#2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse (7-1, 1-1 ACC) soundly defeated the Syracuse Orangemen (6-5, 0-3 ACC), 20-12, at the JMA Wireless Dome. The boys’ performance was not without flaws, but the Irish were too much for the home team and secured an 8-goal conference road win.

The Plot

Notre Dame got on the board quickly with Jake Taylor goal on a nice pass from Quinn McCahon.  Dobson followed up with the Irish second goal a minute later man-up. Goals by Pat Kavanagh, Reilly Gray, and PKav again came in regular succession to put the Irish up 5-0 10 minutes into the game. The young Syracuse attack scored two in reply before Taylor added his second to put the Irish up 6-2 at the end of the first quarter.

Taylor and Dobson scored again to open the second quarter and extend the Irish lead to 8-2. The teams exchanged goals, but Syracuse was starting to find ways to use midfielder Kirst to open up the middle of the Irish defense.  A non-releasable penalty on the Irish late in the quarter gave the excellent Orange man-up unit an opportunity they did not squander, scoring 2 goals on the way to closing the Irish lead to 9-7 at the half.

Gray and CKav scored to open the third quarter and it appeared the boys would be able to extend to a comfortable lead. Matters soured quickly as home team continued to find openings and scored 5 goals in succession to take a 11-12 lead early in the fourth quarter.

Syracuse’s Finn Thompson thought he had extended the Syracuse lead but was stuffed at close range by a falling Liam Entenmann*. Entenmann fired a quick outlet pass to Nick Harris who ran the length of the field for the tying goal.

(* The broadcast commentators and home fans claimed controversy as Entenmann’s momentum carried his stick well into the goal. It was certainly well known to us that rules expressly allow a goalie’s crosse to enter the goal with the ball. Lacrosse may be unusual in allowing this, but it has been the rule across all levels of the sport, and is why Entenmann knew to immediately outlet pass for the counter-strike)

From this point, it was total annihilation by the Irish, who scored the next 8 goals to win comfortably. The Irish onslaught to close the game was something to behold.  Behind a fantastic faceoff performance by Will Lynch, the boys bombarded the home team from all directions.  CKav, Taylor, Westlin, Gray, CKav again, Tevlin, Dobson and Parlette scored in this series. The home fans were stunned by the completeness of the Syracuse collapse under the Notre Dame pressure.

The Scoring

Eric Dobson (3g, 2a) and Pat Kavanagh (2g, 3a) each had 5 points for the Irish. Jake Taylor (4g) and Chris Kavanagh (3g, 1a) were right behind them with 4.  Reilly Gray had a hat trick, Simmons with a goal and an assist, and Tevlin, Parlette, Westlin and Harris added a goal each. Walker and McCahon added and assist, as did Will Donovan from the LSM position.

Liam Entenmann had 11 saves. Tevlin (6gb) and Boyer (3gb) did a noticeably great job getting the ball off the carpet.

Will Lynch went 12 of 33 at faceoff, securing 13 ground balls himself.

The boys were a little bit messy with the ball, committing 12 turnovers to Syracuse’s 9, and only going 16 of 20 clearing the ball.

Lacrossereference.com calculated that the Irish offensive efficiency was an excellent 46.5%.  They had a 44% shooting percentage, with 73% of their shots being on cage.  Their average possession length was 50.4 seconds and time to first shot was 35.2 seconds.

The man-up unit was 1 of 2 for the day, and the man-down unit allowed 2 in 3 Syracuse opportunities.

Alex Simmons (3g), Saam Olexo (1g, 1a, 3gb, 1ct) and Cole Kirst (2g, 2a) led Syracuse.

Our Thoughts

We didn’t publish our usual three questions going into this game and instead elected to note that the Irish need balanced scoring to open up the Syracuse interior (which they did) and to communicate effectively on defense to keep the electric, young Syracuse attack from opening up the Notre Dame interior (the boys struggled a bit). For the former, it was great to see 13 Irish players earn points. For the latter, it was a second game in a row where the opponent found some good scoring opportunities in very dangerous areas. We assume work on this situation will be a point of emphasis at practice. It’s a fixable problem, but one that requires work.

The big story is Will Lynch’s return to form at faceoff.  After a few difficult weeks, he was critical to allowing the Irish to take control of the game.

Also important is Reilly Gray’s continued breakout on offense. Much like Mirer last year, he’s a player that scores in bunches and is constantly attacking the cage.

In their loss to Virginia, Notre Dame’s possession length was noticeably below its season average as was the time to first shot. Against Syracuse they returned to their typically pacing, seemingly with great results. It’s becoming very clear that this offense is at its best when it is patient. And by “patient” we do not mean “slow” like the Denver teams of a few years ago. When the boys take a little bit of time to probe the defense and get them moving, good things happen.

On the defensive end, we are not entirely sure what is causing their recent difficulties.  To be completely fair, this comparison is made against the absurdly high standard the Irish set over the first six games of the season. We are being a bit nitpicky here. The Irish were particularly good either deflecting attempts to get inside or collapsing on the ball if it got there.  Virginia and Syracuse found ways to be successful. Whether these were outliers, simply require an adjustment, or reflect a more challenging trend, we can’t tell. It does seem excessive to critique a top-5 defense, but we like to worry. At the end of the day, Notre Dame is still a top-5 defense paired with a top-2 offense, and that’s a great place to be.

Up Next

#1 vs. #2 at Arlotta!

We have a big one this Saturday at 4:00 (ESPNU). #1 Duke comes to visit for a match between the top two in the polls after a wild weekend of college lacrosse. In typical Duke fashion, they have improved from early-season uncertainty to become a juggernaut. The attack of O’Neill, McAdorey and Williams is frightening, and grad transfer William Helm has solidified the defense from the goalie position.

#GoIrish