Notre Dame lost to the visiting Syracuse Orangemen, 11-10, this afternoon at Arlotta Stadium.
The Irish should think they let this one get away from them. The Irish made some critical mistakes in transition defense in the first half that gave the Orange too much of a lead. Syracuse took a few pages out of the Denver playbook and milked the clock on nearly offensive possession, allowing the Irish too few opportunities to mount a comeback. The shot clock was started for the visiting team four times, and they worked every second of it each time.
Gleason led the Irish scoring with 2 goals. Garnsey, Perkovic, Costabile, Schantz, Phillips, Brendan Collins, and Gray had a goal each. Perkovic added two assists, with Garnsey, Crance and Collins adding one. Doss looked good with 11 saves.
Credit to Syracuse Coach Desko for a good plan on both offense and defense. Offensively, they slowly probed the Irish from all directions until an opening appeared. They were in no hurry and protected the ball, one of the very few historical weaknesses to this defense. On defense, the severely limited the big three of Perkovic, Wynne and Garnsey. Numbers 16 and 50 had zero shots in the first half, and Wynne was kept off the scoreboard completely. Scott Firman stood out in the Orange defense in keeping a lid on Ryder Garnsey for the most part.
Still, the Irish were in it until the very last second. No one will be happy with the loss, but at least it was a close one to a good team and the Irish will not think they were outmatched. For our part, we like Notre Dame’s chances should these teams meet again in the ACC championships later in the month.
Reviewing our three pregame questions:
- Battle of the Sergios: Perkovic and Salcido ended the game with near identical stat lines. Twitter commentary suggested this was a Salcido win, but we’ll call it a draw. Sexton held Salcido in check for the most part, and both Sergios flubbed good scoring opportunities.
- How will the face-off unit perform? 13 of 24 may be their best performance of the year. Good for them. Finley looked good against Williams, and the wing play continues to excel. However, this win rate should have been well more than enough for an Irish win. Definitely a missed opportunity.
- Who will emerge in the Irish offense? As predicted, Syracuse placed nearly all their defensive effort into stopping the three leading Irish scorers. In response, the rest of the roster had a good, balanced effort, with seven goal scorers not named Perkovic, Garnsey or Wynne. Gleason and Costabile continue to impress, Phillips had a nifty BTB goal, and the second midfield line for long periods was more impressive than the first. Again, the Irish will look at this as a missed opportunity.
Where do the Irish go from here?
-Two weeks in a row critical errors occurred in transition defense. The Irish go away with it against Ohio State, but this week it doomed their chances. Syracuse came ready to limit Irish scoring opportunities. It is no coincidence that the Denver and Syracuse games were both 10-11 losses.
-The Irish are off to Durham to play Duke next week, followed by Marquette, North Carolina, the ACC tournament, and Army: all top-20 games. The Irish RPI is astronomical given their strength of schedule, but the cannot afford to drop more games. The margin of error in Corrigan’s scheduling strategy is razor thin.
-Duke has surged after a rough start. The Irish will have their hands full next week.
What did you think? Let us know in the comments.
