Irish start fast against Georgetown, hold off the Hoyas

Notre Dame goes into DC, gets a big 11-9 victory and moves to 3-0 on the season

Lacrosse can be a game a repetition and the best players will tell you that the thousands of hours spent either at a wall or shooting at the cage helps refine their game. It is one of the best things about lacrosse in that one can practice on their own in order to not only make their own game better, but also make themselves a better teammate. That is something that one can control.

What one cannot control is the weather, and if you know the Midwest in January and February, it can be a mixed bag. With lots of snow and freezing temperatures across the last month or so in South Bend, getting outside to practice lacrosse was not much of an option for our Irish. This past Saturday’s matchup against the Georgetown Hoyas in Washington DC was one of the first, if not the actual first opportunity, for the Irish to get outside and play some lacrosse in 2025. It was a big test and Notre Dame prevailed 11-9 getting a nice win in our third game, but also maybe learning a little more about our squad and what we can control in the weeks ahead as we look to continue to make our path here in 2025.

As always, the Exit 77 podcast – Episode 106 has you covered with a look back at the Georgetown game, as David Brogan and I talked about the contest; we also looked ahead to Maryland while covering the college lacrosse landscape as a whole.

Let’s get into it and while I won’t have my normal quarter by quarter breakdown, I am going to focus on what we saw within this game and some overall thoughts.

Finally don’t forget to check out 18Stripes’ look at the ND vs Georgetown matchup.

Fast Start for our Irish

Not sure we could have asked for a better start for Notre Dame than what we saw on Saturday. Let’s just go down the line:

Chris Kavanagh Goal at 13:10 (1-0 Irish)

Will Angrick Goal at 9:41 (2-0 Irish)

Fisher Finley Goal at 9:09 (3-0 Irish)

Will Donovan Goal at 8:59 (4-0 Irish)

Will Angrick Goal at 6:42 (5-0 Irish)

Jalen Seymour Goal at 5:45 (6-0 Irish)

It was clinical and while we did not see some of our typical great assists (more on that later), Notre Dame was taking advantage of our matchups and bringing it to what at the time seemed like an overmatched Hoya defense. At the 3-0 mark, Georgetown coach Kevin Warne even took a timeout, only to then see his squad give up another three goals to the Irish.

It was a Game of Runs

Well if we thought the 6-0 lead for our Irish was something, then sure we have to give credit as well to Georgetown for their own 6-0 run which tied up the score at 6-6 with 5:18 left in the second quarter. The game could have easily gotten completely out of hand in Q1, and Notre Dame even had the ball with the chance to go up 7-0, but the Hoyas were able to get two goals back in the first (one at the buzzer that I know Thomas Ricciardelli would have liked to have had back) and then they scored four more to start the second to get completely right back in the ballgame.

Big Moments Bring out Big Players

6-6 tie score on the road and all the momentum with the team playing at home. When these instances happen, your team looks for its best players to step up and make big plays. That is exactly Chris Kavanagh did as he assisted on goal #7 with a nice feed from X to Devon McLane. Not to mention, this feed came after he fell down, did a twist and almost lost possession. Shortly after all this he scored goal #8 to give our Irish an 8-6 lead at halftime. Three goals and one assist on the day for Chris Kavanagh is a good outing, but I think the thing those of us who watch these games closely will point to are the plays he makes when it matters most (more on that later).

A Defensive Third Quarter

Not sure I have seen many games across the years where both teams have a third quarter with zero goals. It can occasionally happen in the first quarter as teams are feeling each other out, but usually not this late in the contest. Both Notre Dame and Georgetown can point to their defenses having strong stretches over this 15 minute stand and I also want to highlight the fact that the Irish were able to fight off a 2 minute penalty without a goal allowed. It was a key moment and shout out to Alex Zepf who had to come in and play goalie across some tense minutes.

Fourth Quarter and Closing it out

The fourth quarter saw a similar start to the finish of the second quarter with the Irish scoring consecutive goals. Jordan Faison hit home for his first goal of the season and Jalen Seymour connected home on his second of the day to give Notre Dame a 10-6 lead with 10:41 to go. Not backing down and refusing to go away (just like they had done earlier in the game), Georgetown then scored the next three goals to make it a 10-9 contest with 4:08 to go. The Hoyas even had possession with a chance to tie, but as goalie Anderson Moore tried to clear the ball on his own, a nice check from Jake Taylor lodged the ball free and the Irish were able to regain possession. From there it was Chris Kavanagh’s chance to put the game away and he did so scoring on a diving goal right in front to make it an 11-9 game. Awesome job from Chris, and as expected from our captain, big time players make big time plays. Notre Dame was able to get a late save to keep it at 11-9 and that is where we would finish with the Irish getting a win in our Nation’s Capital and moving to 3-0 on the season (39-3 in our last 42 games).

Some Notes and Thoughts

Have to start off this section with the play from Will Lynch. From the Inside Lacrosse write up on the game, here was the quote from Kevin Warne “Make sure you mention Will Lynch,” Hoyas coach Kevin Warne said after the game. “He was tremendous. I was having flashbacks to last year at Hofstra.” A stellar game from Will on Saturday as he finished 15-22 at the dot, and when the Irish were struggling to find the back of the net, his winning of faceoffs was able to give our Irish extra possessions and then stem the Hoya tide in the second quarter. Additionally, and not the least to mention, congrats to Will as he officially became the all-time record holder for ground balls at Notre Dame with 281. It’s been a tremendous career, highlighted by his stepping up on the biggest of stages across May in 2023 and 2024; can’t wait to see how the rest of this season goes for him. Congrats Will!

Thomas Ricciardelli, in just his third start as the Notre Dame goalie, had his absolute best game as he finished with 16 saves while giving up 9 goals. It was really good to see Thomas continue to get settled into Goalie One. A game like this will pay massive dividends as the season moves along and while I would imagine he was not hurting for confidence following a fantastic high school career, being able to do the same at the college level is something different. Thomas was a difference maker on Saturday and looking forward to him continuing to build on this outing as the season progresses forward.

Notre Dame has three players pulling double duty across lacrosse and football. We have already seen what Tyler Buchner can do early this season, and on Saturday we got our first look at the other two as Jordan Faison and Matt Jeffery saw the field against the Hoyas. Coach Corrigan had previously said that we would probably not see Jordan until March so it was great to watch him back out there on the field and running with the middies. In particular, he had a very nice goal going to the cage as he hit home with his off hand to put the Irish up 9-6 in the third. I think we can all expect for him to get more run this weekend in Atlanta as he continues to get his lacrosse legs and stick skills back. Matt Jeffery was out there a few times and the highly touted freshman showed the speed and elusiveness that elevated his game on the high school level. It will be interesting to see how his role continues to expand in the weeks ahead as the midfield depth continues to shine for our Irish. We easily have three capable lines we can run out there each and every game.

Ben Ramsey clearing the ball is just so fun to watch. No matter where he gets the ball, whether from behind goal in the defensive end or somewhere near the crease, he just knows where to go and how to get the ball into the offensive zone. His ability to run through a few defenders and use the swim move is just next level.

I really like the start to the season that Jalen Seymour is having. You can tell he is playing with confidence and his move and goal in the third quarter was sick (see below). You don’t make that play unless you have some skill in creating the space to get that shot off.

Turnovers on Saturday: Notre Dame (20) Georgetown (11). If there is one thing I would imagine the coaching staff harped on this week, and where lots of film was consumed, it was around the turnovers from our Irish. It is not the norm for us to have almost double the turnovers as our competition, but this can be something for the team to learn from and sure this was an area that was emphasized during sessions this week. Did the outdoor weather have something to do with it? Maybe. But this team is too good for this to be a stat we are pointing to after a game.

Shots on Goal will also be something that the coaching staff I am sure worked on this week. Notre Dame had 36 shots on goal, 11 goals and Anderson Moore had 5 saves. That means 20 shots that missed the cage. One of the interesting aspects of the game was that the Irish had only two assists all game. Definitely this has to be the least amount of assists in a game from the Irish in recent memory. Credit to Georgetown for their defensive performance and they clearly chose to shut off Jake Taylor to stop ND’s interior play. The Hoyas did a good job of shutting off the backside and while I really liked the way the Irish were flinging it around up top, there just was not a lot of space for passes in close and the usual doorstep goals the Irish get. All this probably contributed to an off day for the Irish shooting against the Hoyas.

Georgetown, of all teams across college lacrosse, has played Notre Dame the toughest over the last over now 2.5 years. Full props to them and their coaching staff. Their defensive structure and their ball control style of play has given Notre Dame fits. They are a good team and one that I expect to be in the field and challenging for a spot in Boston come May.

Fulton Bayman is playing his fifth year for the Georgetown Hoyas. The 2024 graduate of Notre Dame is one of the leading scorers for the Hoyas this year, and on Saturday he had two goals and one assist against his former teammates and friends. I am happy for him as he is finally fully healthy and thriving with his new team. I continue to wish him all the best the rest of this season.

What’s Next

It’s the Atlanta Lacrosse Invitational. It’s #1 vs #2 as the Irish take on the Maryland Terrapins on Saturday afternoon at 1 PM EST at Bobby Dodd Stadium on Georgia Tech’s campus. For the second time in our last five games, we will be playing the Terps in a big time matchup. Maryland is 4-0 this season and looking every bit like the #2 team in the country. Following early wins against Richmond and Loyola (in OT), the Terps have been super impressive in beating Syracuse at home and then Princeton up in New Jersey. They have one of the best defenses in this early season of college lacrosse and they are led by Logan McNaney who is wearing the #1 this season. He is in his fifth year coming off an injury in his junior season having also lead the Terps to the National Championship in 2022.

This matchup is considered a home game for Maryland and what a neat environment this will be on Saturday. Atlanta and the southeast has been a hotbed for lacrosse over the last 15 years and I expect some serious crowds to be at this game. I will be there as I am flying down on Friday and am super excited to see the Irish in person. Also looking forward to seeing Marco and Luke from 18Stripes and getting back together with my good friend Fred Assaf who will be at the game as well. Additionally, psyched to see one of my old roommates from Notre Dame and one of my best friends from grade school who lives in Atlanta with her husband and their two kids.

This will be a battle. All the eyes of college lacrosse will be on this game and if there are a few things I will be keeping my eye on, here they are:

– Does Maryland look to shut off Jake Taylor and force other Irish players to beat them?

– Does Notre Dame lean on our depth and run three separate midfield lines in the warmer Southern temperatures?

– How does Notre Dame’s “new” look defense fare against a top of the top tier opponent?

These games are why everyone loves lacrosse. The winner will be the undisputed #1 team in the country. This is going to be an awesome matchup with two of the best coaching staffs leading the current two best teams in Division One.

See you soon Atlanta. Let’s Go Irish!