DURHAM, N.C. – The No. 2 Fighting Irish dropped an overtime thriller against No. 3 Duke by a final score of 13-12 at Koskinen Stadium.
Sophomore Pat Kavanagh led the Irish attack with an impressive seven-point performance off four goals and three assists. Will Yorke and Eric Dobson each added two goals apiece.
Sophomore Liam Entenmann made 14 saves in the cage and graduate student Kyle Gallagher went 12-of-24 in the faceoff game.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish could not have asked for a better start to the contest, scoring the first five goals of the evening to go on top 5-0 with just under 13 minutes left in the second quarter. The scoreline moved to 7-3 after the first 30 minutes of play, giving Notre Dame a four-goal lead heading into the halftime break.
Notre Dame started fast in the second half, scoring the first two goals coming out of the break to push its lead to 9-3, the largest of the night. The Blue Devils managed to trim the advantage to four by the end of the third, with the score 10-6.
The two teams traded goals in the first 10 minutes of the fourth quarter and Notre Dame held a 12-8 advantage with less than five minutes to go. Duke responded by scoring four goals, the last with 14 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 12-12.
The Irish though they scored the winner in the final seconds, as Kavanagh beat his defender and put the ball in the back of the net but the play was called back because the Duke defender stepped on his shoe, knocking it off his foot to whistle the play dead.
Notre Dame never saw the ball in overtime and Duke’s Cameron Mule scored a man-up goal with 2:05 left in the first overtime session to give the hosts the win.
ND PLAYER OF THE GAME
Kavanagh continued his sensational sophomore season, posting his third game of the season with seven or more points. The attackman scored or assisted on all seven of Notre Dame’s first half goals.
NOTRE DAME NOTES
- Kavanagh tied his career high for goals with four against Duke.
- Kavanagh recorded his fifth game of the season with six or more points.
- Yorke has now scored at least two goals in each of his last four games and six times this season.
- Reilly Gray scored the first goal of his career on Thursday evening.
Up Next
The Irish run of top five opponents continues this weekend, as the Irish remain in the state of North Carolina and take on No. 4 UNC at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 25. The game will air on ACCN.
— ND —
The University of Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team pursues excellence on and off the field through the three pillars in which the program is built: Character, Culture & Community. These three foundational values guide the promise of the program, which is to provide its student-athletes with the most compelling and enriching experience in all of college athletics. Through academics, competition, service and travel, the program aims to immerse its players in situations that enhance their student-athlete experience to help them become the people, students and teammates they aspire to be.
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