May 19, 2013
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Seventh-seeded Duke scored the final three goals of the game to take a 12-11 decision over No. 2 seed Notre Dame in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship Sunday afternoon at Lucas Oil Stadium. The back-and-forth contest was tied on nine occasions.
Freshman attackman Matt Kavanagh registered a game-high six points on three goals and three assists for the Fighting Irish, while sophomore attackman Conor Doyle had three goals and junior midfielder Jim Marlatt notched two goals and two assists. Senior goalie John Kemp had 13 saves in his final appearance in a Notre Dame uniform.
The game was tied at halftime (6-6) and at the end of the third quarter (9-9). Notre Dame went up 10-9 less than a minute into the third quarter when Marlatt scored off a pass from Kavanagh. The Irish pushed the lead to two, which was their largest of the afternoon, with 9:29 left when Kavanagh fed Doyle on a man-up goal.
Duke’s final surge began on a Christian Walsh goal with 8:31 left in the contest. Josh Dionne produced the ninth tie of the game when he scored to make it 11-11 with just over three minutes remaining. David Lawson, who had a game-high five goals, netted the deciding goal with 2:16 left to play.
“I’m disappointed in the result because I thought we did a lot of the things that we thought were going to be important to win the game,” Notre Dame head coach Kevin Corrigan said. “We put ourselves in the position to win the game, but we said all along it was going to come down to making plays and at the end of the game they made a couple plays more than we did.”
Following a 6-6 tie at halftime, Lawson put Duke up 38 seconds into the second half. Senior midfielder Tyler Kimball brought the Irish back even (7-7) as he scored off a pass from classmate Steve Murphy with 8:29 left in the third quarter. The Blue Devils reclaimed the lead two minutes later on Case Mathias goal.
A man-up goal Kavanagh, off an assist from Sean Rogers, made it 8-8 with six minutes left in the third quarter. The Irish were 3-of-4 in man-up chances on the day, while the Blue Devils did not have a man-up opportunity.
Notre Dame (11-5) reclaimed the lead with just over three minutes remaining in the third quarter as Kavanagh fed Doyle, who scored from close range to make it 9-8. The game was tied for the eighth time when Dionne scored for Duke with less than a second left in the third period.
Duke (14-5) opened the game’s scoring on a Lawson goal just over two minutes into the contest. The Fighting Irish got on the board five minutes later with a Kavanagh tally, which was assisted by Marlatt.
Deemer Class put Duke back on top (2-1) with 6:29 left in the first quarter, but the Irish answered back with a deposit from Murphy with 4:25 remaining in the opening period. A rebound goal from Jake Tripucka with four seconds left gave the Blue Devils a 3-2 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Notre Dame knotted the game 25 seconds into the second quarter when Jack Near found Rogers, who sent a low blast to the back of the net. The Irish grabbed their first lead of the game (4-3) at the 12:15 mark of the second period when Doyle scored off a pass from Marlatt.
Consecutive goals from Lawson gave the Blue Devils a 5-4 advantage with 5:35 remaining in the first half. Duke expanded the lead to two, its largest of the day, on a Dionne deposit with just under five minutes left in the opening half.
Following two key saves from Kemp, Marlatt registered a man-up tally to make it a one-goal contest (6-5) with just over three minutes left in the first half. Rogers assisted on the goal. Kavanagh’s second score of the day made it all even (6-6) at the 1:17 mark of the stanza.
Today was Kavanagh’s fourth game this season with three or more goals. He combined to score seven goals in Notre Dame’s two NCAA tournament games. Kavanagh concluded the campaign with a team-high 32 goals, which is a program record for a freshman.
Duke won 16 of the 26 faceoff attempts. Notre Dame junior Liam O’Connor was 10-of-20 in his faceoff opportunities. The Blue Devils held a 43-32 advantage in shots. Duke goalie Kyle Turri made four saves.
“I thought for as many good things as we did offensively, we didn’t put enough shots on goal,” Corrigan said. “We had a chance to really put them under a lot more pressure in the cage and we just didn’t do that and that’s disappointing because I felt like we were doing the things there we wanted to do. At the other end of the field, there were too many of the goals that we talked about that could hurt us. There were too many of the transition things that they do. They’re very, very good at it and we just didn’t do a good enough job of stopping those.”
NCAA Championship Quarterfinal
May 19, 2013 – Lucas Oil Stadium – Indianapolis, Ind.
#7 Duke (14-5) – 3 3 3 3 – 12
#2 Notre Dame (11-5) – 2 4 3 2 – 11
Duke Scoring (goals-assists):
David Lawson 5-0, Josh Dionne 3-0, Jake Tripucka 1-1, Case Matheis 1-0, Christian Walsh 1-0, Deemer Class 1-0, Jordan Wolf 0-4
Goalie: Kyle Turri (W, 60:00, 4 saves, 11 GA)
Notre Dame Scoring (goals-assists):
Matt Kavanagh 3-3, Conor Doyle 3-0, Jim Marlatt 2-2, Sean Rogers 1-2, Steve Murphy 1-1, Tyler Kimball 1-0, Jack Near 0-1
Goalie: John Kemp (L, 60:00, 13 saves, 12 GA)
— ND —