Notre Dame Fighting Irish mens’ lacrosse (#4, 4-2, 1-0 ACC) visit the Ohio State Buckeyes (NR, 5-3, 0-0 B1G) this Sunday at noon, ESPNU. The game will be played in Ohio Stadium.
The Irish hope to earn win number 300 for Coach Kevin Corrigan on this important road trip. Notre Dame arrives in Columbus on short rest and looking to recover from the upset loss to Michigan this past Wednesday. Ohio State looks to get its season back on track having lost 3 of its last 4, after having been ranked as high as #5 this season and having played in the 2017 NCAA Championship Game.
Notre Dame and Ohio State have played each other 43 times, with the Irish holding a comfortable lead in the series. Notre Dame has been particularly successful recently, but as we are superstitious, we’ll refrain from being specific and refer you to the team’s game notes for the recent scores in this series.
The Opponent
To our surprise, Ohio State has struggled with offense this year, especially in generating assists. However, Canadian Tre LeClaire (13 g, 8 a) continues to impress on offense, along with the best player we know of from Alabama, Jack Jasinski, and Jackson Rein and John Kelly.
Ohio State’s defense is excellent, yielding just 8.3 goals a game. Even with new faceoff specialists, they have continued their strong performance at the dot, and they succeed in their clears at an extraordinary 97%.
They don’t yet have a signature win this season, but it is important to note two of their three losses were in overtime, suggesting they are not far off from getting on track. Again, this team played in the national championship game last year.
Keys to the game
We’ve reflected a lot on Wednesday’s loss, but note Michigan and Ohio State do not have much in common stylistically, so winning will not be as simple as correcting errors from the week. We have, however, decided upon three areas we will focus on to gauge the Irish’s chances of success:
- Early goals from the big three: If we see early, balanced scoring from Garnsey, Wynne, and Costabile, the Irish should be in good shape with scoring both on the inside and from the outside. Additional scoring from the dodging threats would be nice, but that will be a challenge against the Ohio State defense. Irish need to get on the board early as catching up would be a difficult proposition.
- Specialist play: The goalkeepers had a rough game on Wednesday, and Travisano faded as the game went on. Schmidt has shown a nice ability to bounce back, so we’re optimistic on that account. However, we really need to see over 50% save percentage, even if not by much. On the faceoff side, we hope Hyland has recovered enough from injury to provide enough help to keep Travisano to 18 or so faceoffs.
- Control the dodgers: Wednesday saw a visit to Ball Watch City, but Ohio State should play more to the strengths of the defense. Keeping control of LeClaire and other dodging threats should go a long way in limiting Buckeye scoring chances. Crisp help and recovery like we saw in the Denver and Virginia wins will be critical.
This game will be interesting. Both teams really need this win, something has to give. If we have a concern, the Irish are playing on short rest and this is only their second road game. They do, however, seem very motivated.
Odds and Ends
- The Irish should have a nice showing from thier fans, taking the edge off playing at a road venue.
- As noted above, a win gives Coach Corrigan 300 for his career. Go get it for him boys!
- Notre Dame -2.5 o/u 18.5 for those interested in that sort of thing. Low scoring expected, obviously.
#GoIrish
It was a little cold when the wind was blowing, but nice and sunny in Columbus for the game. I didn’t hear attendance announced, but the guest side lower bowl was pretty well filled, maybe 5,000 people a third or so ND fans.
During the sloggy 29 minutes where we only scored 1 goal, when we were sitting at 4 or 5, I thought the offense lacked a little bit of killer instinct, preferring to make one more move or pass than take what looked like a reasonably clear shot.
The officials were not interested in making many calls during that game. The Buckeyes had one procedural penalty and zero other calls against them and played pretty rough. I thought there were at least two checks to Garnsey’s head (I think it was Garnsey that took them both) that should probably have been called and a really solid shoulder check delivered by the Buckeyes.
Too many turnovers in general for the team, including two coming out of ND timeouts (seriously, turning it over coming out of your own TO? Twice? Shakin’ my head).
The Irish ride has another gear that showed up in the last 20 minutes of the game when they went from pretty porous to elite level without any personnel change. I get the impression it was mainly an effort thing and they decided they needed to lock down on scoring and they did.
Travisano — holy smoke. 17 for 19 on faceoffs was incredible. He tried to do a little much a couple times after gaining possession (I think 2 clean saves on his shots and a turnover), but 17 for 19 speaks for itself.
Anyway, it was a fun time, cool for Corrigan to get his 300th, and beating tOSU at anything is great by me.
You all were loud, on TV cheers for ND after goal no less than for OHSt.