The #3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse team opens its season versus the Marquette Golden Eagles (1-1) on Wednesday, 5:00 pm Eastern time. The game is expected to be played indoors at #Thunderdome, the Loftus Sports Center.  ACC Network Extra

The Opponent

With the demise of the Western Rivalry against Denver, Marquette is Notre Dame’s most frequent non-conference opponent. The Irish enjoy a 10-0 series lead, but the one-sidedness of the overall record hides the challenge of this rivalry with a third of these contests being decided by one goal, including and overtime squeaker at a time when the Irish were ranked #2. The Golden Eagles had a difficult 2022 season, but started 2023 as big winners over newly-D1 Lindenwood and losing a close and exciting game at Utah on Saturday.

Attackman Bobby O’Grady is a star.  Notre Dame will be challenged trying to contain him.  Transfer Matthew Winegardner has also found early season success. Irish nemesis Devon Cowan may be injured.

The player we encourage fans to look for is Defenseman Mason Woodward. His stat line through two games is an insane 2 goals, 17 ground balls, and 5 caused turnovers. By way of comparison, 1st team All-American Irish superstar Jack Kielty had 16 gbs during his entire senior season!

Marquette will benefit from its early season experience. Their man-up and man-down units have been very effective so far.  They are also clearing the ball well.  Normally teams experience some early season jitters in these areas. The Golden Eagles seem to have things tidy.

Integrating the new guys

Much has been said about Notre Dame’s superstar transfer class.  Two-time Yale captain and national champion Brian Tevlin, Four-year Yale starter, All-American and national champion Chris Fake, 2020, 2021, and 2022 NCAA caused turnover leader Chris Conlin and Virginia starter and national champion Jack Simmons bring a wealth of talent, experience and leadership.  All four are expected to have critical roles in the 2023 team.

“He plays with a lot of violence”

But let’s not forget about the powerful incoming freshmen class.  Contributions are expected immediately from many of them.

Introducing:

  • Thomas Ricciardelli, G #1
  • Christian Alacqua, M #19
  • Max Busenkell, M #23
  • Will Maheras, M #25
  • Jake Sommer, D #35
  • Jeremey Hopsicker, A #36
  • Thomas Porell, M #37
  • Declan Cooke, D #38
  • Christian Gallaher, F/O #42
  • Ryan Sforzo, M #45
  • Will Gallagher, D #47
  • Will Donovan, LSM #81
  • Griffin Grant, A/M #91

Questions

Coach Corrigan is correct. It’s a mistake to consider this team a continuation of the snubbed 2022 team. There are 17 student athletes on the team for whom the disappointment of 2022 doesn’t have the same importance. There are 40 for which it means a great deal, but this team will have to succeed on its own merits.

In addition to the new faces, we have to consider the players that are not going to walk onto the field.  Arden Cohen, David Lipka, Wheaton Jackoboice, Mo Mirer, Ryan Hallenbeck, etc. are very difficult pieces to replace.  It’s probably also several weeks before we see goal scoring machine Jake Taylor see the field.

There are a lot of questions going into this game, but they are not questions of concern.  We are just excited to see which of several great options Notre Dame will deploy to open the season.

  • What order will Napolitano, Burgmaster, Fake and Conlin come in for the defensive back line?
  • Who will join Boyer at LSM?
  • Will the Irish play 4 attackman and who will join The Brothers Kavanaghov? Westlin, Walker, Bayman, Ricciardelli and others present really exciting options.

These questions and others are the source of great excitement for fans of this team, but our more pressing questions leading into this game are far more simple:

  1. Hot start:  The Irish need to get on the scoreboard early and often to set the tone for the season.
  2. Play clean: #Thunderdome is a hard place for everyone to play. Notre Dame needs to stay focused on limiting early-season problems by clearing effectively and taking care of the ball.
  3. Foot on gas:  Play strong all four quarters.  No let up.

Notes

The Irish will follow this game with their only short rest of the season as Cleveland State comes in for a Saturday game.

The boys need to be careful as lacrosse seems to be returning to pre-Covid parity.  Top-10 rivals Maryland, Georgetown and Duke were all handed loses this past weekend.

Also take a look at Drew Brennan’s preview to the game.

 

#GoIrish