Notre Dame Fighting Irish lacrosse (5-2) beat Ohio State (5-4), 9-8, on Sunday afternoon in Columbus.  The win was the 16th straight over the Buckeyes, and earned Coach Kevin Corrigan his 300th win!

The Scoring

Balanced scoring from the Irish:  Gleason, Garnsey, and Wynne with two goals each, Willets, Costabile, and Collins with one.  Drake and Sexton had the only assists.

Travisano went an outstanding 17-19 at faceoff-x, Schmidt had a much stronger day in the crease with 9 saves, and Sexton had 6 ground balls and a caused turnover to go along with his assist.

The Irish outshot their opponent 44-28, and won the ground ball battle, 31-26.  They also made great inroads into the strong Buckeye clear by keeping them to 21 of 25.

Tre LeClaire paced the Buckeyes with three goals and two assists.

The Plot

The Buckeyes opened scoring, with the Irish following with goals by Collins and Costabile.  The teams were tied 5-5 at the half.

The Irish went into and extended scoring drought, firing 12 shots but connecting on none.  The Irish took control in the 4th, continuing to pepper the goalie with 16 shots, but this time connecting with goals by Garnsey, Gleason, Wynne and Garnsey again.  Ohio State crept back but the Irish were able to close it out.

The Notre Dame highlight reel hasn’t been posted yet, but we have this video available:

Thoughts

The game did not go much like we had anticipated, but the Irish came to play, dominating possession and controlling the game more handily than the close score would suggest.  We had thought Ohio State would have its success dodging and Notre Dame moving the ball.  The opposite was more the case, especially in regard to the Irish.

If we had to express a concern about the result, it’s that the final score should not have been remotely close.   Utter dominance at faceoff and quality goaltending should have made this a blowout, yet it was a one goal win.  The apparent culprit is shot selection, which wasn’t ideal, as a 4-for-28 second half shooting performance would suggest.  Still, a win is a win, and it’s a road win at that.

  • Travisano, with Sexton and Cohen at the wings, choked the life out of Ohio State with a dominant performance. If the Irish can keep this up, expect good things this season.  Travisano still struggles a bit with the ball once he has it, but this is a nitpicky complaint on a 17-19 day.
  • Schmidt rebounded well with a strong performance and exceeding our 50% save percentage target and making some confident-looking saves. Freshman will have growing pains, but this guy has a strong disposition.
  • Sexton continues his ground ball tear.  He punishes every opponent mistake.  His skill getting the ball off the turf is approaching ludicrous level.
  • In the first half of the game, Tre LeClaire was able to exploit some matchups against Notre Dame SSDMs who weren’t getting help, but adjustments were made to plug the hole.
  • The offense has regularly been strong in the 1st and 4th, and anemic in the 3rd.  Sunday was no different.  The Irish had possession control and fired a lot of shots, but placement was not ideal and nothing went in. The Ohio State goalie had a great day, but the Irish gave him plenty of easy saves to make that built his confidence.
  • Scoring had a nice balance to it, but when scoring dried up, it was Garnsey again that got Notre Dame on track.  Adding to his hand-signal repertoire is a signal for a butt-first screen behind the cage.  We’ve never seen that before.
  • The short bench continues, with the Irish rotating 4 attack, only 4 offensive middies, but 4 SSDMs.  A few extra role players are emerging, with Hadley and a bit of Restic backing up Sexton, Jackoboice a fixture on the man-up unit, and Young and Trense on the man-down.  However, they are keeping a ton of firepower in reserve on the bench.  We don’t know if there are injury issues, but we are approaching the midway mark with the bench being entirely under wraps since the Detroit game.  It’s working fine, but it seems to be unnecessarily risky.
  • The Irish dropped to #7 in most polls as a result of the Michigan loss.  RPI remains on track to be good come tournament selection time, so we’re not worried by these silly overreactions.
  • There was a nice showing in Columbus by the Notre Dame faithful!
  • Congrats to Coach Corrigan on his 300th win!  This is a big number considering how short lacrosse seasons are.

 

Next up:   The Irish travel to Syracuse on Saturday.  The Orange won by a goal last year in South Bend, but the 2016 game was a complete demolition of the home team in Syracuse.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments!