#6 Irish Open ACC Play With Impressive Win Over #11 Duke, 14-7

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The No. 6/7 Fighting Irish opened up ACC play with an emphatic 14-7 victory over No. 11/11 Duke in front of a raucous crowd at Arlotta Stadium despite rain throughout the game. The victory improves the Irish to 5-2 on the season and 1-0 league play.

Jake Taylor put on a show to lead the Irish attack, posting seven points off five goals and two assists, including a couple of highlight-reel behind-the-back plays. Chris Kavanagh also impressed, scoring a goal and dishing out a game-high four assists.

On the other end of the field, Jeffery Ricciardelli continued his impressive first season in goal for Notre Dame, as the junior finished with 10 saves while allowing just seven past to pick up the win.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The visitors struck first, scoring in the opening minute of action but their lead was short lived, as Jordan Faison found the back of the net off a wing dodge to level the score at 1-1 less than two minutes into the game. Both sides added a score in the first frame to make it a 2-2 game after the opening 15 minutes of action.

The Irish completely took control of the game in the second quarter, outscoring Duke 6-0 to open up an 8-2 lead at the halftime intermission. Taylor scored twice in the stanza, along with goals from Jalen Seymour, Devon McLane, Fisher Finley and Will Angrick. The Notre Dame defensive unit put the clamps on the Duke attack, holding them scoreless for the entire quarter to open up the big advantage.

The Blue Devils scored the first goal of the third, but the two sides played an even quarter with both teams scoring twice to move the score to 10-4 with just 15 minutes left in the contest.

After a Duke goal cut the Irish advantage to five at the 13:35 mark of the fourth frame, Notre Dame slammed the door on the visitors with four straight goals in a span of less than three minutes to put the game out of reach at 14-5. Duke managed to score twice in the final stages of the game, as the Irish went on to cruise to the 14-7 victory.

STAT OF THE GAME

The Irish defense held the Blue Devils attack to just seven goals and have now limited opposing offenses to more than 10 goals in a game just once out of seven games. This is the fifth time Notre Dame has held a team to single-digit scoring in a game.

NOTRE DAME NOTES

• The Irish improved to 18-16 against Duke in the all-time series, including each of the last seven matchups.
• Notre Dame has scored at least 12 goals against the Blue Devils in each of the last 11 games.
• Taylor’s five goals give him 120 in his career, moving up to fifth in the ND all-time record books for career goals.
• The hat trick from Taylor is his fourth of the season and 18th in his career.
• With a goal in the win, Kavanagh now has 132 career goals, which ranks third all-time in program history.
• With five points, Kavanagh has now recorded four or more points in six of seven games this season and has 211 in his career.
• Thomas Ricciardelli has recorded double-digit saves in four of his last five games and has finished with a .500 save percentage or better in six of seven contests.
• Will Lynch finished 12-for-19 at the faceoff dot and has now won over 60 percent of the faceoffs he has taken in five of seven games.
• Matt Jeffery Greg Campisi each made their first career starts at Notre Dame.
• Freshman Luke Miller made his collegiate debut in the win.

UP NEXT

Notre Dame hits the road for another ranked ACC matchup, as it takes on No. 8 Syracuse in the JMA Wireless Dome at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 5. The game will air on ACCN.

— ND —