May 3, 2012
VILLANOVA, Pa. – The No. 2 Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team outscored St. John’s 4-0 in the fourth quarter but it was not enough as the Irish fell to the Red Storm, 8-7, on Thursday afternoon in the semifinals of the inaugural BIG EAST Championship at Villanova Stadium.
The loss snapped Notre Dame’s 10-game win streak. The Irish were the tournament’s top seed, while the Red Storm is the fourth seed.
St. John’s (8-6) entered the final quarter with an 8-3 lead. Notre Dame sliced the deficit to four with just over 13 minutes left on a Ryan Foley goal. Westy Hopkins made it a three-goal affair (8-5) less than a minute later when he scored off a feed from Tyler Kimball. Hopkins, a sophomore attackman, had a team-high three goals in the game.
Notre Dame (11-2) climbed back to within two (8-6) with 5:04 showing on the clock on Conor Doyle’s second goal of the afternoon. Hopkins netted the game’s final score with 2:53 remaining.
“We didn’t clear the ball well; we didn’t get ground balls and didn’t cash in on our opportunities in the first half. We spent a lot of time on defense,” said Notre Dame head coach Kevin Corrigan. “Our team has a no-quit attitude. They have proven that all year long. We didn’t represent ourselves well in the first half and that is not who we are.”
The Red Storm jumped out to a 2-0 lead by the 9:08 mark of the first quarter behind goals from Colin Keegan and Kieran McArdle. McArdle had three goals and four assists in the game
Notre Dame got on the scoreboard when Pat Cotter found the back of the net off a pass from Tyler Brenneman with 6:45 left in the opening quarter. St. John’s led 2-1 after the first period.
The Fighting Irish knotted the game, 2-2, less than 30 seconds into the second quarter on a man-up goal from Doyle, a freshman attackman. Three straight Red Storm goals gave St. John’s a 5-2 lead at halftime.
St. John’s grabbed a four-goal advantage (6-2) with its fourth straight goal, which came from McArdle, at the 12:58 mark of the third quarter.
A score from Hopkins with 10:14 left in the third period trimmed the St. John’s lead back to three (6-3). The Red Storm answered back with tallies from Ryan Fitzgerald and Terence Leach to claim a five-goal (8-3) lead, which was its largest of the game. The Leach goal was on a man-up situation for the Red Storm with 48 seconds left in the stanza.
Notre Dame had 20 shots on goal compared to 15 for St. John’s. Junior goalie John Kemp made seven saves for the Irish, while Jeff Lowman had 13 stops for the Red Storm.
The Irish held a commanding 14-4 advantage in faceoffs. Sophomore Liam O’Connor took all 18 faceoffs for the Fighting Irish. St. John’s was 1-for-1 in man-up opportunities, while Notre Dame was 1-for-2.
Prior to today’s game Notre Dame had been 4-0 this season when trailing at halftime.
The pairings for the 2012 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship will be announced at 9:00 p.m. (ET) Sunday on ESPNU. The complete bracket will be posted on NCAA.com.
May 3, 2012
BIG EAST Championship Semifinal
Villanova Stadium
Villanova, Pa.
St. John’s (8-6) 2 3 3 0 – 8
#2 Notre Dame (11-2) 1 1 1 4 – 7
St. John’s Scoring (goals-assists):
Kieran McArdle 3-4, Colin Keegan 1-2, Terence Leach 1-1, Ryan Fitzgerald 1-0, Harry Kutner 1-0, Charlie Holenstein 1-0; Goalie: Jeff Lowman (W, 60:00, 13 saves, 7 GA)
Notre Dame Scoring (goals-assists):
Westy Hopkins 3-0, Conor Doyle 2-0, Ryan Foley 1-0, Pat Cotter 1-0, Tyler Brenneman 0-1, Tyler Kimball 0-1; Goalie: John Kemp (L, 60:00, 7 saves, 8 GA)
— ND —