March 29, 2014
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – No. 7 Notre Dame erased a three-goal deficit in the fourth quarter but Syracuse’s Kevin Rice scored with just over two minutes left to give the 10th-ranked Orange an 11-10 victory in Atlantic Coast Conference men’s lacrosse action on Saturday afternoon inside the Carrier Dome.
Junior attackman Conor Doyle scored a career-high four goals for the Fighting Irish, while freshman goalie Shane Doss made a career-best 11 saves. Rice led the Orange with four goals and two assists.
Notre Dame fell behind 10-7 with 13:41 remaining in regulation, but responded with three straight goals in less than three minutes. Will Corrigan ignited the run when he scored with 9:19 left in regulation and a Pat Cotter goal with just over seven minutes remaining made it 10-9. Jim Marlatt evened things up, 10-10, with 6:29 showing on the clock. The Fighting Irish never led in the contest, which was tied on three occasions.
“This was a good lacrosse game and they made one more play than we did,” Notre Dame head coach Kevin Corrigan said. “We said to our team after the game that it was a good lacrosse game, but we’re going to look back and pick out the 10 to 15 plays that we think we can make differently and better. But at the end of the day, that was a high-level lacrosse game and we came up a play short.”
Notre Dame (4-3, 2-1) controlled much of the possession in first quarter, yet trailed 3-2 at the end of the period. Doyle had both Irish goals in the opening quarter. The Fighting Irish tied the game, 3-3, with nine minutes left in the second quarter on a man-up deposit from Eddy Lubowicki, but the Orange responded with three straight goals in a span of 1:13. Those Syracuse tallies came from Dylan Donahue, Derek Maltz and Matt Walters.
Nick Ossello halted the Syracuse surge at the 5:06 mark of the second period and Doyle scored 49 seconds later to make it a one-goal affair (6-5). A goal from Maltz with 39 seconds left in the stanza gave the Orange a 7-5 lead at halftime.
A man-up goal from Doyle opened the second-half scoring, while Syracuse (5-3, 1-3) converted a man-up opportunity of its own when Rice scored to push the lead back two (8-6) with 6:49 remaining in the third period. The Irish were 2-of-4 in man-up opportunities on the day and the Orange were 2-of-2.
Notre Dame’s Jack Near registered a goal 22 seconds later and the Irish trailed by one (8-7) after three periods of play. Maltz scored on a man-up chance 20 seconds into the fourth quarter and then Rice netted a goal a minute later to extend the Syracuse lead to three (10-7).
The Fighting Irish outshot Syracuse 40-33. Dominic Lamolinara made seven saves for the Orange in the first half, while Bobby Wardwell had six stops in the second half. Syracuse won the faceoff battle, 15-9.
“This is our first year in the ACC, but it’s not our first year playing multiple ACC teams in a season,” Corrigan said. “It’s no surprise to us that these are going to be good games and competitive games. Every team in the league is capable of winning the national championship. You’re never going to get too down and you’re never going to get too up. What happened last week isn’t going to have a lot of impact on what is going to happen this week.”
Notre Dame returns home next Saturday to face No. 3 Duke in ACC action. Faceoff is slated for noon (ET) at Arlotta Stadium and the contest will be aired on ESPNU.
March 29, 2014
Carrier Dome – Syracuse, N.Y.
#7 Notre Dame (4-3, 2-1) – 2 3 2 3 – 10
#10 Syracuse (5-3, 1-3) – 3 4 1 3 – 11
Notre Dame (goals-assists)
Conor Doyle 4-0, Jim Marlatt 1-1, Will Corrigan 1-1, Pat Cotter 1-0, Eddy Lubowicki 1-0, Nick Ossello 1-0, Jack Near 1-0, Matt Kavanagh 0-2
Goalie: Shane Doss (L, 60:00, 11 SVS, 11 GA)
Syracuse (goals-assists)
Kevin Rice 4-2, Dylan Donahue 3-1, Derek Maltz 3-0, Nicky Galasso 1-0, Randy Staats 0-3, Billy Ward 0-1, Hakeem Lecky 0-1
Goalies: Dominic Lamolinara (30:00, 7 SVS, 5 GA); Bobby Wardwell (W, 30:00, 6 SVS, 5 GA)
— ND —