#1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse (6-0) hammered the Michigan Wolverines (4-3) by a score of 18-8. The Irish complete their non-conference schedule 6-0, including 3-0 against the Big 10.  Notre Dame is now the only undefeated team in Division 1 and has earned the unanimous Inside Lacrosse #1 ranking.

The #1 on Grace Hall will be lit up for us, the fans. The team remains focused on bigger goals.

The Plot

This game is hard to describe. The 18-8 score doesn’t adequately express Notre Dame’s domination of their opponent on a cold day on the road. At the same time, the Irish did not play a perfect game and return to South Bend with a list of practice items.

The mood was set with Burgmaster and Tevlin leading the team out with the traditional bagpipes. We have to admit, we never considered that bagpipe energy may be scalable.

The game began with a Dobson goal on the first possession, the fourth time this season he’s started the action. He muscled his way into a surprised Michigan interior. Michigan midfielder Peter Thompson responded a few minutes later, but PKav, Dobson and PKav again replied in regular succession. It would be fair to say the Wolverines were getting decent shots off, but 4 saves by Entenmann diffused any challenge. A buzzer beater by Quinn McCahon had the Irish up 6-2 at the end of the quarter.  What made the quarter particularly impressive was that home team was overwhelmed while winning 8 of 9 faceoffs!

(*McCahon went off the field with what looked like an arm injury and did not return. We do not have any other information, we simply hope he is OK)

Jake Taylor got in on the action with one of his classic behind the back goals, followed by a more straight-forward inside goal a few minutes later, both assisted by PKav.  It did not go unnoticed that Taylor identified his first scoring opportunity 15 seconds before the goal and maneuvered his teammates like chess pieces to set up his shot. His second was textbook zone-busting ball movement by the Irish. Jalen Seymour was the beneficiary of another PKav assist to help the boys end the half up 9-2. Michigan was shut out and only managed 3 shots on goal.

PKav snuck in behind the defense to open the scoring in the third quarter. What followed was a brilliant CKav man-up goal.  It began with a PKav inside pass to Agent Zero, who one-touched the ball right back out the perimeter to a waiting CKav who hammered it home. We saw the same man-up play against Marquette. Plays don’t get any prettier than that.

Michigan scored a pair in reply, but goals by Simmons and Seymour made it clear there was no risk of a comeback.  CKav and Simmons scored again to open the 4th quarter, at which point the opponent’s resistance crumbled.

It was clear Michigan had pretty much given up when the score ticked over to 16-5. Pat Kavanagh scored shooting behind-the-back to tie his own Notre Dame record of 10 points in a game.  The Wolverines couldn’t be bothered to put up more than token resistance. They had no answers and no ideas.  Michigan is a very good team. The boys broke them.

Notre Dame wholesale substituted the rest of the game, including bringing in Alex Zepf to relieve Entenmann with about 6 minutes left.  Eilers and Gallaher were given the remaining faceoff opportunities. Reilly Gray and Fisher Finley scored to bring the final total to 18-8.

The Scoring

Pat Kavanagh tied his school record with 10 points (4g, 6a), and added a ground ball for his CityLax cause (don’t forget to consider contributing). His brother Chris had his 6th hat trick of the season. Dobson added 2g 1a, and Simmons, Taylor and Seymour had 2 goals each. Finley, McCahon and Reilly Gray had a goal each.

Liam Entenmann was stellar with 11 saves. Zepf has an additional 2 in relief. For the first time this season, the Irish did not have double-digit caused turnovers (7), but Fake, Conlin and Napolitano combined for 10 ground balls.

Notre Dame scored on its only man-up opportunity, and allowed a paltry 1 of 5 man-down.

Our friends at LacrosseReference.com calculate that Notre Dame had an amazing 46.2% offensive efficiency, and a 21.1% defensive efficiency. When considering there was nearly an entire quarter of garbage time, these figures are amazing.  Time to first shot was 42.1 seconds, again showing the Irish prefer to probe the defense rather than push pace.  Michigan’s use of zone probably also contributed.

Not every stat was great.  The Irish did struggle at faceoff, winning only 9 of 30. Lynch had a difficult day going 2 of 13, but Notre Dame had success shifting strategy to the style of Hagstrom, who went 7 of 14. Some matchups are simply difficult for certain styles.  The Irish are fortunate that they have a second option in Hagstrom who brings an entirely different skill set to the faceoff dot.

38 players saw the field!

We are very pleased to report that senior captain Max Manyak was on the field. Max’s off the field and academic endeavors are amazing, including his charity Pediatric Pep Talk. Injuries had kept him off the field his entire Notre Dame career, and we were beginning to get worried he would not get an opportunity before graduation. We are glad he got in on the action. Congratulations, Max!

Our Three Questions

This was a game against a tough opponent, on the road, and in terrible conditions.  Don’t let the final score fool you, the boys showed they were ready to play hard.

  1. Get an early lead: The boys jumped out to a 6-2 lead and never looked back.  If we had to criticize, they put a lot on the shoulders of Entenmann in the early minutes of the game. The team has to be careful not to take his superstar performances for granted.
  2. Stay disciplined on defense and prevent runs: Our defense did a great job limiting runs. The Wolverines scoring was limited to 2 in the first half, both of which came in the first quarter of play. It’s hard to do better than that. To begin the second half, the Irish again stopped them from going on a run, outscoring them 4-3 in the third quarter, and again in the fourth quarter, out scoring them 5-3 with two of their goals coming in garbage time. All in all, the defense did a great job controlling their offense, and were backed by an impressive 13 saves from the goalies.
  3. Find possessions: The Irish had a rough start at the faceoff X, but were able to recover well. Putting Hagstrom in was an effective change. While he doesn’t win as many clamps, his style lets the wings get into play and level the playing field. This allowed him to go 50% on the day. With the upcoming challenge of Petey Lasalla, this willingness to change style depending on the faceoff opponent is nice, but it will be a challenge to slow him down. We also have to note that the boys more than made up the gap with grit in getting ground balls. The non-faceoff ground ball totals were an overwhelming 22-11 in favor of the Irish, entirely neutralizing the Michigan faceoff advantage.

Thoughts

It was never really clear to us what Michigan’s defensive plan was. It appeared they were focused on limiting off-ball opportunities, which only led to a bunch of relatively uncomplicated unassisted goals.  They took what Michigan gave them. When the Wolverines switched to zone, the boys used the absence of on-ball pressure to move the ball quickly and probe the defense until cracks appeared.  They were patient and methodical. The larger point here is the the offense has so many ways to hurt their opponent. A team can make the Irish take their time, but that only makes them more efficient.

The #1 ranking is a great and well earned recognition.  However, it’s clear to us that for these boys, the polling means little and that they are focused on the ultimate prize. We’ll celebrate for them!

Up next is the first of two huge games against Virginia.  UVa lost in overtime this weekend to Maryland, elevating the Irish to the top spot. They are, however, an absolutely terrifying offense that is particularly effective early in their possessions. They will look to come at the Irish before the boys can organize their defense.  Notre Dame hasn’t faced this kind of offensive pressure.  They won’t have the opportunity to ease into the game like they did against Michigan. Virginia looks to overwhelm their opponents early.

Notre Dame is perfect through their non-conference schedule. We couldn’t have scripted the first half of the season any better.  Now the goal is keeping up this level of focus for the second half.

Please also check out our friend Drew Brennan’s recap!

#GoIrish