CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Notre Dame will play in the final game of the season for the third time in four years, as the Fighting Irish advanced to the NCAA national title game with a convincing 15-7 win over No. 6-seed Syracuse at Scott Stadium on Saturday.
The Irish will take on Princeton in the championship game at 1 p.m. ET on Monday, May 25 at Scott Stadium. The game will air on ESPN.
Josh Yago continued his tear in the NCAA Tournament, posting his second-straight seven-point performance off three goals and seven assists. The grad student now has a team-high 54 points off 31 goals and 23 assists.
Brock Behrman had his best NCAA Tournament game of his career, finishing with four points off two goals and two assists. Will Maheras also turned in a four-point performance with a goal and three assists.
Max Busenkell and Luke Miller added two goals apiece in notable outings.
On the defensive side of the field Thomas Ricciardelli was masterful in goal, making 14 saves while holding the high-powered Orange attack to just seven goals, tying a season low for Syracuse.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish couldn’t have asked for a better start, scoring twice in the first 5 minutes to grab a quick 2-0 lead off goals from Behrman and Will Angrick. Notre Dame tacked on two more scores over the next 7 minutes of action, courtesy of Max Busenkell and Matt Jeffery to double its lead to 4-0.
Syracuse responded with a flurry in the final 2 minutes of the first frame, scoring three times to cut the Irish lead to one at 4-3 after the opening 15 minutes of action.
The Irish were flagged for a two-minute unreleasable penalty early in the second quarter and managed to score their first man-down goal of the year at the end of it to swing momentum back on their side. Teddy Lally scored off the feed from Maheras to put the Irish back on top by two.
Busenkell then scored his second of the afternoon just 3 minutes later to put Notre Dame back on top at 6-3.
Syracuse cut the score to 6-4 with just under 6 minutes left in the half but the Irish cashed in on an extra-man opportunity for the second time of the first 30 minutes to give Notre Dame a 7-4 advantage heading into the halftime break.
Notre Dame came out of the intermission and tacked on two more goals over the first 9 minutes of the third quarter to push its lead to 9-4, its largest of the game. The Irish goals were scored by Behrman and Dylan Faison.
The Orange refused to go away, registering the last three scores of the quarter to make it a 9-7 game heading into the final 15 minutes of regulation.
Momentum swung completely back in Notre Dame’s favor to start the fourth frame, as the Irish struck three times during a non-releasable two-minute penalty on the Orange. Brady Pokorny scored the first off a highlight-reel behind-the-back finish and then Yago and Miller added scores to give the Irish a 12-7 lead.
Notre Dame never looked back, as Maheras scored with 10 minutes left followed by goals from Miller and Yago to put the exclamation mark on the victory and send the Irish to Monday’s title game.
STAT OF THE GAME
Extra-man opportunities were one of the main stories of the game, as Notre Dame finished 5-for-6 and held Syracuse to 0-for-5. The Irish also added a score when down a man, their first of the season.
NOTRE DAME NOTES
- Notre Dame improves to 33-26 in NCAA Championships history, including a record of 28-12 over the last 15 tournament appearances.
- The Irish have now won 12 of their last 13 NCAA Tournament games.
- Each of Notre Dame’s last eight NCAA Tournament wins have been by at least five goals or more.
- The eight-goal win marks the largest margin of victory in an NCAA semifinal game since the 2021 season.
- The 2026 season marks the fifth time in program history that Notre Dame has reached the NCAA Championship final.
- The Irish took the lead in the all-time series against Syracuse with a record of 13-12 in matchups with the Orange.
- The victory gives the Fighting Irish a record of 33-9 against ranked opponents since the beginning of the 2023 season.
- The Irish have now won 57 straight games when holding their opponent to less than 10 goals in a game, a streak that dates back to the 2019 season.
- Yago recorded his sixth hat trick of the season in the win.
- Ricciardelli has finished with a save percentage of 50 percent or better in 11 of 15 games this season.
- With two goals in the win over Syracuse, all five of Busenkell’s goals on the season have come against the Orange.
UP NEXT
The Irish will play top-seeded Princeton for the title at 1 p.m. ET on Monday, May 25 at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville. The game will air on ESPN.
— ND —