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Unless you were at the Loftus Center on Sunday, you were not able to see the Notre Dame Men’s Lacrosse team defeat Georgetown by a final score of 15-9. It was the rare occurrence where a top 10 matchup was nowhere to be found on any sort of TV or streaming platform. That’s rough and the Twitter Lacrosse universe is up and arms over it, and I do think they have a right to be mad. This is absolutely the type of matchup that people across the country want to see, and it is the type of matchup that will help grow the game. For what seems like a variety of reasons, there was no feed for this game which was moved indoors a couple of days prior due to the cold weather in the South Bend area. Had the game been outside at Arlotta, it would have been must watch TV on the ACC Network, but with that not being the case, there were about 1,000 people in attendance to cheer on and witness the Irish’s dominant victory.
I was lucky enough to be there in person and it was a great afternoon in the Loftus Center. With me were my son, Conner, his good buddy Paul, and Joe, Paul’s Dad and my good friend. We had an absolute blast cheering on the Irish and seeing and connecting back with familiar faces from the Notre Dame lacrosse world. Thanks to all those we got to spend some time with throughout the afternoon. And there is also nothing better than watching your kids get autographs from the players after the game. What a thrill for them!
Okay, because we don’t have a video replay of the game, most of what I am going to report on today is based on what I remember from Sunday and what I am able to discern from the box score.
It’s going to be a quick article, so let’s get into it…
Quarters 1 – 4
Notre Dame scored the first two goals of the game and it was a perfect start to get everyone energized. Will Maheras and Luke Miller hit home and set the tone for the Irish.
Give Georgetown credit, they got the next three goals with the Connor brothers scoring all three to give the Hoyas a 3-2 lead early in the second quarter.
Notre Dame won this game in the second quarter. The Irish scored 6 of the next 7 goals to take an 8-4 lead into halftime. It was clinical the way the Irish played in the quarter, our all-around best quarter of the year so far. Miguel Iglesias, Will Angrick, Josh Yago (2), Teddy Lally and Brock Behrman all hit home for the Irish.
Georgetown and Notre Dame traded goals in the third quarter with the Hoyas outscoring the Irish 4-3 across the fifteen minute stretch. Rattling the cage for the Irish were Will Angrick (2) and Luke Miller and the score was 11-8 Irish as we entered into the fourth.
If there was any doubt that the Irish would win, it was sealed by Notre Dame scoring the first four goals of the quarter with Jalen Seymour, Will Maheras, Josh Yago and Teddy Lally all getting tallies to make it 15-8 Irish. The Hoyas would get one back and that is where we would end the game, 15-9 Irish.
My Overall Thoughts
Notre Dame won this game because they were the better, grittier team. And it showed. Faceoffs were even, but the Irish won the ground ball battle 41-30. Georgetown had 26 turnovers and Notre Dame had 19. Finally, Notre Dame was 20-22 on clears while the Hoyas were 19-26. The Irish left no doubt in this game through their ride and through their play in the middle of the field. It’s that simple. This is Notre Dame lacrosse, it just is, and it was SO GOOD to see.
It was a total team effort for the Irish on the scoring side of things, here are the scorer highlights:
Will Angrick’s best game of the season with 3 goals and 1 assist.
Teddy Lally continues to not look like a freshman with 2 goals and 2 assists.
Will Maheras, good luck stopping his dodges from all angles; another 2 goals and 1 assist for him.
Josh Yago, best transfer across college lacrosse? He is making his case with 3 goals and 2 assists.
Miguel Iglesias’ 1 goal coming off a faceoff win with some slick passing that got the all to him. Same thing as Lally, a freshman who is playing really well.
Brock Behrman with another goal on the season, the steadying force at the attack position for the Irish.
Jalen Seymour with a hard lefty shot from up to for his 1 goal. He continues to make the most of his fifth season.
Luke Miller scored from different angles with his 2 goals. His move from X and taking it around the goal for one of his goals was Chef’s Kiss.
The Defense for Notre Dame was excellent on Sunday. Outside of a few stretches in the 1st and 3rd quarters, this unit played lights across the close defense, the LSMs and our SSDM unit. Will Donovan continues to be an absolute menace in the middle of the field with another two caused turnovers. Shawn Lyght played his best game of the season with three caused turnovers. Great to see Nate Schwitzenberg back out there and playing really solid defense with one caused turnover. Finally, Will Gallagher had two caused turnovers as he continues his great play this early in the season.
Some Quick Hitters
This is a really solid SSDM unit for the Irish. Not many people were talking about them at the beginning of the season, but this is a great group.
60 goals for the Irish across our first three games. I will take that any day of the week.
Josh Yago is quickly becoming one of my favorite players in all of college lacrosse.
Love the intensity that Christopher Iuliano plays with when he is at LSM.
That is a very good Georgetown defense; the Irish met the challenge head on.
No one will ever get tired of watching Coach Corrigan lead the team in the final pre-game drills before he huddles them up.
What’s Next
The road does not get any easier as the Irish travel to Maryland on Saturday for a matchup against the 1-2 Terrapins. The game will be in College Park at 12 PM EST and you will have to have the Big Ten Network if you plan to tune in and watch. Don’t also forget that the camera angle will be from very high up top so it will be a different look than we are normally used to when catching the Irish.
Even though they have only won one game, no one is sleeping on Maryland. Coach Tillman is one of the best in all of college lacrosse, there was a reason they were preseason #1 and he will have his squad ready to go.
This is a big one for the Irish as we start our first of three Big Ten matchups with Ohio State and Michigan the following weekends. This will be another opportunity for the Irish to make a statement and continue to prove they are one of the best teams in the country. People were sleeping on the Irish to start the year, but following the Marquette, Bellarmine and Georgetown wins, people are starting to see what this Irish team is made of.
Had a few more people been able to watch our game against the Hoyas, I think you would have even more on our bandwagon. Yes, we played that well.
Keep it up Notre Dame lacrosse, heads down with the job at hand. Let’s get a huge victory on Saturday. Let’s Go Irish!