DURHAM, N.C. – The No. 16/13 Fighting Irish picked up a key road win against ACC rival No. 10/15 Duke on Saturday afternoon at Koskinen Stadium, holding on for a 16-15 win. The Irish never trailed over the 60 minutes of play.
For the second straight week Pat Kavanagh turned in a monster performance for the Irish, leading the attack with seven points off three goals and four assists. Wheaton Jackoboice added a hat trick with three goals and Jake Taylor finished with two goals and two assists.
Freshman FOGO Will Lynch had one of his best games of his young career, winning 19-of-35 faceoffs while scoring his first collegiate goal and adding an assist.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish attack picked up right where it left off after last week’s blowout win over Syracuse, as Notre Dame struck for seven first quarter goals against the Blue Devils. Pat Kavanagh scored the first two goals in the opening three minutes and added two assists to help the Irish jump out to a 7-3 lead after the opening 15 minutes of action.
Duke managed to score four of the first five goals of the second quarter to trim the Notre Dame lead to one at 8-7 with just under six minutes left in the half. The Irish bounced back with goals from Jeffery Ricciardelli, Jackoboice and Pat Kavanagh to put Notre Dame on top 11-8 at the halftime break.
Taylor and Chris Kavanagh each scored goals in the first five minutes of the third quarter to put the Irish back up by four at 13-9. However, the Blue Devils scored three straight to trim the advantage to just one at 13-12. Notre Dame answered with an extra-man goal from Jackoboice, sealing his hat trick, to give the Irish a 14-12 lead heading into the final frame.
Notre Dame scored first in the fourth quarter, cashing in on the EMO for the third time on the afternoon, as Dobson fired a shot past the Duke goalie to put the Irish in front 15-12. The two sides each scored once over the next eight minutes to move the score to 16-13 with five minutes left.
The hosts managed to score two more goals before the final whistle but Lynch won a key faceoff with less than 10 seconds left in the game to deliver the Irish the road win. Lynch also added a career-high 11 ground balls in the winning effort.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Pat Kavanagh continued his excellent form on Saturday with his seven-point effort, his third highest point total of the season. Kavanagh now has 16 points over his last two games (6G, 10A) and a team-high 40 on the season. In his two career games playing at Koskinen Stadium he has 14 points (7G, 7A).
STAT OF THE GAME
The 16 goals are the most the Irish have ever scored against Duke over the 28-game series.
NOTRE DAME NOTES
- Notre Dame has won three of its last four, all coming against teams ranked at the time of the matchup.
- The Irish were a perfect 16-for-16 clearing the ball.
- Notre Dame, already one of the best man-up teams in the country, finished a perfect 3-for-3 on Saturday and have scored on 15-of-22 EMOs on the season.
- Jackoboice was ultra-efficient on Saturday, scoring three goals on just three shots.
- Liam Entenmann turned in his sixth double-digit save performance of the season, finishing with 11 saves.
- Pat Kavanagh now has seven games with seven or more points in this career, including three during the 2022 campaign.
UP NEXT
The Irish remain on the road with a quick turnaround against Marquette in Milwaukee at 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday, April 12. The game will be broadcast on YouTube.
— ND —