Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse (4-1, 0-1 ACC) dropped their conference opener to the Virginia Cavaliers (7-2, 1-2 ACC), 11-12.  We wish the result was different, but there is a lot of positive news to report.

The Scoring

Graduate student Will Yorke had a great day with 5 goals, and freshman Eric Dobson had his first hat trick.  Drake, Westlin and Jackoboice each added a goal.

Wheaton Jackoboice also added 3 assists, Kavanagh 2, and Westlin and McCahon 1 each.

The defensive stat line was dominated by Kyle Thorton’s 3 ground balls and 4 caused turnovers.

Liam Entenmann had 7 saves against some very good Virginia shooting.  The faceoff tandem of Gallagher and Leonard went 12 of 25 at the dot.

The raw shot total skewed heavily to the Irish, 42-30, but that evened out nearly completely in shots on goal, 20-19.

Notre Dame was stronger in ground balls, 30-21, and turnovers, 10-14.

Both teams were penalized a lot, with Virginia going 2 of 5 (effectively 3 of 5) and Notre Dame 3 of 4 (with the unsuccessful effort being 6 on 4).

Our friends at lacrossereference.com observed that total possession were evenly matched (UVa 37-36), but with Virginia more efficient.

Peyton Cormier (5 goals) and Ian Laviano (3 goals) paced the Cavaliers.

The Plot

Virginia’s LaSalla won the opening faceoff and the teams exchanged possessions in a defensive battle.  Aitken opened the scoring for the Hoos halfway through the opening quarter.

Late in the first, Virginia scored on the man-up, and followed up with their third as time expired in the quarter to give them a 0-3 lead.

The Irish exploded in the 2nd quarter with two beautiful man-up goals by Yorke, who then quickly earned his hat trick with a lefty snipe. Mikey Drake then cleaned up an outstanding hustle effort from Pat Kavanagh to give the Irish the lead.


The teams exchanged goals and the Irish went into the half up 7-5.

Things got away from the Irish early in the third with the Virginia attack scoring three straight.  Will Yorke stepped up again to stop the bleeding, but the 3 Cormier goals and 2 Laviano goals put the Irish down 8-10.

The Irish fought back hard in the 4th lead by Dobson and Yorke to tie things up at 11-11.  There was a glorious effort at an Irish game winner discussed below, but a late rocket from Aitken put the Cavaliers in the lead for good.  The Irish played great defense in the closing seconds to get the ball back, but Alex Rode saved the potential game-tying Yorke shot as time expired.

An International Moment of Peace and Unity

The world population at game time was approximately 7,854,950,000.  For approximately 15 seconds in the 4th quarter, every one of those human not named Alex Rode was joined together in hope as the Cavalier ride parted like the Red Sea and Irish goalie Liam Entenmann had a run at the goal. Sadly, he did not score, but these moments of togetherness are to be cherished.

Our Pregame Questions

Lots to discuss in our pregame matters.

  1. Experience gap:  It did appear on the surface that it took a quarter for the Irish to figure things out, but contrary to what was written in many press accounts, we noticed that the Irish did get a lot of good looks, they just didn’t convert.  Whether this was a big-game experience issue or not is hard to tell. If we had to identify more apparent experience issues, it was more in the third where Virginia was quicker to make adjustments. This put the Irish on their heels.  Similarly, Virginia found a way to limit Notre Dame’s usual scoring balance, which seemed the result of being against a higher level of opponent.
  2. Control the middle of the field:  The Irish indeed controlled the middle of the field, but Virginia slowed down the Irish counter attack as well.  The net result was a lot of successful clears for both teams, but precious few transition opportunities. This issues didn’t wind up having much of an impact to the score as both teams were largely limited to half-field offense. As the game progressed, Notre Dame appeared to get stronger in the middle, something to build on.
  3. Faceoff battle:  While it was statistically a draw, we don’t think it would be unfair to say Virginia was happy with the result.  Reviewing the game, the Irish had a few mental errors and won many of their wins less cleanly.  There were few opportunities to push the pace.  Virginia did a good job defending the ND draw wins, there’s no getting around this. No Irish fan should complain about going even at the dot. However, the Irish certainly hoped it would be better, and they hope to develop their stable of FOGOs into an ACC possession advantage.  They should have a better opportunity against Syracuse this weekend who have struggled at faceoff.

Observations

There is a lot of positive to build on.  In our internal 18Stripes discussions, we share the opinion of 18S OG lacrosse writer, PunterBro, that the second quarter was some of the best Irish lacrosse we’ve seen. It was really fun to watch, and something we are sure Notre Dame can repeat.  Ground balls, effort plays, ball movement, and finishing unsettled situations.  It was excellent.

We already knew Jack Kielty and Arden Cohen were great defenders, but this game confirmed that grad student Kyle Thorton is fantastic as well (we never doubted, but he didn’t seem to get his due).  He was great off the ground, tormented Virginia on the perimeter, and fired lasers in the clear game. We should never take for granted how great that back line is.

Will Yorke is a very handy weapon to have on or near the crease. He catches anything thrown his way with such ease, and reliably puts it in the net. It’s clear to us now how he was able to score 9 goals in a game.

Freshman Ross Burgmaster quietly had a very good game, picking up 3 ground balls and playing well in coverage.

Notre Dame trusts its SSDMs to play out on an island because they have the ability to do so. This is a huge advantage the Irish have over just about every other NCAA team.  Once in a while it doesn’t work out, such as at the end of the Virginia game.  In modern lacrosse SSDMs are attacked constantly. But this doesn’t erase that the unit played really well against one of the best, and most experienced, offensive units out there.

Quint Kessenich in his weekly pod wasn’t wrong in noting that Virginia found a way to frustrate Notre Dame’s midfield dodging.  Dobson was able to get into the interior a few times, and Jackoboice was able to pass out of the dodge well.  However, the rest of the midfield, and the second line in particular, seemed to have a rough go. This hampered the usual Irish scoring balance.

In a game where Notre Dame had a big ground ball and turnover advantage, one would think the Irish would dominate possession.  This didn’t materialize and it is unclear why.  It seems shot selection and quality had a lot to do with it, with Virginia being far more accurate putting shots on net.  They also seemed to have better shot quality with more of their efforts being assisted or in the interior.

In total, the Irish were a great team and looked ready for ACC play.  No one is happy about losing, but it happens sometimes.  The list of things to clean up isn’t long, and the writers who suggest the team was exposed or who dropped them out of the top-10 in the polls simply don’t know what they are talking about.  5 of the top 6 teams in the country are in the same conference. That’s how the season is going to be and why we are so excited for ACC play.

Up Next

Notre Dame goes on the road this weekend for a noon Saturday game against #4 Syracuse at the Carrier Dome, ESPNU.  We’ll close with our favorite memory of the Irish in Syracuse.

#GoIrish