Notre Dame Fighting Irish lacrosse (#12  4-3, 0-1 ACC) host the Syracuse Orangemen (#8 5-2, 1-1 ACC) this Saturday at Arlotta Stadium, noon, ESPNU.

The Irish will welcome their ACC rival with some cold, rainy South Bend weather.

The Opponent

Syracuse is leaving home for the first time this season, having played their first seven games in central New York.  The are coming off wins over Duke, Rutgers and Johns Hopkins, and they have similarly lost to Virginia.  The Orange opened their season being beaten handily by former Notre Dame Offensive Corrdinator Matt Karweck’s Colgate team.

Expect to see a different combination of faces leading Syracuse this year.  Their offense is balanced with Voigt, Curry, Trimboli and Atlanta’s Solomon leading the scoring.  Sophomore Jacob Buttermore has been a welcome surprise, and Stephen Rehfuss has gotten back on track in recent weeks.

Their faceoff game is very solid when led by Jakub Phauf.  They are OK at clears and rides.  Their play in the crease has been pretty good, too, with Drake Porter saving at a 56% clip.

The Orangemen have been playing well and have a very good win streak going, but the question remains what they will be like when they have to travel further than their driveway.  The Irish have had their challenges this season, but at least we know they are road tested.

Our Three Questions

The boys have generally played well all season, and have for long stretches of time have been fantastic.  They have great scoring balance and the defense is solid.  With this being said, there are a few issues that seem to appear when things get sideways.  We’ll be focused on the following this Saturday.

  1. 60 minutes:  When the Irish are in full flow, they are a juggernaut.  However, there have been occasions where things have gotten sideways for a few minutes and those stretched have put games in jeopardy.  If the Irish avoid any second half lapses, we like their chances to win and win comfortably (no halftime pasta bar!).
  2. Turnovers:  Even when the boys are playing well, the ball tends to hit the carpet a bit too much, creating unnecessary problems.  With rain in the forecast, a bit of extra attention to keeping the ball under control will pay significant dividends.
  3. Willets’ shot:  We had been looking at Costabile’s shooting percentage, which normalized last week.  The attention now shifts to the tall attackman who got a ton of good looks last week but was also a bit unlikely as a lot of premium shots got stuffed.  If the boys get him the ball in the same spots, look for it to find its way to the back of the net a whole lot.

Bonus Issue:

  •        No leggings:  The NDSMC Observer controversy made national news.  Put us down in camp anti-leggings, on the lacrosse field at least.  🙂

Other  Stuff

Four of the last six in this series have been decided by a goal.  One of the games that wasn’t was the 17-7 pounding of the Orange in 2016. We’d like to see more of that.

Notre Dame is giving away a free 50″ flat screen to a fan at the game.  Tickets still available.

Women’s lacrosse lost a close one to the Orange last weekend, but are having a great season at 9-1.

To put us in the right frame of mind, here are the highlights from the 2015 game, #1 vs #2, with the Irish coming out on top after 2 OTs.

#GoIrish