The #2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse team (3-0) dispatched the Georgetown Hoyas (0-3), 15-8, on a cold and snowy Saturday in Washington. It could have been a whole lot worse for the Hoyas.

The Plot

Once again, the Irish scored on their opening possession on an Eric Dobson goal. Dobson has a great ability of simply taking the defense off their game plan at the immediate start of every game.

CKav scored on the following possession, with Georgetown answering on a fast break as the Irish were teeing up the Hoya defense for their hopeful third goal. Dobson wasted no time, and answered the opponent’s goal within 30 seconds.  From there is was a steady parade of Irish goals, with the defense doing their part by shutting out Georgetown in the second quarter.  The Irish entered the half up 9-3.

Matters did not improve for the Hoyas in the third quarter as the Irish kept their foot on the gas finishing the period up 13-5. They ultimately extended the lead to 15-5 before Entenmann was given the rest of the game off and Georgetown used the 10-man ride to score three pride goals to finish the game against the Irish reserves.

We can quibble about some of aspects of their play, but the Irish played fairly close to an ideal road game in very difficult weather conditions.

The Scoring

Dobson, CKav and Reilly Gray all had hat tricks for the Irish. McCahon added 2 goals and an assist from the midfield.

Ricciardelli (1g), PKav (1g, 2a), Tevlin (1g), Westlin (1g, 1a), Walker (1a), and Simmons (2a) rounded out the very balanced Notre Dame scoring.

PKav aslo added 3 gbs to his CityLax charity total. As always, we ask that our readers consider participating in this cause or Max Manyak’s Pediatric Pep Talk.

Entenmann was solid with 9 saves on 15 shots on goal. Conlin and Donovan had noteworthy stat lines on defense, each with 2 caused turnovers and 3 ground balls. Brian Tevlin had a big defensive day playing multiple roles and tallying a caused turnover and 6 ground balls.

Shot totals were overwhelmingly in favor of the Irish 49-33.

Notre Dame was below optimal in faceoffs (11 of 27), ground balls (32-36) and clears (21 of 27). In this last category, the Irish showed some late vulnerability to the 10-man ride, which undoubtedly will be a practice focus during the week.

The extra man unit was a very good 3 of 5, and the man down unit fought off its only penalty.

Our Three Questions

We previewed the game with three issues to watch:

  1. Possessions: Will Lynch and his wings made a big improvement on their 2022 performance against Georgetown, but there is still work to do. Luke Weirman will be a huge test next weekend and the Irish will look to take another forward step in their development. In any event, solid improvement against the same opponent is a job well done.
  2. Start strong and keep up the pace:  100%
  3. Keep opponent one-dimensional: Again, 100%. The boys did not let the Hoyas get dynamic in any way, and choked off the shot volume of the excellent Dordevic and Bundy as a bonus.

Thoughts

We opened this piece with a statement that matters could have been a whole lot worse for the Hoyas.  Ricciardelli, in particular, was getting regular great point-blank looks that didn’t land. This is okay, #AgentZero is being asked to learn the role of a player with otherworldly shooting and shot on goal percentages, and he is getting there. But it is evidence that the Irish were a whole lot closer to putting up a 20-piece than Georgetown was to keeping the game competitive.

The offense is truly dynamic and balanced.  Production comes from all players, and in many different styles. Dobson will crush you if you give him space, and run by you if you play him tight.  CKav destroys defenses whose attention is focused on other players. And seasoned veterans like Simmons and Tevlin identify scoring opportunities that will emerge 20 seconds later.  All this and PKav is a master. When Georgetown tried to lock him out, he is smart enough to drag his defender out of the play and let his teammates go nuts playing 5-on-5. When his defender leaves him to help, his outside shooting is put on display to teach a painful lesson.

The defense continues to improve and has the potential of being great. Freshman Will Donovan continues to show why the coaches have confidence in him, and the SSDM rotation of Harris, Ramsay, Parlette and others complement the 2-way specialists Tevlin and McCahon very well. It would be fair to argue that Georgetown perhaps played to this defense’s strengths, but the team should be pleased that an entirely new back end is playing this well this early in the season.

If we have to complain about something, we would echo Coach Corrigan’s concern that there is some vulnerability to the 10-man ride. It’s hard to find learning experiences in a big win, so the Irish should consider themselves fortunate that Georgetown gave them practice focus points in the meaningless final minutes of the game.  These lessons usually come up in more costly circumstances. This being said, the Irish really need to discipline themselves during the practice week. They will be under a lot of pressure not to lose too much ground to Maryland at the faceoff dot. Giving away additional possessions in the clear game could be disastrous.

Up Next

A Saturday matchup at #4 Maryland looms. Notre Dame has had its issues in College Park and will look to keep forward momentum against a team that has given the Irish its greatest recent challenges.

Don’t forget to take a look at our friend Drew Brennan’s thoughts on the game.

 

#GoIrish