well to win 12-9 against then-#19 Penn. We have to be honest, we are concerned we are catching the Hoyas on a significant upswing.

The Irish are 10-8 all-time versus Georgetown. The boys’ 15-8 win in Washington last year is well-remembered as the game that signaled the Irish were going to be a force in the 2023 season, but we also have to remember that the 11-16 loss at Notre Dame in 2022 signaled Notre Dame’s season was in jeopardy. We’ll learn a lot about the 2024 squad today.

The Hoyas are very top-heavy in the scoring department. All-American Graduate Student Graham Bundy, Jr. (#9) is relied upon heavily to provide the scoring (4 goals vs. Penn last week). Senior T.J. Haley (#4) is a premier distributor of the ball (10 assists this year). Senior Aidan Carroll (#12) has made the most of his elevation to the starting lineup by matching his linemates in scoring. But there are a lot of questions after these three.

Mercer transfer Wesley Chairs, Senior Seamus Foley. and Freshman Ty Banks are a very new look Hoya defense and came into the season with similar questions to the Irish. And much like the new-look Notre Dame defense, they have played well and have improved quickly in the early season.

Yale transfer James Ball has performed very well at the faceoff dot (64%).  He went to Chaminade like our Will Lynch, so there will be some familiarity. Freshman Anderson Moore from Alabama has the goalkeeping duties and has saved at just under 50% this year. We are familiar with him from his play in our neck of the woods and know he is very talented.

Our Three Questions

We think the questions going into this game are pretty straight forward.

  1. Can our defense contain the Hoya big-3: A lot will depend on Conlin/Lyght/Gallagher/Napolitano containing Bundy, Haley and Carroll. This isn’t a big secret. If the boys can force the Hoyas to look elsewhere for scoring, we really like our chances.
  2. Overwhelm the new-look Georgetown defense: Notre Dame has seen a couple of different defensive looks to try to contain our high-powered offense, for example putting a pole on Faison while trying to lock out Dobson with a shortie. None have met with more than a few minutes worth of success. What we want to see is unrelenting pressure succeed across both midfield lines. When the midfield applies pressure, the attack destroys what is left of the defense. Can Gray, Seymour, Walker, etc. apply the same pressure as the starting line and make it an impossible situation for Georgetown?
  3. Manage opponent transition offense:  There hasn’t been a lot to complaint about this year, but there have been moments when transition defense hasn’t been the best. It’s not a problem unique to the Irish in any way, but we will look to observe what communication improvements the Irish made in practice this week.

PKav and CKav Renew Their Support of CityLax!

Chris Kavanagh joins his brother this year in his Ground Ball for NYC initiative. The boys will each donate $10 to CityLax for every ground ball they recover this season, and several prominent Irish alumni have already pledged to match their efforts. As any youth coach will tell you, ground balls win championships. Please consider participating if you can.

CityLax is dedicated to establishing lacrosse as a mainstream sport in New York City through partnerships with the Public School system and community based organizations. CityLax uses lacrosse as a teaching mechanism for helping student/athletes see the value of taking charge of their education, living a healthier lifestyle, and developing life skills for successful college and career advancement.

Lastly, if you have time, our friends Drew Brennan and David Brogan uploaded a great Irish lacrosse Exit 77 podcast this week.

#GoIrish

ND-Atl 2.0