#5/#8/#8 Notre Dame men’s lacrosse (2-0) will take on the #1/#2/#2 Maryland Terrapins (4-0) this Saturday in College Park, Maryland. We’ll all have to hold our noses and watch this game on the Big Ten Network. Face off is at 11:00 am. Apparently Capital One Field at Maryland Stadium is hosting a peewee league tournament in the afternoon or something, we can’t imagine why else they’d schedule a top-10 matchup before noon. Stale Big 10 start times have made their way to Maryland.
The Setup
Both teams enter the game undefeated, but with the Terps having played two more games. The series between these teams is tied up at 5-5, but the Irish have won the last four, and five of the last six. Notre Dame also puts at risk its lifetime B1G undefeated streak as they have never, ever lost to a Big 10 lacrosse team. Recent editions have been epic defensive battles, with a 5-4 win last year at Notre Dame against the then-#1 Maryland, and 9-4 in California in 2016. The Irish return all their scoring from last year’s matchup.
The opponent
Maryland replaces its entire attack from their 2017 national championship campaign including Tewaaraton winner Matt Rambo. Replacing them as scoring leaders are Bernhardt, Kelly, Rotanz, Syracuse transfer Wisnauskas and freshman Bubba Fairman. Dan Morris has maintained a very high save % in goal. Henningsen once again is the primary face off option. The Terps are excellent man-up, so playing a disciplined game will be critical.
Our questions
Several things to look for in this game:
- Bench length: The Irish played with an abnormally short bench last weekend against Richmond with only 8 offensive players rotating into the game. We suggest that simply can’t happen against a top team like Maryland. Our 18 Stripes colleague, Patrick Rigney, suggests correctly that Notre Dame has to play its “giant freshmen.” We hope to see names like Morin, Mirer, Jackoboice and others on the scorecard along with the veterans.
- Focus: Notre Dame has played a lot of great lacrosse this season, but in both games they suddenly lost focus and let their opponent into the game. Against Richmond they played 52 minutes of beautiful lacrosse, but lost concentration for only 8 minutes, and this was almost enough to do them in. A team like Maryland requires 100% focus.
- Face offs: Travisano has played well and the wings are doing a better job of getting him space. This is a good foundation at the dot. However, the return of Hyland from injury is critical to give the Irish a more dynamic option. We hate to look ahead, but this is the last opportunity to fine-turn their play before Denver arrives with Baptiste.
- Pace: Notre Dame has the best defensive midfield tandem in the nation in Sexton and Schantz, and a deep cast of fast players behind them like Cassidy, Cochran, Gaiss and others. The best way to get pressure off the 6-on-6 offense and to keep this game from becoming a defensive slog is for this group to get a lot of transition scoring. We saw a glimpse of this in the first half of last week’s game.
It will be all tough games for the Fighting Irish for the rest of the season. The toughest schedule in the country starts in earnest against Maryland. History suggests the Notre Dame has an excellent opportunity to make a statement this weekend.
In other news, Mikey Wynne has been named a candidate for the 2018 Senior CLASS award, and John Sexton has been awarded the ACC Weaver-James-Corrigan post-graduate scholarship. Sexton and Bryan Costabile have also been named to the first watch list for the Tewaaraton Award. Congratulations to all the guys!
Notre Dame +2, o/u 17, for those interested in that sort of thing.
Close game 🙁 too bad the lads couldn’t pull off a win.
we’ll have a write-up posted about it soon, but it was a very unusual game statistically. with baptiste coming in next week, the faceoff disparity is really making us nervous even if there was a lot else positive in the game.