April 1, 2012
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The No. 6 Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team upped its win streak to six games with a 13-6 BIG EAST Conference win over St. John’s on Sunday afternoon in the first of three games at the Konica Minolta Big City Classic at MetLife Stadium.
Notre Dame (7-1, 2-0) trailed 4-3 at halftime, yet outscored St. John’s 10-2 in the second half en route to the victory. The 13 goals were a season-high total for the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame sophomore midfielder Jim Marlatt tallied a career-high three goals and was named the game’s MVP.
Goals from Ryan Foley and Eric Keppeler early in the third quarter gave Notre Dame the lead for good. Keppeler, a senior midfielder, scored a career-high two goals on the day. Freshman attackman Conor Doyle put the Irish up 6-4 with just under six minutes left in the third quarter. Doyle registered a career-best three points on two goals and one assist.
St. John’s (5-4, 1-2) halted the Notre Dame surge with a goal from Terence Leach to make it a 6-5 contest at the 5:07 mark of the third quarter. A goal from freshman midfielder Will Corrigan with six seconds left on the clock gave Notre Dame a 7-5 lead after three quarters of play.
Six straight fourth-quarter goals salted the game away for the Fighting Irish. Marlatt netted the first three tallies of the period in a span of 1:19. Seven seconds after the third Marlatt goal, sophomore faceoff specialist Liam O’Connor put Notre Dame up by six (11-5) with 11:08 left in regulation. Notre Dame’s final two scores came from junior midfielders Steve Murphy and Pat Cotter. Kieran McArdle had the final goal for St. John’s.
“We played really well in the second half,” said Notre Dame head coach Kevin Corrigan. “It started right off in the first couple of faceoffs and we got a couple ground balls. We did some things that we hadn’t done in the first half. It changed our mentality and we played a lot more aggressively at both ends of the field and some balls started dropping for us too.”
Notre Dame scored first in the contest when sophomore attackman Westy Hopkins found the back of the net exactly one minute into the game. St. John’s responded with a Kevin Cernuto goal at the three-minute mark of the first quarter. Doyle gave Notre Dame a 2-1 advantage by the end of the first period.
St. John’s knotted the game (2-2) on a Harry Kutner goal less than a minute into the second quarter. The Red Storm grabbed their first lead of the day (3-2) with 6:44 remaining in the first half on a Ryan Fitzgerald tally.
Keppeler made it a 3-3 contest at the 5:09 mark of the second quarter. Fitzgerald’s second goal of the day came with seven seconds left in the first half to give the Red Storm a 4-3 lead at the intermission.
“I didn’t feel like we were outworking them in the first half,” added Corrigan. “That’s a big part of who we are in the way we play. We want to think we’re outworking every team that we play.”
Junior goalie John Kemp made 10 saves for the Irish, while Jeff Lowman also had 10 stops for the Red Storm. Notre Dame held a 36-28 advantage in shots. St. John’s had a slim 12-10 edge in faceoffs.
The Fighting Irish return home to face BIG EAST foe Providence on Saturday. Faceoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. (ET) at Arlotta Stadium.
April 1, 2012
Konica Minolta Big City Classic
MetLife Stadium
East Rutherford, N.J.
#6 Notre Dame (7-1, 2-0) 2 1 4 6 – 13
St. John’s (5-4, 1-2) 1 3 1 1 – 6
Notre Dame Scoring (goals-assists):
Jim Marlatt 3-0, Conor Doyle 2-1, Eric Keppeler 2-0, Ryan Foley 1-1, Steve Murphy 1-1, Westy Hopkins 1-0, Pat Cotter 1-0, Will Corrigan 1-0, Liam O’Connor 1-0; Goalie: John Kemp (W, 60:00, 10 saves, 6 GA)
St. John’s Scoring (goals-assists):
Ryan Fitzgerald 2-0, Kieran McArdle 1-2, Kevin Cernuto 1-1, Terence Leach 1-1, Harry Kutner 1-0; Goalie: Jeff Lowman (L, 60:00, 10 saves, 13 GA)
— ND —