Our Notre Dame Fighting Irish lost a heartbreaker to the #5 Penn State Nittany Lions, 12-14, last Sunday. It was a game the Irish had in complete control but then painfully let slip through their fingers. This one is going to hurt for a while.
We’ve watched a lot of lacrosse over the years. We don’t think we’ve ever gone from that high to that low. What made it particularly hard was there was a point late in the game where a loss seemed inevitable. Even while the boys still had a slight lead in that fourth quarter, it was obvious this one had gotten away from them. All the persistent problems that plagued them this season returned at the same time. There was a loss of concentration across all fronts.
The Good
Before we get into the rough part, it may be therapeutic to highlight the good that happened.
CKav and McLane each had 3 goals and 2 assists. They did not want to end their college careers without a fight. Taylor had 2 goals, Angrick had a goal, Faison had an assist, Lyght and Ramsey each had an assist, Maheras had a goal and an assist, Seymour had a goal and 2 assists, and freshman Luke Miller had a goal and an assist.
At the dot, the boys did pretty well, winning 17 of 28, including 7 of 10 in the third quarter. Between the pipes, Ricciardelli had a pretty good start to the day with 10 saves.
Believe it or not, the boys managed to win most of the stat battles, with more shots and far more ground balls (34 to 26). The teams had an even 15 turnovers each, which was more than you would want but not terrible.
This all goes to show that it was not a game that Penn State won. It was a game the boys gave to them.
The Bad
Notre Dame was up 12-6 with about six minutes left in the third quarter. We don’t even think Penn State had much hope that there would be a comeback.
Then the wheels came completely off.
The Nittany Lions went on an 8-0 run to end the game, fueled by 3 Matt Traynor goals. During this stretch the Irish had zero shots on goal, zero saves, and the to that point stellar defense let their opponent operate at over 60% efficiency. The boys lost all offensive flow and the defense was confounded by fairly standard actions by their opponent.
It was hard to watch, and even harder to watch the frustration set in across the Irish bench. As we noted above, every nagging issue that troubled the team over the course of the season emerged at the same time.
Can’t Change Overnight
A quick note. It’s no secret that we are not objective and that we love these boys. But this is not a rec league team that we can buy an ice cream cone and pat on the head after a hard loss. This is a championship caliber team and program, and we must ask the same questions that we know the team is asking themselves.
As much as the first round match-up against Ohio State tried to convince us otherwise, the late game problems were bound to happen at an inopportune moment. The problem of a scoring droughts and general complacency are things that have been hurting the team all season long. More often than not they were finding ways to get past these issues long enough to secure a win. This time too many problems emerged simultaneously and there was not enough time to right the ship.
This isn’t a problem that has an easy fix, but rather requires tons of effort and leadership by the whole team. If there is even one player on the field or bench that is complacent, it throws off the whole team and causes them all to play that way. Now, by no means are we saying that one player caused this downfall, because it was the attitude of pretty much the whole that caused this. Rather, we bring this point up to show how hard it is to fix it. This will be the mission for the 2026 team.
As Ben Ramsey said in the post game interview “we got too comfortable, didn’t stay dialed in the things we do well,”. This is why this loss hurt so bad. It was not because they weren’t better than the Nittany Lions, but rather because they didn’t want to be better than them.
On the offensive end there is a set of facts we must point out. Penn State also had zero saves in the fourth quarter. We also had zero points scored in the fourth quarter. Put these together and it shows that we had zero shots on net in the fourth quarter. This simply should never be happening with a team that has this much talent, especially with the wide open shots on the crease that the boys had late in the fourth.
On the defensive end it was hard to watch this great unit be so confused. It wasn’t like the Nittany Lions had a bunch of different looks coming from a bunch of different guys. They only had 5 goal scorers, with 12 of their goals coming from 3 players. As Coach Corrigan said, and we will highlight, this isn’t the fault of the man who had the match up. Defense is a group unit that all need each other. Not sliding to the body over and over will lead to nothing different than what we saw Sunday.
The broadcast team was not far off the mark to suggest Penn State is two good players and “a lot of window dressing.” Defending this team should not have been the mystery it was late in the game.
It is tough looking back and realizing one singular play could have saved this game. Whether it was one more goal, one more save, one more face-off win, or one more take away; we only needed one more play. The team had 20 minutes of game time to make that singular play and couldn’t. There isn’t much else we can’t point the blame to.
While there are a billion and one different things we could talk about that lead to the downfall of this team, it is important to remember it is in the past now. No matter how much we talk about it, the outcome will not change. All we can do is move on and prepare for next season to make sure this doesn’t happen again. This is the challenge issued to the 2026 team and the boys who will become its leaders.
Our Seniors
We want to once again shout out this amazing class of seniors. They have truly been through it all. From not making the playoffs in 2022, to winning back to back titles, to having a heart-breaking playoff exit, there aren’t too many more ways to have a season go.
This group of boys has changed this team so much and we can never thank them enough. We wish them all the best of luck in whatever they do, and hope they know how much of an impact they have had on this team.
A Final Congratulations
We can’t end without mentioning that sophomore Shawn Lyght won the Schmeisser Award as the nation’s top defensemen. A well-earned recognition for the next Irish defensive great. He is joined on the All-American first team by Chris Kavanagh. Ben Ramsay, Will Donovan, Jake Taylor and Thomas Ricciardelli join them as All-Americans. Well done!
This season has certainly been a journey. Thank you to everyone that has been a part of it. We hope to have some Irish in the PLL content this summer.
#GoIrish
ND-ATL 2.0
