Irish fall at Arlotta to the Buckeyes by a score of 10-9

With the loss to Ohio State, Notre Dame moves to 3-2 on the season as a big game looms in Ann Arbor this weekend

Photo Credit: Notre Dame Lacrosse Twitter

I would imagine that most of you reading this column are also pretty big Notre Dame football fans. I am a HUGE Notre Dame football fan and if you follow along with me throughout the year, you know that my “Exit 77” podcast is a Notre Dame football AND lacrosse podcast. Notre Dame football and lacrosse are my two sports passions in life, and when fall comes around, you can find me devouring Notre Dame football content. It’s not that my love changes for lacrosse, it’s just that my love shifts a little bit. In the spring it’s the reverse as it is all Notre Dame lacrosse all the time and Notre Dame football right behind.

You are probably wondering why I am starting off my Notre Dame versus Ohio State lacrosse column with Notre Dame football, but I promise I have a point and I plan to bring this all home very soon. Stay with me, I am going to land this plane, I promise.

Watching Notre Dame football against Texas A&M in the 2024 season opener with my ND buddies at our classmate’s house was an awesome moment. We went into a tough environment in the SEC, we played like we we thought we could, we played physical and in the end we won. It was the highest of highs that was met the following week with the lowest of lows as we lost at home to Northern Illinois. Not sure “despondent” is the right word to use to describe me, but I can tell you (the readers of this column) that I told my wife “I am going to take a long walk around the block” when that final field goal fell short. Nope, not the game we were expected to play and certainly not the outcome we wanted.

My “Exit 77” podcast – Episode 86 from that week was not a bright listen. In fact, it might have been one of the more unlistenable podcasts I have done in the three years I have been doing my podcast. We were 1-1 on the season and we were heading to face a 1-0 Purdue team in West Lafayette. My prevailing sentiment was that I don’t think any of us knew what we would see from our Irish on that sunny day on the Purdue campus, but if there was one feeling that we were sure on, it was this: “find a way to get a win and find a way to turn the ship around.” A loss would have been devastating so it did not matter if it was a one point win, a two point win or a fifty-nine point win (which it turned out to be). It was all about getting the season back to where it needed to be and to then begin that climb back up. I was at my son’s flag football game that day during the Notre Dame vs Purdue game and I refused to look at my phone as I was too nervous. I truly would not have been surprised to see just about any score if and when I took a look on my phone. When I finally opened it up, the score was Notre Dame 42 | Purdue 0. R-E-L-I-E-F in capital letters.

College football and college lacrosse seasons are different in that one or two losses in football can mean no shot at making the postseason. Lacrosse is a lot different as one can have some losses and still be okay. One can suffer early season setbacks, play your best lacrosse as the season goes on, make the tournament, go on a run and win a championship (see North Carolina in 2016). Right now our Irish have had a tough last two weekends. We could easily be 5-0 and the #1 ranked team in the country, but instead we are 3-2 and facing a path that not many of us saw when our season got underway in mid February.

REAL TALK: Notre Dame is 39-5 in our last 44 lacrosse games. In the last two years, we have lost three total games by a total of THREE goals. In each of these games, the game was won on the final possession, meaning either team could have basically had a chance to win in the final moments of the game. Read the internet, listen to podcasts, talk to others….there is angst right now about Notre Dame lacrosse. We have gotten so used to this team just steamrolling through everyone that we forget that sometimes winning is hard. We forget that every other team in college lacrosse is gunning to beat our Irish. We forget that the other team practices hard during the week and the other team has talented players looking for a victory. We have been so good over the last few years that when our Irish appear to be even a little bit down, there can be some fear and some doubt that can start to creep in.

We have a crucial game upcoming this weekend against Michigan in Ann Arbor. This is the last game before our bye week and before we head into the ACC portion of our schedule. The Big Ten has been really good this year across teams like Maryland, Penn State, Ohio State and Johns Hopkins. They are looking to get at least four teams into the tournament come May and every win they get against ACC teams will strengthen their RPI and their resume. Saturday’s matchup is critical for a few reasons: First off, we need to just get a win to get back on track. Secondly, we are heading into a bye and a third loss in a row would not be good with a week off. Lastly, we do not want to be 0-3 against the Big Ten when it comes time for the tournament committee to make their selections.

Similar to the Purdue game for our Irish football team in early September, this St. Patrick’s Day weekend is huge and our Irish need a win. Do we need to figure out certain things on offense and defense? YES. Do we need to get everything figured out in Ann Arbor against Michigan? NO. Just find a way to win. Dig deep, improve and get back to the hallmarks of Notre Dame lacrosse that we know this team is capable of on a weekly basis. Get the confidence back that has been there for so long, get the W, have a nice bus ride home and then really hunker down during the bye week to continue sorting things out for the final five game stretch of the regular season. Plane landed? I tried my best.

The next “Exit 77” podcast will be recorded on Friday evening, keep an eye out for it as David Brogan and I will break down the OSU game and look ahead to the Michigan matchup.

The final on Saturday at Arlotta was Ohio State 10 | Notre Dame 9. The Buckeyes scored their final goal with 7 ticks on the clock left and walked out of Arlotta with a 7-1 record. It was their first road game and their first road win of the season. I was not able to watch the game live and getting a tape of the game has been tough so I am not going to have my normal quarter by quarter breakdown. Instead, I will look at some overall aspects of our Irish and give some of my thoughts.

Shout out to Thomas Ricciardelli

20 saves on the day by our goalkeeper, easily his best game in an Irish uniform. He was outstanding on the afternoon and there were often long stretches when Ohio State went scoreless due to his stellar play. Additionally, coming off the Maryland game where the Terps found success shooting low, it was great to see him do a better overall job on all around saves. It was never going to be easy for someone to take over following Liam, but Thomas continues to get more comfortable with each game and it is exciting to watch him settle into his position.

Dealing with Injuries

We are at that point of the year where injuries are going to start to pop up and key players are going to be out. We were extremely healthy last year, but we cannot expect that to be the case year in and year out. Look at Penn State last weekend as they were missing their entire starting attack. On Saturday our Irish were missing two of our top SSDMs in Tyler Buchner and Christian Alacqua. We don’t know what their injuries are and we don’t know how long they will be out, but with their absence on Saturday, the Buckeyes knew they would be getting the chance to go against some less experienced players for the Irish at that position. Players that have not been out there as much in competitive game time means that the close defense has to be more aware of their slides; they have to be extra vigilant. Different tendencies of our teammates need to be recognized as well and we saw OSU really look to get an advantage when it came to these types of matchups on Saturday. So it is a learning experience for everyone involved and one that every can use moving forward.

Sorting out the Midfield Lines

I wonder if this week against Michigan we will see two solid lines of middies against the Wolverines, with the third line getting some run here and there. I am not a coach for the Irish, and they know best, but it is probably at the point where we need to settle on our top six midfielders and let those top two lines fully gel. We have a lot of talent across our offensive middies, and other teams would kill for the players we run out there, but as we have mixed and matched things up, we lose a little bit of the continuity that we want to have. We had so much success last year with our top two lines being set and then sprinkling in the third, I have to think that we start to see that this weekend in Ann Arbor.

Settling on our Attack Unit

Similar to our midfield, we saw a few different groups of three out there for our Irish on Saturday against the Buckeyes. We know that we will have Chris Kavanagh and Jake Taylor out there on attack, and we need to try to figure out who is best to have that third attack spot. There are basically five options for that last spot that make sense to me: Brady Pokorny, Brock Behrman, Devon McLane, Will Maheras or Matt Jeffery. I think what it comes down to is who is going to become the quarterback of the offense and who is the person who can beat their man, draw a slide and create shots for others. Our attack, over the last three games, has four total assists. That is not sustainable as our season moves along so trying to find that third attackman who complements Chris and Jake is something I would imagine is continuing to get sorted out this week during practice. Do we need to have that fully sorted out this weekend in Ann Arbor? No. We do have a bye week after this game to get things settled, but it would be good to see the direction we think we should go when we kick things off on Saturday afternoon.

Figure out the Third Quarter

45 minutes of action across the last three games’ third quarters, our Irish have scored just two goals. Additionally, across the last three games, we have been outscored in the third quarter by a score of 8-2. In a bit of an oddity, the score by quarters across the first three quarters of the Maryland and OSU games were the same:

1st Quarter: ND 3 MD/OSU 2

Halftime: ND 5 MD/OSU 4

3rd Quarter: ND 6 MD/OSU 8

We have to figure out something within the third quarter that is taking place that is not allowing us to continue to push our lead forward, but in actuality, give the other team a distinct advantage as we head into the fourth quarter. This is fixable and something that has to happen as the season progresses.

Leadership Continuing to Emerge

Last year we graduated some of the best leaders we have seen in our Irish program, led by two-time Captains Liam Entenmann, Pat Kavanagh, Max Manyak and first time Captain Eric Dobson. This year’s Captains are Ben Ramsey and Chris Kavanagh. We know they are doing a great job leading the team, and I am sure there are others that we don’t hear that much about as we are not there on an every day basis. With this being the first time in two years that we have lost back to back games, this is a really good opportunity for more guys on the team to continue to emerge, lead and help captain the ship. “Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders” is an awesome quote and I am excited to continue watching as more and more leaders come to the forefront as we turn things around.

Trust the Coaches

At the beginning of the season, I called this the best coaching staff in college lacrosse. I said that for a reason and I still believe that to be the case. They know what they are doing and they know how to make the adjustments that can help get us back on track. They have been doing this for a LONG time, they have been here before and they know the levers to pull to get the team to respond. Full trust on my part.

Let’s Not Forget Who We Are

For those of you who follow Inside Lacrosse, you have probably started to see Larken Kemp’s new column in there. If you have not, go read it as he is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers on college lacrosse. I HIGHLY doubt that Larken reads my weekly column, but I am going to take a LITTLE bit of credit for his “King of the Jungle” analogies in this week’s article as I have used quotes around that for the last two years when describing our Irish. I prefer “when the lion’s hungry, he eats,” but I digress. Larken, when looking at Notre Dame, talked about the “apex predator being wounded” and how everyone else “stands a little taller” when this happens. It is true that our Irish have lost two straight, we do have a “wound” that has sent a “ripple” through the lacrosse stratosphere, but that does not stop Notre Dame lacrosse from being Notre Dame lacrosse. Character, Culture and Community are the three pillars our program is built on, and those will never change. But if we look at what Notre Dame has done over the last five years or so, what we stand for is that we have become a dominant force in college lacrosse through a relentless style of play that does not give up. We don’t get out hustled for ground balls, we ride on clears until there is no more space to run, we play fundamental lacrosse across both offense and defense, we work extremely hard, we are proud, we are not showy, we are committed to excellence and we are the embodiment of team lacrosse. Let’s not forget who we are and get back to playing like we all know our team can play. We are Notre Dame Lacrosse.

What’s Next

It’s our St. Patrick’s Day weekend game so I would imagine our Irish will be in our green as we take on Michigan in Ann Arbor at 1 PM EST. The Wolverines are 4-3 on the season coming off a loss to Harvard last weekend in Cambridge. Michigan has not lost at home this year and they will be looking to avenge last season’s Irish victory at Arlotta as we won going away 19-9.

We have talked about it this whole article. This is a BIG game for Notre Dame. It is time to get to 4-2, get to our bye week, rest up and then attack the back half of our schedule. Let’s do it, let’s play our style and our brand of lacrosse. If we do so, not many teams, if any, can beat us.

Lastly, with Notre Dame’s spring break this week, the boys had the chance to come to Chicago on Monday to meet up with alumni here in the city. Always cool to see the team getting together with former players and graduates from Notre Dame.

Let’s Go Irish! Beat Michigan!