#1 Notre Dame lacrosse hosts #3 Syracuse this Saturday at Arlotta Stadium, 12:00 pm, ESPNU.

This game has been circled on the Orangemen’s calendar after the Irish embarrassed Syracuse last year 17-7 at the Carrier Dome on the occasion of their 100th lacrosse anniversary celebration.  Further, Notre Dame dispatched the then #1 Orange in 2015 at Arlotta in a double-overtime classic.  The good folks of central New York are not happy at all about a western team supplanting the Orangemen at the top of the lacrosse world and do not intend on letting this stand.

For the past few years this has been a matchup that favored the Irish, including last year’s blowout that saw Garnsey and Wynne outscored Syracuse on their own with a combined nine goals.  Advantages are not as clear this year.  Syracuse comes into this game 6-1, but five of these wins were 1-goal squeakers, and some against very marginal competition.  However, their only loss was to #7 Army, and like Notre Dame’s only loss, a last second buzzer-beater.

Once again, another classic top-5 matchup is set to happen at Arlotta.

Our three questions:

  1. The battle of the Sergios:  Two players to watch are Notre Dame midfielder Sergio Perkovic and Syracuse midfielder Sergio Salcido.  The two all-americans (and who are both on the Tewaaraton Award watch-list) present a fascinating matchup.  One is from the lacrosse backwater of Michigan, the other from the lacrosse backwater of Florida.  One is a very tall, the other not so much.  One fires lightning bolts from his stick, the other is a top-caliber distributor.  Both are central to their team’s success.
  2. How will the face-off unit perform?  Finley and Travisano have not had a particularly good season so far.  They will be up against Syracuse’s Ben Williams, considered one of the best in the game.  The good news is last year they got the better of this matchup, so there is reason for cautious optimism.  They’ll need clear success in the first few draws or we suspect we’ll quickly see Notre Dame switch to disruptor mode to keep faceoff losses from turning into Orange fast break opportunities.
  3. Who will emerge in the Irish offense?  Syracuse head coach Desko has made it clear in press conferences (yes, Syracuse lacrosse is big enough for televised press conferences) that they will look to lock down Garnsey and Perkovic with their best poles. This will place a burden on the rest of the offense to lighten the pressure on them.  The good news here is that Wynne remains a proven closer, freshmen Costabile and Willets are complementary outside shooting options to Perkovic, and Byrne and Gleason have excelled this year at initiating good scoring opportunities. Syracuse is making a definitive bet on who to stop, but the Irish have the players who can thrive against the relative inattention.

Grudge matches like the one expected tomorrow are notoriously hard to predict, but we like the Irish’s chances to defend their #1 ranking.

-Of note, Notre Dame women’s lacrosse pasted Syracuse last week.  Let’s hope for more of the same.

Notre Dame -2, 19.5 o/u for those interested in this sort of thing.

#GoIrish