#8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse (2-0) controlled the Bellarmine Knights (2-5), 12-6.  The Irish comfortably took care of business on a cold late afternoon at Arlotta Stadium.

The Scoring

Quinn McCahon opened the scoring with the first of his four goals on the day, assisted by Pat Kavanagh, who accumulated six assists during the game.  Wheaton Jackoboice and SSDM Ryan Hallenbeck each had two goals, with Mikey Drake, Jake Taylor, and David Lipka each adding a goal.  Griffin Westlin had a goal and an assist, and freshman Eric Dobson and LSM Jose Boyer has an assist each.

The faceoff unit was dominant again, with Kyle Gallagher winning 9 of 11, and Charles Leonard winning 8 of 10.

On the defensive end, Jack Kielty and Jose Boyer each led with two caused turnovers.  Liam Entenmann saved 8 of 14 shots on goal.

Benny O’Rourk led Bellarmine with two goals, and goalie JC Higginbotham had 15 saves.

Notre Dame had an overwhelming ground ball advantage, 37-13, and in shots, 41-20.  The Irish were also a perfect 16-16 clearing the ball, while finding success in the ride limiting Bellarmine to 19 of 23.

Turnovers were a touch high with 17.

Lastly, the extra man unit was 2 for 3, while the man-down unit killed 3 of 5 penalties.

The Plot

We’ve notice over the past few seasons that these late afternoon winter games aren’t known for their wild scoring.  This one was no exception, but the Irish also kept it from being dramatic.

McCahon opened the scoring, with Bellarmine responding.  The Irish scored the next 4, including a nice transition goal by John Hallenbeck that helped earn him a spot on the USILA team of the week.  For most of the game it seemed the Knights were content to pack the middle and let Kavanagh roam freely at X.  We imagine we’ll see more of this over the season.

Irish faceoff dominance made most of the day a make-it, take-it day for Notre Dame, but the Knight cut into the Irish lead a bit in the second quarter.  It never seemed as though the result was in doubt, but the Bellarmine goalie started to get hot and it was clear the Irish would still had a lot of hard work ahead of them.

There wasn’t much action from either team in the third, but the Irish finally cracked the Knights and eliminated any last bit of doubt in the fourth.  The final score of 12-6 fairly represented how the game felt.

Our Pregame Thoughts

It wasn’t as much as we had hoped, but it was good enough and trending in the right direction.

  1. Focus: A 24 (net +11 excluding faceoffs) is ground ball advantage is the result of great effort.  17 turnovers in the afternoon Arlotta sun isn’t a lot, but it’s not ideal and seemed noticeable as the game played out.  We imagine the team will take a look at the stall in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Similarly, 5 man-down situations is more than this team should allow, and committing 3 shot clock violations is more than we expected. The coaches will probably have a lot to say about these when reviewing film, but as fans there isn’t a whole lot to complain about.  Could they have been better, sure, but for a 40 degree second game in the low winter sun, not bad.
  2. Defense: Aside from losing control a bit late in the 2nd quarter, it was a good effort where it never seemed as thought the Irish defense would let Bellarmine in the game in any meaningful sense.  Boys probably need a few more games to tidy up man-down defense. They only gave up 20 shots and had a huge ground ball advantage, we’ll take that every game.  Also, our expectations may be getting a bit silly if our watch notes suggested Entenmann had an average day, yet he saved 57%.  This is an us problem, not a Liam problem.
  3. Bench: 31 players played for the Irish, including the return of Boyer and Morin. This is good.  A lot of experimentation with different attack options, both middie lines were on the field about the same amount of time, the SSDM rotation went very deep, and 8 different poles saw the field.  Would we have like the score to be wide enough to go much deeper into the bench? Of course! But meaningful minutes for that many players is incredibly valuable.

We’ll add a quick note on the faceoff unit.  Wow. This is a dominant unit both at the dot and on the wings.  Gallagher is every bit as advertised, and Leonard has embraced the challenge as he has his whole ND career.  Having this sort of 1-2 punch going into ACC play is a huge advantage.  There is no way to overstate this.

The game didn’t quite play out as we thought it would, but that doesn’t mean it played out poorly.  The Bellarmine goalie got a bit hot and conditions weren’t the best, but an opportunity to continue the development of an identity and really never being threatened is a very good thing.

What’s Next?

The Irish have a short break before they play Marquette at Arlotta at 4:00 pm on St. Patrick’s Day, ACCN (any chance for white and green uniforms?).  Their final out of conference game against Cleveland State will follow soon thereafter.  The boys will have a lot to accomplish these last two games before starting ACC play.

Notre Dame will need to make as much as it can from these two games.  Their ACC opponents have many more games in hand and have already started conference play.  The Irish look great so far, but there is still a lot of work to do.

#GoIrish