April 10, 2003
Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team put together one of its strongest combined offensive and defensive efforts of the season as the 20th-ranked Irish men’s lacrosse team defeated Great Western Lacrosse League (GWLL) rival Butler 9-2. The two goals were the fewest allowed by an Irish teams since the 2001 campaign in a 13-2 victory over Air Force on April 9.
With the victory, its fifth straight over the Bulldogs and 10 in 11 meetings between the two school, the Irish improve to 6-4 on the season and 2-1 in the GWLL. The loss snapped a two-game win streak for the Bulldogs as Butler fell to 5-5 and 1-1 in GWLL play.
Notre Dame scored the first eight goals of the contest and were led by junior Dan Berger’s (Phoenix. Md.) three goals and Pat Walsh’s (Wantagh, N.Y.) two goals and four assists. The Berger and Walsh tandem combined for three of the Irish’s four goals in the contest.
The Irish kept Butler’s leading scorer, Ryan Ward, in check for the contest. Ward entered the game with 21 goals and 19 assists (40 points). Notre Dame held the Bulldogs in check for over 43 minutes of the contest. Butler did not score its first goal until there was only 1:50 remaining in the third quarter.
Notre Dame was slow in getting its offense in gear. Freshman Drew Peters (Babylon, N.Y.) got the Irish on the scoreboard with 53 seconds remaining in the first quarter with his fourth goal of the season off an assist from sophomore Brian Giordano (Princeton, N.J.). The Irish closed out the quarter with a unassisted goal by Walsh with one second remaining.
Senior Travis Wells (Severna Park, Md.) tallied his only goal of the game with 8:38 remaining in the second quarter before sophomore Colin Fatti (Skaneateles, N.Y.) scored his third goal of the season off an assist from Owen Mulford (Ocean City, Md.) with 19 seconds left before halftime.
Berger scored Notre Dame’s first three goals of the second half as all three scores, which came at the 12:53, 11:01 and 9:57 marks of the third quarter, were assisted by Walsh. Walsh gave the Irish an 8-0 lead with 5:25 remaining in the third-period stanza with his goal off an assist from Wells.
Phil Branch finally got the Bulldogs on the scoreboard with 1:50 remaining in the third quarter. Sophomore Jim Morrison (Fulton, Md.) scored Notre Dame’s final goal off an assist from Walsh at the 11:08 mark of the fourth quarter. Rich Pavlik knocked in the game’s final score for Butler.
Junior goalie Stewart Crosland (Bethesda, Md.) played 49 minutes in the game and finished with 13 saves, Brendan Winkler went the distance for Butler and registered 15 stops.
Notre Dame returns to action at Moose Krause Stadium on Saturday, April 12 at 1:00 p.m. when the Irish play host to Air Force.