In a defensive battle for the ages, Notre Dame mens’ lacrosse upended the #1 Maryland Terrapins 5-4 at Arlotta Stadium.  During this wild weekend of lacrosse, the #2 Denver Pioneers (ND’s opponents next week) were dispatched by North Carolina, and our guess is the bulk of #3 Johns Hopkins apparently stayed on the bus to watch Moana instead of playing because they got obliterated by Princeton 18-7.

It’s time to climb up Grace Hall and check the lightbulbs, Notre Dame lacrosse is #1!

And the ACC highlights:

 

For all the talk of Run-DMC, and the 16g/gm Irish offense for that matter, this was a defensive showcase.  Sure, folks like offense and watching highlight reels, but coaches at all levels may be watching this game film for quite some time.  57 ground balls and 25 caused turnovers between the two teams. Top Tewaaraton candidate, Maryland’s Matt Rambo, held to only 1 assist (on an EMO) and 3 shots while committing 4 turnovers.  Notre Dame’s Garrett Epple tormented him all game long and earned a stat line that included 6 ground balls and 4 caused turnovers.  Defensive players in Notre Dames’ scheme don’t always light up the score sheet, but Saturday was something different:  Drew Schantz (3 gb, 3 ct), John Sexton (3 gb, 2 ct, 2 shots), Hugh Crance (3 gb), Pat Healy (1 gb, 1 ct) stood out in the box score along with excellent defensive performances by Kielty, Robert Collins, Koshansky, Kanak, Restic, Perkovic and many others.

Two defensive plays exemplified the effort the Fighting Irish put into the game:

In the final minute on a Maryland fast break, #30 Hugh Crance lays out to try to stop Connor Kelly’ step-down shot:

It’s impact doesn’t matter, the Irish were putting in this kind of effort all game long.

The second was the mother of all trail checks, this one to lock down the game for Notre Dame:

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We hope every youth player sees this example of why the attack must ride and play defense!

Brendan Gleason led the Irish with 2 goals, Ryder Garnsey with another highlight reel goal and an assist, and Mikey Wynne and Bryan Costabile added goals.  The Irish did threaten scoring much more than the box score would suggest, with several pipes and a career 13-save performance by the Terps’ Dan Morris keeping this from being a comfortable Notre Dame win.

Finley and Travisano won 9 of 13 faceoffs, with wing play being critical to this success.  Having Epple one of the wings was an interesting and effective wrinkle.  With Trevor Baptiste up next, the Irish will need every tool in the box available to help.

The pregame three questions:

–What will happen in week 3 of the Perkovic radar watch?  Sergio had an 0-for-8 shooting day, including an empty net miss that would have made the end more comfortable.  he’s putting himself in good positions to score and he’s still getting a lot of attention. This still keeps pressure off of Costabile and Byrne, both of whom had great opportunities and were not the targets of early slides.  It would have been nice for him to have landed a few, but the Irish won anyway and his presence alone remains an important part of the larger scheme.  We’ll leave this on for next week as he seems to rise to the occasion against Denver.

-How will he Irish defense handle the offense that Maryland should stop calling “Run-DMC”?  See above.  There was no run, there was very little DMC.  It will be hard to follow up this defensive performance.

-Can the Irish maintain scoring depth against a top team? A qualified yes.  Although the box score does not show it, the offensive pressure came from a lot of different players.  They didn’t score, but Byrne, Willets, Sexton, Phillips, Gayhardt and others all created good scoring chances.  We hope to create a side-by-side video of the 2016 and 2017 offenses to show how much more quickly and crisply this team moves the ball around the perimeter.

 

Up next for Notre Dame is a trip to Denver to play their nemesis the Denver Pioneers.  This game has long been must-watch TV for lacrosse fans, with 5 of the last 6 meeting going into overtime.  There is no reason to expect next week will not be another classic.

A final note, no one is more excited that the Irish are #1 than we are.  Do we think they can hold onto it all season?  This will be difficult as every single game left on the ND schedule will be against a ranked opponent, a schedule difficulty the lacrosse world has not seen in many years.   What is important is that the current ranking validates, that despite the losses of all-time greats like Kavanagh and Landis, this team is clearly capable of winning the championship that has eluded this program.  It will be an exciting year!

GO IRISH!

 

Will Young has clearly been putting in some practice hours in keeping this tradition alive!