Notre Dame lost to army in overtime, 10-9, before a crowd of 12,233 at Michie Stadium. Next stop for the Irish, the NCAA tournament.

Brendan Gleason led  the Irish with 4 goals, and Mikey Wynne added 3 (including his career 100th). John Sexton and Bobby Gray each added a goal.  Sexton’s stat line also include five ground balls and two caused turnovers.  Shane Doss had 13 saves.

Summary:

Sergio Perkovic, Ryder Garnsey, and apparently P.J. Finley, were rested this game and did not play.  Brendan Collins started in place of Perkovic, and co-captain Anthony Marini started for Garnsey.

The Irish took a quick 4-1 lead with Mikey Wynne’s early hat trick.  Army scored 6 goals in the second quarter to take the lead.  The Defenses of both teams then completely shut things down for the remainder of the game.  The game drifted to OT where the Black Knights’ David Symmes scored off the bull dodge, his fourth of the game.  Shane Doss was a bit unlucky as he got a good piece of the shot that spun into the net to end the game.

Our pregame questions:

  1. Health:  ND-Atl 2.0 was relieved that Perkovic and Garnsey were given rest.  With so little to be gained, it would have been difficult to rationalize playing them so banged up.  It seems P.J. Finley was given the day off as well.  There were a few scares in the game with Brendan Gleason coming off the field after a late hit.  He came back in the game a scored some more. We are concerned about Koshansky.  He seemed to tweak his knee again late in the game and we didn’t see him on the field anymore.  We have not heard anything more about this and hope all is OK.
  2. Elevate Secondary Players:  The second midfield line got a tremendous amount of time, as did Marini and Willetts (although we would have liked to see Willetts more).  The guys did not impact the scoresheet much, but it was good to see them trying to work things out.  Spacing on offense was rough on occasion, and they had difficulty getting opportunities, but we feel it’s always good to get the guys some time on the turf.  This may be the result of good defense as much as anything else, but we hoped Costabile, Byrne and Collins would have made better use of their time in the limelight.
  3. Man-Down Defense:  They were improved, stopping all three man-down situations.  It was good to see this unit have a performance to build upon for the tournament.

Odds and Ends:

-Shane Doss had a very good game, but got unlucky.  He got a good piece of the game winner and another shot earlier that went in.  Regardless, it is good that he is seeing the ball this well.

-Charlie Leonard got a few cracks at faceoff X with an old school stand-up long pole faceoff.  Travisano acquitted himself well against Grabher, although the game made clear his limitations in transition as compared to Finley.  Still, given the Irish’s struggles at faceoff X, being able to get possession of any kind is a welcome development.

-Other than a rough 5-minute stretch in the 2nd quarter, the defense was in tournament form.  They were able to keep it together for some very, very long Army possessions.

-12,233.  That’s a huge crowd for a late season, non-conference game, and they seemed to be really into it.  Great job to the Army folks for getting such a fantastic crowd out.  To our calculations, the third biggest crowd of any lacrosse game for any team this season.

-Sexton, simply said, is the Man.

-Coach Corrigan says if there is a scoreboard, they will try to win.  The guys certainly gave 100%, but it is a loss we can’t be too upset about.  Army always plays ND tough at Michie Stadium, and for the Irish to play this well with a short bench, we can’t complain.

-NCAA selection show is on ESPNU Sunday at 9:00.  It’s hard to tell where they’ll be, but there’s a good argument for any spot between 4 and 7, which gets the Irish a home game, albeit against a tougher opponent.

Please share your thoughts with us in the comments section.