April 12, 2014
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – A 9-0 run that spanned most of the first and second quarters put the 10th-ranked Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team well on its way to a 15-5 victory over Robert Morris on Saturday afternoon at Arlotta Stadium. The contest was the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
Freshman midfielder Sergio Perkovic paced the Fighting Irish with a career-high four goals and one assist, while senior attackman John Scioscia netted two goals. Matt Kavanagh, a sophomore attackman, had one goal and three assists. Eleven different Irish players tallied a goal in the game.
Notre Dame (6-4) opened the scoring just over a minute into the contest when Jim Marlatt buried a goal that was assisted by Perkovic. Robert Morris evened the affair with 10:28 left in the first quarter on a Taylor Graves tally, but that would be the last Colonial goal for the next 23:46 as the Irish netted the game’s next nine scores.
Perkovic began the onslaught with 9:40 remaining in the opening period and Kavanagh followed with a goal 14 seconds later. A man-up deposit from Scioscia gave the Irish a 4-1 lead by the end of the first quarter.
“We never let them in the game and we felt that was going to be important,” Notre Dame head coach Kevin Corrigan said. “We wanted to play a lot of people and we did but we couldn’t have done that unless we took care of business in the first half. We were pretty efficient offensively and we held them down defensively except for a couple silly mistakes.”
Goals from Ryan Mix and Kyle Runyon pushed the Irish lead to five (6-1) and scores from Nick Ossello and Perkovic just six seconds apart gave Notre Dame a seven-goal cushion by the 5:24 mark of the second quarter. That was the first of three consecutive goals from Perkovic in a span of 2:29 that increased the Fighting Irish advantage to nine (10-1) with just under three minutes left in the first half.
Robert Morris (5-7) stopped the bleeding with a Luke Laszkiewicz goal with 1:42 remaining in the opening half. Notre Dame led 10-2 at the intermission.
Notre Dame opened the second half with goals from Conor Doyle, Cole Riccardi, Scioscia and Westy Hopkins to claim a 12-goal spread, its largest of the afternoon. The Colonials responded with three straight tallies of their own to make it 14-5 with 8:32 left in the contest. Notre Dame’s Connor McCollough deposited the game’s final goal.
“At this time of year you’re looking for one more little piece to the puzzle so getting the chance to see a lot of guys out there in game action was important,” Corrigan said.
The Fighting Irish outshot the Colonials 47-19. Notre Dame freshman Shane Doss started in goal and made three saves, while allowing three goals in 44:13 between the pipes. Conor Kelly made one save and surrendered two scores in 11:54 and Kyle Ripp had one stop in 3:53 of action. Brian Bohn began the day in the cage for Robert Morris and he made five saves and allowed nine goals before being replaced by Matt Bukovac for the final 34:58. Bukovac made 12 saves and let in six goals.
The five goals allowed were a season-low total for the Fighting Irish defense. Notre Dame also forced Robert Morris into nine failed clear attempts. Notre Dame senior Liam O’Connor dominated the faceoff X, going 17-of-20 in addition to dishing out three assists.
The Fighting Irish return to Atlantic Coast Conference play next Saturday when they play host to No. 3 Maryland. Faceoff is slated for noon (ET) at Arlotta Stadium and the contest will be aired on ESPNU and WatchESPN.
April 12, 2014
Arlotta Stadium – Notre Dame, Ind.
Robert Morris (5-7) – 1 1 1 2 – 5
#10 Notre Dame (6-4) – 4 6 4 1 – 15
Robert Morris (goals-assists)
James Rahe 2-1, Luke Laszkiewicz 2-0, Taylor Graves 1-1, Eric Rankel 0-2
Goalies: Brian Bohn (L, 25:02, 5 SVS, 9 GA); Matt Bukovac (34:58, 12 SVS, 6 GA)
Notre Dame (goals-assists)
Sergio Perkovic 4-1, John Scioscia 2-0, Matt Kavanagh 1-3, Jim Marlatt 1-1, Conor Doyle 1-0, Westy Hopkins 1-0, Cole Riccardi 1-0, Nick Ossello 1-0, Connor McCollough 1-0, Kyle Runyon 1-0, Ryan Mix 1-0, Liam O’Connor 0-3, Trevor Brosco 0-1, Jack Doyle 0-1
Goalies: Shane Doss (W, 44:13, 3 SVS, 3 GA); Conor Kelly (11:54, 1 SV, 2 GA); Kyle Ripp (3:53, 1 SV, 0 GA)
— Sean Carroll, Assistant Athletic Media Relations Director
–ND–