March 18, 2006
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The No. 11 Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team captured its third straight victory by downing Bellarmine 8-2 on Saturday afternoon in front of 2,700 fans at Louisville’s Trinity High School. The Fighting Irish had two-goal performances from Brian Hubschmann (Short Hills, N.J./Delbarton), Matt Karweck (Penn Yan N.Y./Penn Yan Academy) and Lucius Polk (Washington, D.C./St. Albans) to help improve the team’s mark to 4-1 on the season. The loss drops Bellarmine to 2-3 on the season, which is the Knights first as a full NCAA Division I member. The game marked the first-ever meeting between Notre Dame and Bellarmine on the lacrosse field.
Sophomore goaltender Joey Kemp (Potomac, Md./Georgetown Prep) made 10 saves for the Irish, while allowing a career-low goal total for a complete game. The two goals surrendered by Notre Dame was the fewest amount since a 12-2 victory over Air Force during the 2004 season.
The Irish jumped in front just 1:15 into the game as Matt Ryan (Ridley Park, Pa./Ridley) registered an unassisted goal for his fifth tally of the season. Bellarmine evened the contest with a Bryan Brown score, on an assist from Ray Finnegan, at the six-minute mark of the first quarter.
Notre Dame would find the back of the net twice in the final 18 seconds of the quarter to take a 3-1 lead after the first 15 minutes of play. Bill Liva (Bryn Mawr, Pa./Malvern Prep) scored off a pass from Ryan with 18 seconds remaining and then Polk would add his first score of the day right before time expired.
Hubschmann made it 4-1 Irish just over a minute into the second period with an unassisted tally. Each team would be held scoreless over the next eight minutes before Polk netted another unassisted goal with 5:47 left to play in the half.
The Knights cut the Fighting Irish lead to three (5-2) heading into halftime as Finnegan scored a man-up goal with just 1:28 remaining in the period, yet that is as close as Bellarmine would get for the remainder of the afternoon.
Notre Dame would hold Bellarmine scoreless for the entire second half and add on three more goals to make it an 8-2 final. Karweck notched both third quarter goals for the Irish and Hubschmann collected his team-leading 10th goal of the season with 14:23 remaining in the game.
Polk’s two goals tied a career high, which he has now achieved on three occasions. Senior attackman Pat Walsh (Wantagh, N.Y./Wantagh) was held point-less in a game for just the third time during his Notre Dame career.
Notre Dame out-shot Bellarmine 29-16 and the Irish also stopped 11 clear attempts for the Knights.
The Fighting Irish will have a week off before heading to Hempstead, N.Y. to take on No. 9 Hofstra on Saturday, March 25. Game time is slated for 1:00 p.m. (ET) and it will be aired on College Sports Television (CSTV).
Stay up-to-date on the Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team by logging onto und.com or by calling the Notre Dame athletics hotline at (574) 631-3000.
#11 Notre Dame (4-1) – 3 2 2 1 – 8
Bellarmine (2-3) – 1 1 0 0 – 2
Notre Dame Scoring:
Goals: Brian Hubschmann 2, Matt Karweck 2, Lucius Polk 2, Matt Ryan 1, Bill Liva 1.
Assists: Matt Ryan 1.
Bellarmine Scoring:
Goals: Ray Finnegan 1, Bryan Brown 1.
Assists: Ray Finnegan 1, Garett Kikot 1.
— ND —