Notre Dame Men’s Lacrosse: Irish Double up the Blue Devils 14-7

Notre Dame moves to 5-2 overall and 1-0 in the ACC with a big win over Duke at Arlotta

Photo Credit: Notre Dame lacrosse twitter

Spring break is here and as my wife and I have two kids, we are out of town spending some good time away from our home as a family. It is always a great opportunity to get to a new state in the US, relax, recharge and get ready for the last eight weeks of school. Having two kids who are in third and second grade respectively, our family trips are still ones where our kids love to hang out with us; we know we have to take advantage of this time and the opportunity to spend these carefree days with them. It will be fleeting as soon enough they will be older and it won’t be that “cool” to spend time with Mom and Dad.

With all this being the case, this week’s column will be shorter than normal as there is not much time to type. Getting you into a good spot around the Irish’s 14-7 win against Duke, listen to the latest “Exit 77” podcast – Episode 110 as David Brogan and I break down every aspect of the game and what we saw. Additionally, take a look at our friends at 18Stripes and their write up on the Irish victory.

Lastly, this past week’s game was a special one for me in that I had the chance to go to the game with my Dad (Notre Dame Class of 1969) and my son Conner. It was three generations of Brennans in the Bend for the afternoon. We braved the weather, we had the chance to see an awesome ND victory, we got to hang out with a lot of the players’ families before the game at the tailgate, and then we finished off the afternoon with pictures of Conner on the field with a lot of the ND players. What a day it was, one that as a son and as a father, I will soon not forget.

Okay, let’s get into it. With the shortened column, I am going to give a “What I liked about Notre Dame on Saturday” look. Here we go…

Photo Credit – Drew Brennan

Photo Credit – Drew Brennan

What I liked about Notre Dame on Saturday

Going to get this going with Ronan Doherty and the job he did at LSM. Called into a bigger role on the day with Greg Campisi going down to close defense, Ronan played his best game of lacrosse in a Notre Dame uniform. It speaks so highly of him as he has been a part of this team for four years now, and while he would love to be out there more, his opportunity came on Saturday and he delivered. So good of Ronan and I asked Coach Corrigan about him after the game. Coach had this to say, “You know our guys love Ronan because he comes every day and works, man. He’s just that guy. He’s tough as nails. He loves to compete, so it was really fun to see him out there and not just out there but doing so well.”

As noted, Greg Campisi moved down to close defense in place of Shawn Lyght. With Shawn out for the day, Greg did a masterful job of taking over and looked natural in the role he played in the fall in the Harvard scrimmage. It was also good seeing Greg get out on the run with some clears as he used his legs to get the offense started.

Thomas Ricciardelli with 7 goals allowed and 10 saves. He continues to settle more and more into his role as he is playing extremely strong lacrosse right now. He is showing why he was the #1 goalie coming out of high school. Some of his saves on Saturday were highway robbery.

Nate Schwitzenberg and Will Gallagher playing extremely solid defense. Duke’s attack was limited to two goals and two assists on the day. That is ELITE defense. Credit to these two for sliding right into the spots left open by Marco Napolitano and Chris Conlin. I am very excited to see what a close defense of Lyght, Schwitzenberg and Gallagher does across the back half of our season.

Ben Ramsey in transition. That was fun to watch as we have seen this many times over the last few years. With our SSDM group adding a couple new players to the unit this year, Ben has been focusing a lot on defense so has not factored much into the transition game. With his group getting healthier, look for some more of this in the games ahead. Oh, and yes, Ben Ramsey is still the best SSDM in the college game.

Speaking of the SSDM unit, it’s great to see a healthy Tyler Buchner and Christian Alacqua back for our Irish. Clearly these two were able to get in better condition over the two week break and it showed on Saturday. Add these two to our younger SSDMs in Chris Reinhardt and Kyle Bergen, and we are getting better at this spot each and every week.

Will Lynch was dominant again at the faceoff dot going 12-19 on the day. ELITE is what Will is and all he does is perform week in and week out. Whether winning to himself or getting his wings involved, he knows how to win possession for the Irish each and every game. And when Will needs a break, Colin Hagstrom is right there to provide depth or a spark.

Our first line midfield of Will Angrick, Jordan Faison and Matt Jeffery got things going on Saturday. With Max Busenkell out, Jeffery fit in seamlessly and made his presence known right away. After Jordan Faison beat his man for the first goal of the day, Matt did the same for the second goal. Will got on the board in the second quarter with a goal of his own. The speed across these three is hard to match and who to long pole will be a tough decision for a defense. With Max hopefully back soon and back on the first line, Matt will become a unique chess piece that the coaching staff can run across the first, second and SSDM unit.

Our second line midfield of Will Maheras, Fisher Finley and Jalen Seymour continues to deliver. Two goals on the day, but overall they had good control of the ball and they were making all the right decisions. Same thing here for opposing defenses, they will have to choose who to long pole in the speedy Maheras or the bigger, physical middies in Finley or Seymour.

Will Donovan is the best LSM in college lacrosse. Someone prove me wrong. Not sure you could ask for much more with what he does on a weekly basis. He was lock down against Andrew McAdorey. He is such a complete defender and Notre Dame is lucky to have him leading this unit.

Jake Taylor doing Jake Taylor things. Five goals, two assists and two Sportscenter-worthy highlights. There was a great write up on Jake by Terry Foy in Inside Lacrosse this week and if you have a chance to read it, do so. What an amazing piece of the Notre Dame offense Jake has been over these last now three and a half years. Not sure if we will ever see something like this again with what Jake did coming out of basically nowhere in 2022 to where he is now. It’s all a testament to him and what he has done to get himself to this point.

Two games with Devon McLane at attack and a two game total of 33 goals for the Notre Dame offense. Looks like we have found our third attackman, and with Devon having so much experience in this role from his Brown days, he is the perfect combination of veteran leadership and talent to get Notre Dame to where we need our team to go this year.

Chris Kavanagh with one goal and four assists on the day. He did exactly what was needed on the afternoon as he knew when to dish and find the open man with the defense focused on him. Then he hit home in transition on the feed from Ben Ramsey and he reminded everyone that he has one of the quickest and fastest releases from the outside in college lacrosse. Lots have already anointed CJ Kirst as the Tewaaraton winner this year, but let’s let this one play out a little more as I would not count out Chris.

Jeffery Ricciardelli with two man-up goals as he quick-sticked two past Patrick Jameison. He continues to be a man-up nightmare for defenses and I am always amazed at his ability to come off the bench cold and perform. Kudos to Jeffery for always being ready when it’s his turn to get out there.

How about that crowd at Arlotta? Packed. Rain? No problem. The crowd was loud and it was an awesome atmosphere on Saturday in South Bend.

Notre Dame’s 6-0 score in the second quarter. We put the game away there as Duke was down 8-2 at halftime with not much of an answer.

The ball was MOVING on Notre Dame’s offense. In and out of sticks. Precision. It was all there on Saturday.

Notre Dame 3-5 on the man-up and holding Duke to 0-2 on their man-up. This is exactly what we have come to expect from these two units over the years.

Brady Pokorny stepping up on the man-up unit and getting a really good ground ball which he then fed to Jake Taylor who then got the ball to Jeffery Ricciardelli for an amazing goal. You can see the skill of Brady, it is there, and his opportunity will eventually come with our Irish.

I really liked this look at Notre Dame’s offense as Jon Donville took a look at what our Irish have done over the last two weeks. If you want to understand what separates Notre Dame’s offense and why we are the most efficient offense in college lacrosse, this is well worth the time and read. Definitely Jon Donville understands the nuances of lacrosse offenses more than me and this piece will get you up to speed on why Notre Dame’s offense is starting to come together.

What’s Next

With the Irish at 5-2 and 1-0 in ACC play, we make our way to the Dome on Saturday to take on the Syracuse Orange at 2 PM EST. With a record of 8-2 (1-0 in the ACC) and having won five straight, this is going to be a massive matchup with big implications. The winner of this game gets to 2-0 in conference play and has an inside track to one of the top seeds in the ACC tournament. Lose and you are 1-1 with more difficult games in the weeks ahead.

After some early season loses to Harvard and Maryland, the Cuse are playing their best lacrosse right now and they always play well at home with their offensive firepower. It will be important for our Irish to be ready to go right from the outset; we are not going to want to get down early and have their crowd really get into it.

Definitely take a listen to the “Exit 77” podcast from this week as David Brogan gave a great rundown on the Cuse, who to look out for on their lines, what they will be looking to do against our Irish and what we can do on Saturday to win.

Let’s Go Irish, let’s get a big win. It’s getting to be that time of year. Let’s get it done.