Our #7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (4-2) demolished the Michigan Wolverines (4-4), 19-7, this past Saturday in Ann Arbor.
The boys understood the assignment and hopefully answered a lot of questions.
The Plot
In our discussion of the team’s search for identity, we identified a progress metric as how much the boys will put Michigan in a world of hurt. The Wolverines experienced a lot of pain.
Angrick opened up the scoring a minute into the game, followed by a quick Michigan goal to tie it up at 1. It was at this point the Irish took over the game with a 4 goal run to end the quarter up 5-1. This quarter was completely dominated by the Irish, winning 6 of the 7 face-offs and doubling Michigan in shots.
The second quarter opened with more pain for Michigan, with the Irish adding 2 more goals to their lead. A goal off the face-off by Michigan slowed the bleeding a bit, followed by another to close the gap a bit and add some interest to the game. This slight hope was quickly crushed by the CK hat trick goal. The boys added one more to go into the half up 8-3.
After a five minute drought, the Wolverines scored to open the second half. In the preceding 3 weeks this might have signaled some wavering by the Irish, but the boys understood the assignment. What followed was complete Irish domination with the boys going on a 7-0 run to end the quarter up 15-4 (including a last second goal in our favor for once!).
In our eyes this 15-4 margin after three quarter is the “final,” as the coaching staff inserted the reserves to close the game out.
But even with the starters pulled, the boys continued to dominate. The boys scored 2 to start the fourth, followed by trading 2 goal runs to make it 19-6. Michigan scored a final dignity goal to end the game 19-7.
The Scoring
CKav lead the scorers with 4 goals and 3 assists, McLane had 2 goals and an assist, Taylor had 2 goals, Angrick had 2 goals and 2 assists, Fashion had a goal and an assist, Busenkell had a goal, Ricciardelli and Seymour each had a goal, Maheras had 2 goals and an assist, Behrman had a goal and an assist, and Jeffery had a goal (his first career one!).
10 assisted goals, 8 goals by the starting attack, and 7 by the top-2 midfield lines, are a important, and balanced, improvement over the past three weeks.
This was the return to the normal offensive production we were looking for, but that’s not to say they didn’t have help. Lynch went an amazing 13-16 at the dot and the keepers both having great days with Ricciardelli totalling 10 saves and Zepf adding 2, both at a high percentage.
The Irish dominated in shots (48-23) and ground balls (42-29). The team was also more careful than the bast few weeks with the ball, accumulating only 12 turnovers. Finley may get an earful from the coaches in film sessions with 3 of the 12 turnovers, but he also deserves some grace as he generally had the right idea in mind as the ball carrier even if the execution didn’t work out as planned
The close defense, as a unit, piled up ground ball figures. This was an impressive showing.
Our friends at LacrosseReference.com calculated some impressive efficiency numbers for the Irish, with the offense operated at 43.2%, and the defense holding the Wolverines to 22.6%. Their shots on goal percentage also improved to near 70%.
37 Notre Dame players saw the field. Notably, Alacqua returned from injury, but Buchner was still in street clothes.
Bouncing Back
After the tons and tons of criticism the Irish received these past few weeks, it was clear they needed a statement to calm the nerves (including ours). Michigan has a lot of talent on their roster. The win was well-earned and seems to be just what was needed. Most importantly, there was great energy on the field and the all the boys seemed committed to performing well and executing the tasks assigned to them. The game had a very different, and positive, feel to it, even during lulls in the scoring.
What stood out in the game was roster simplicity. On attack, the staff was content to let CKav, Taylor and McLane cook. Faison, Busenkell and Angrick looked very comfortable together as a first midfield line, and Seymour, Maheras and Finley were very productive as the second line. There was very little mix-and-match this week. Jeffrey got the opportunity to show off his athleticism in a SSDM role, and Behrman, Jeff Ricciardelli and Pokorny got opportunities in specific situations, and all rewarded this trust with excellent productivity.
What also stood out was how quickly and crisply the ball moved. Michigan likes to extend and pressure the ball and adjacents. The Irish had little problem defeating the pressure with quick and accurate passes, and very committed dodges.
The defense continues to solidify. The small handful of communication errors were punished, but the final score should make clear how few there were. It was interesting to see Coach Wellner continue to expand the SSDM lineup and to add Doherty to the LSM rotation. Having the confidence to work in depth on defense will have a huge payoff in May.
Our last observation will be the use of double-poling the faceoffs with Donavan and Lyght. This has a very Sexton/Landis energy to it, and we love it.
We won’t speculate as to what Coach Corrigan has in mind for the warmer months where they will have to tap into the roster depth a bit more, but if this is the baseline unit and a baseline performance, Notre Dame will be very difficult to beat by anyone.
This isn’t to say that the game was perfect but its a big step in the right direction and leads us into ACC play on a win. The Irish have a bye week coming up to rest up and prepare for a rigorous ACC gauntlet. If they boys make the same progress over these next two weeks that they showed from this past week, they will be formidable against visiting Duke.
Please keep in mind the Exit 77 podcast with our friends Drew Brennan and Dave Brogan, and please consider supporting CKav and Shawn Lyght’s initiative with CityLax if you are able.
Go Irish!
ND-ATL 2.0
