The Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team had its two final tune-ups with scrimmages against Bellarmine on Saturday, and against Air Force Sunday afternoon.  The score wasn’t the point, but in both the Irish won a lot to not a lot, and they looked good doing it.

We weren’t at the games, but we are fortunate to have the notes of friends, twitter followers, and writers from our own 18 Stripes community who are new fans of the game.  We regret we don’t have a complete accounting of statistics and such, and hope our readers are not offended if we’ve left something out or that this will not be a very polished report.

Bellarmine scrimmage

The Fighting Irish fan community was eager to see this season’s version on the field.  The team’s twitter account reported multiple goals from Brian Willets and Bryan Costabile, good goal play from Owen Molloy, and the joyous return of graduate student and SSDM Carlson Miliken.

Our community of friends reports the faceoff situation looked good with Kyle Hyland and John Travisano.  They also report seeing a primary attack line of Wynne-Garnsey-Willetts, with freshman Conor Morin being blended in, and a defensive line of Crance-Kielty-Cohen.  Midfield lines included Gleason-Costabile-Collins and Byrne-Phillips-Drake.  Mike Marchese got some time in goal as well.   We’ve also seen photos of Jackoboice and Mirer on the field, along with many of the usual suspects at SSDM and LSM, other than John Sexton.

The general vibe we got was that the offense was performing very well and getting lots of good chances.  This is positive news.

Air Force Academy scrimmage

The team’s twitter account was largely quiet, but we received regular updates from fans and our 18 Stripes community.  What need to be discussed first is that no one should ever complain about their accommodations on Spirit or Allegiant if the Air Force team can proudly arrive in their awesome ride:

 

Water and sandwiches only on this fight.

The final tally was 10-5 or 10-6 to the Irish, depending on who you ask, but the important takeaway was that Notre Dame looked strong for long stretches.  Goals for Costabile, Phillips, Garnsey, Drake and the very tall Davis Allen.  A defensive line of Crance-Keilty-Trense got a long look (We were very excited to see a kid from our hometown Atlanta making an impact!).  John Zullo got a long look in goal, and late in the game Blommer, Young and Hurdle anchored the defense.  The Drake goal on the man-up unit showed good rotation:

 

Hyland looked good at the faceoff X, with Travisano having a few challenges during the game and Charles Leonard getting a chance to show his stuff, too.  Some commented that the Irish struggled a little bit when Air Force had long possessions, but the score doesn’t suggest Air Force earned too many scoring chances.  Notre Dame seems to have won comfortably.  We share the teams’ gratitude for the Falcon’s traveling such a distance for a scrimmage.

ND v AFA- handshake, photo by @1stdownmoses

Notes

  • John Sexton did not see the field this weekend.  We understand he is recovering from a back injury but he may be back next week.
  • The sight of winning faceoffs is intoxicating.

ND faceoff win v AFA, photo by @1stdownmoses

 

  • A large part of the team got a look this weekend.  The squad, by all reports, is very deep at every position.
  • Up next for the Irish:  the official start of the season against Detroit, Sunday, February 11 at 1:00, @ Notre Dame.  Please check the team’s twitter @ndlacrosse to confirm venue as neither Arlotta or Loftus is yet confirmed.
  • A special thank you to our followers who kept us up to date during the games, and particular thanks to 18 Stripes’ own 1stDownMoses and Eric Bens who volunteered to watch the game for us, and @ndeyemd for his helpful input.