Our #2/#3/#4  Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse team (3-1) handled the #7 Maryland Terrapins (4-1), 14-9. It was a commanding performance over the then-#3 team in a wild week where the top 4 ranked teams all suffered losses (and why the Irish are rank differently in the three polls).

Up next is a visit to the new lacrosse stadium at Ohio State (4-2), Saturday at noon, B1G+.

The Plot

The Irish were all over the ball early. Shots weren’t getting in the net, but the pressure was unrelenting. Maryland scored first in transition, but Jake Taylor responded quickly for the Irish to tie it up. About a minute later PKav went one-on-one with Ajax Zapatello and scored shooting backwards over his shoulder to show he could not be neutralized. Taylor finished up a 1st quarter hat trick putting the Irish up 4-2 after 1.

Notre Dame pressure yielded increasing turnovers and Maryland had no answers.  This quarter belonged to Devon McLane who added a hat trick in a quarter as well. Taylor and CKav joined him on the scoresheet to put the Irish up 9-5 at the half. The defensive choices by the Irish back line were masterful in helping the Irish build a lead, and the Irish ride was something to behold.

Maryland found some stability coming out of halftime but not much more than that as Jordan Faison answered the call to score two goals in front of his visiting football teammates. Notre Dame increased their lead to 11-6 after three quarters.

The Terps’ Eric Spanos tried to make the game interesting with two fourth quarter goals, but CKav (who had a second beautiful goal disallowed), Agent Zero and Jordan Faison made sure the  comfortable lead stayed as it was.  Notre Dame left the field as 14-9 victors.

The Scoring

ACC Offensive Player of the Week Devon McLane led scorers with an excellent 3g/3a performance. Jordan Faison was not far behind with 3g/2a. Jake Taylor had 4 goals, and Pat Kavanagh  had a goal and 3 assists. Eric Dobson drew in the Terp defense to gather 2 assists, and CKav added 2 goals (should be 3, grumble). Jeffery “Agent Zero” Ricciardelli had a man-up goal.

There’s lots to applaud on the defensive end. In the battle of the top goalies, Liam Entenmann again rose to the challenge with 14 saves. Chris Conlin and ACC Defensive Player of the Week Marco Napalitano played like they could see the future with 2 caused turnovers each. PKav put on a display of riding effort with an incredible 4 caused turnovers on the other end of the field. While his stat line was blank, special mention must be made for Shawn Lyght in shutting down Maryland scorer Braden Erksa. Not all excellence is reflected on the stat sheet.

Will Lynch had a very strong day winning 12 of 18 over Luke Wierman at the dot.

Riding pressure and faceoff excellence gave the Irish a huge 49-41 possession advantage, and a 33-22 ground ball advantage. Maryland only cleared 18 of 24 opportunities. Combined with a 28.6% to 22.0% efficiency edge, the Irish gave the Terrapins no chance to succeed.

The man-up unit continues to be something special, scoring on 3 of 4 opportunities in the game.

24 Domers saw the field.

Our Three Maryland Game Questions

We came into the game focused on three issues:

  1. Who’s the boss? The boys stepped up in this game. The question was who would be willing to make the individual plays, and all the core players did their part and tested their matchups. The most important and tone-setting example was PKav’s first goal. Ajax Zapatello was intent on making his Schmeisser Award case against Pat Kavanagh, but PKav made clear very early that his will was stronger. This doesn’t mean Ajax didn’t otherwise have a good game, but the tone was set and the rest of the boys found inspiration to take the ball to the rack and collapse the defense.  That’s how a 10 of 14 assist day happens.
  2. Control the middle. The Irish dominated the middle of the field. Lynch and Hagstrom did a great job controlling Wierman. Our ride ate their clears alive, causing 6 failed clears. This great ride unit was led by PKav with 4 CTs, which was the most on the team, and unheard of total from an attackmen. Our clears were also great, succeeding on 25 of 27.
  3. Midfield rhythm. A mixed answer here. The first unit was stellar, with 6 goals and 7 assists. The other units found less success, with no scoring and only 6 shots. To be fair, it was starting to click for them and they generated a fair share of hockey assists. We would have loved for them to have found the back of the net, but they are clearly heading in the right direction. We really don’t think their Maryland performance can be compared to the Georgetown one, it was clearly much better.

Up Next, Ohio State

This will be the 48th meetings between these teams, and the first at their new facility. Previous visits to Columbus have been played at the Horseshoe.  The lacrosse-only facility looks great from to our observation in other games broadcast from there. Last year’s meeting was a 16-3 pounding of the Buckeyes, but Ohio State had won the previous three (and Notre Dame the previous 16!).

Ohio State began its season with wins over Utah (11-8), Cleveland State (13-6), Bellarmine (10-6) and Air Force (12-4).  Since then they have added losses to future Irish opponents Virginia (8-14) and Cornell (11-15).

It’s tough to say where the Buckeyes are in their season development. They have been creeping around the top-20, but it looks like the injury bug is keeping them from their full potential.

Ed Shean (#10), Cleveland State transfer Gannon Matthews (#24) and Ben Mayer (#4) have been scoring consistently. All-American defenseman Bobby Van Buren (#44) remains one of our favorite players to watch in the country. Vermont transfer faceoff specialist Tommy Burke has been playing at a high level (62%). Freshman Caleb Fyock (297 lbs!!!) has done well taking the bulk of the goalie minutes this year (57% saves).

A lot will depend on the health of the Ohio State roster. A full complement of players will be a handful for the Irish playing on the road.

Our Three Ohio State Questions

  1. Midfield rhythm. We’re going to keep this here for another week to see if the first midfield can repeat its great performance and if the other units can continue to come into the strong form they showed last year.
  2. Frontline depth.  We’d be lying if we said we haven’t noticed the main playing roster shrinking. Game situations often dictate who can play, and we definitely see the wisdom of playing the hot hand. At the same time, we know the season is long and injury risk is real. We hope the coaching staff finds a way to bring more players into helpful form (which includes players showing they are worthy of their coach’s trust in practice).
  3. Transition to defense. Not a big concern, but number of times that offensive midfielders get caught in long defensive possessions has become noticeable. They are doing their best to hold up back there, but they aren’t Tevlin or McCahon (yet). This is an area of exposure that we hope to see Notre Dame mitigate a bit better.

Also

Don’t forget to read our friend Drew Brennan at OneFootDown and Exit 77 podcast. And we are happy to report a lot of the Notre Dame football-oriented publications are taking an interest in lacrosse. We are glad to read their new perspectives!

Women’s lacrosse (5-1) hosts Virginia on Saturday in their “Daughters for Dads” game.

Again, please consider the PKav and CKav ground ball campaign for CityLax. T-Shirts supporting the cause are available HERE.

 

#GoIrish

ND-ATL 2.0