Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse (2-0) dominated the Richmond Spiders (2-2), 13-5, at Arlotta Stadium. Balanced and persistent offense, combined with a suffocating defense, resulted in a comfortable win against an excellent opponent.
The Data
Freshman Pat Kavanagh led scorers with 4 goals and an assist. Griffin Westlin added a hat trick and an assist, and Quinn McCahon 2 goals. Wheaton “Jack Boyce” Jackoboice (the ACC Network announcer needed some help this week) had a goal and 2 assists, with McNamara, Cassidy and Willets adding a goal each, and Costabile, Drake, and Leonard adding an assist each.
Charlie Leonard rightfully earned player of the game honors with 19 of 20 faceoffs won. Liam Entenmann was strong again, turning back 8 of 13 shots on net. On the defensive end, Jack Kielty led with 4 ground balls and 3 caused turnovers, and Danny Cassidy added 5 ground balls to his first goal of the season.
The Irish outshot Richmond by a whopping 57-26 margin, and did a better job of limiting turnovers, 15-19. As suggested by Leonard’s faceoff stats, the Irish also dominated ground balls, 39-23. Richmond was perfect clearing the ball, while the Irish reserves got a bit untidy late in the game to finish clearing 20 of 23. Both teams went 1 of 3 man-up. The Irish forced 3 shot clock violations.
34 Irish players saw the field, including freshmen Kavanagh, Entenmann, Barger, Taylor, and Harris.
Ryan Lanchbury let Richmond scorers with 2 goals and an assist. The Spider stat line that stood out more than any by far was goalkeeper Jack Rusbuldt’s amazing total of 22 saves.
According to our friends at Lacrosse Reference, the Irish averaged 1.24 shots per possession, which is near the highest of any team this season.
The Plot
The Irish dominated possession and the action from the opening whistle, but an amazing performance by the Spider netminder frustrated the Irish. Griffin Westlin scored first for the Irish 5 minutes into the game on Notre Dame’s 7th shot, with Richmond tying the score late in the first quarter. A Richmond power play put them briefly ahead, but the Irish continued to pepper the Spider goalie.
On the defensive end, the Irish were dominant. With the Spiders seemingly unwilling to test Entenmann from the outside, Notre Dame applied hard ball pressure, clogged the middle of the field, and timed their double-teams very well. The high-powered Richmond offense hardly got a sniff at the net, and when they did, they faced a squared up Entenmann.
The 4-2 halftime score flattered the Spiders other than their goalkeeper. Danny Cassidy scored 9 seconds off the 2nd half faceoff, and the Irish offense then flexed its muscles, with 7 goals in the 3rd and putting the game far out of reach for the visiting team. The Irish scored their 12th goal just over a minute into the 4th, after which the coaches substituted liberally. The boys coasting in from there and finished up 13-5.
Our Three Pregame Questions
We weren’t far off the mark this week!
- Scoring balance: 7 Irish goal scorers and 10 total point scorers refects excellent balance. With Richmond doing their best to close out Costabile and limiting him to an assist, the rest of the offense needed to step up and they did. There was a lot of production from the attack and first midfield, with the second midfield and defensive midfield more than carrying their weight, too. The scorecard doesn’t reflect this well, but Aslanian, Cassidy, Boyer, Harris, and Hallenbeck all had great rips at the goal. This is a lot of added offensive pressure by the defense! Well done.
- Defensive aggression: The Irish defenders tormented the Spiders. Of particular note, Notre Dame dialed up pressure to maximum intensity with 15 or so seconds left on the shot clock and didn’t concede any quality looks in the late stages of the clock. It was difficult to tell why from the camera angle, but Richmond was unwilling to shoot from the outside or make any effort to relieve the pressure. Off-ball defense looked tight. Richmond scored on the few times they could sneak behind the defense, but we think any team in the country would be happy to concede only 5 or so such opportunities in a game.
- Discipline: On a cold day and during the second game of the season, the Irish only gave up 15 turnovers (8 in the first 3 quarters). This is very good. Not every pass was crisp, Costabile sprayed the ball a bit (by his absurdly high standard), and the reserves got sloppy again late in the game, but we are reaching deep into the bag of nitpicks to have anything to complain about.
If we had to suggest an area of future focus, it would have to be improving shooting percentage on the point-blank shots. Few teams have someone with Mikey Wynne-type reliability up close, and we recognize the camera angles of the first two broadcasts leave a lot open to interpretation, but there will come a game this season when the Irish will have to jar all their lay-ups. Again, this is really nitpicky, and it comes from the couch in the TV room and not the game film, but we spend a lot of time worrying about the boys and hope it will work itself out if it needs to at all.
Up Next
The Irish have their first road test this Saturday at 1:00 against perennial powerhouse Maryland (2-1). Notre Dame has had good success against the Terps in recent years, including the thrilling OT win last year, but we also remember things didn’t work out too well last time the boys were in College Park. It will be a great test and an excellent game. We’re unsure of the broadcast options but will post any news.
#GoIrish
