May 13, 2012
Box Score | Photo Gallery 1 
| Photo Gallery 2
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – No. 4 Notre Dame used nine different goal scorers en route to a 13-7 victory over No. 11 Yale on Sunday evening at Arlotta Stadium in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship. The Fighting Irish are the tournament’s No. 4 seed, while the Bulldogs are unseeded.
Sophomore midfielder Jim Marlatt spearheaded the Irish offense with a career-high five points on three goals and two assists, while senior attackman Sean Rogers produced two goals and one assist. Freshman attackman Conor Doyle also had two goals on the day and senior midfielder Max Pfeifer had one goal and two assists. The 13 goals and nine different goal scorers matched season-high totals for the Fighting Irish, who never trailed in the game.
Notre Dame (12-2) jumped out to a 4-0 lead by the 6:56 mark of the first quarter on Sunday. Rogers put the Irish on the board less than two minutes into the game, while sophomore attackman Westy Hopkins made it 2-0. Tallies from Doyle and freshman short-stick defensive midfielder Jack Near gave Notre Dame a four-goal cushion. It was Near’s first career goal.
Yale (11-5) responded with scores from Deron Dempster and Brandon Mangan to make it a 4-2 affair by the end of the first quarter. Dempster had a game-high four goals, while Mangan had two tallies. Matt Gibson registered one goal and four assists for the Bulldogs.
After Doyle put the Irish up 5-2 in the early stages of the second quarter, back-to-back goals from Dempster sliced the Notre Dame lead to one (5-4) midway through the period. A goal from Rogers with eight seconds left off an assist from Pfeifer gave the Fighting Irish a 6-4 lead at halftime.
“I thought it was a similar game to what I hoped it would be and in a lot of ways expected it to be, but I didn’t expect us to pull away from them,” Notre Dame head coach Kevin Corrigan said. “These were two very similar teams in a lot of ways. We got a lead early, which made them have to come to us and not be able to stall quite as much. That was an important part of the game.”
Just as they did in the first half, the Irish tallied the first four goals of the second stanza. Following a score from junior midfielder Ryan Foley, consecutive tallies, including a man-up score, from Marlatt extended the Notre Dame lead to five (9-4) with 4:13 showing on the clock in the third quarter.
Freshman midfielder Will Corrigan upped the Irish advantage to six, but a man-up goal from Dempster placed Yale back within five (10-5) by the end of the third quarter. That goal snapped a scoreless drought for the Bulldogs that reached 22 minutes in length.
Mangan got Yale back to within four goals (10-6) with 6:36 left in regulation, but Notre Dame senior attackman Nicholas Beattie responded with a goal just 40 seconds later. Marlatt completed his hat trick with 5:15 remaining in the game.
Gibson had Yale’s final goal of the contest, while Pfeifer became Notre Dame’s ninth different goal scorer when he found the back of the net with just over a minute left.
Yale held a 37-23 advantage in shots. Junior goalie John Kemp had 12 saves for the Irish. Jack Meyer played the first 40:47 in goal for the Bulldogs and made four saves, while allowing nine goals. Eric Natale surrendered four goals and did not make a save in the final 19:13 of the contest. The Bulldogs won 14 of the game’s 23 faceoff attempts.
Notre Dame will face No. 5 seed Virginia on Sunday in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship. Faceoff is slated for noon (ET) at PPL Park in Chester, Pa. The game will be aired on ESPNU/ESPN3.
NCAA Championship First Round
May 13, 2012
Arlotta Stadium – Notre Dame, Ind. (Attendance: 1,503)
#11 Yale (11-5) 2 2 1 2 – 7
#4 Notre Dame (12-2) 4 2 4 3 – 13
Yale Scoring (goals-assists):
Deron Dempster 4-0, Brandon Mangan 2-0, Matt Gibson 1-4, Mark Dobrosky 0-1; Goalies: Jack Meyer (L, 40:47, 4 saves, 9 GA), Eric Natale (19:13, 0 saves, 4 GA)
Notre Dame Scoring (goals-assists):
Jim Marlatt 3-2, Sean Rogers 2-1, Conor Doyle 2-0, Max Pfeifer 1-2, Ryan Foley 1-1, Westy Hopkins 1-0, Nicholas Beattie 1-0, Will Corrigan 1-0, Jack Near 1-0, Pat Cotter 0-2; Goalie: John Kemp (W, 60:00, 12 saves, 7 GA)
— ND —