PHILADELPHIA – For the second-straight season, No. 1 Notre Dame is advancing to the NCAA National Championship title game. The Fighting Irish defeated No. 5 Denver by a final score of 13-6 on Saturday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field to punch their ticket to Monday’s final.
Notre Dame will face the winner of No. 6 Virginia and No. 7 Maryland on Memorial Day at 1 p.m. ET back at Lincoln Financial Field and the game will air on ESPN. Buy tickets here.
The win marks Baumer Family Head Men’s Lacrosse Coach Kevin Corrigan’s 350th of his Notre Dame tenure, becoming the first men’s coach at the DI level to reach the milestone.
The standout performance came from Notre Dame faceoff man Will Lynch, who won 18-of-23 faceoffs to continue his excellent run of play through the postseason. The FOGO added an assist and scooped up eight ground balls to help Notre Dame control possession.
The attacking trio of Pat Kavanagh, Chris Kavanagh and Devon McLane each recorded hat tricks with three goals apiece. Pat led the offense with five points (3G, 2A) and he became just the third player in program history to record 30G and 30A in a season, joining his brother Matt and Chris.
Liam Entenmann was great in net, making 12 saves while allowing just six goals on the afternoon. The Irish defensive unit stifled the Pioneers attack, holding them to six total goals and just two in the second half. The six goals are the fewest Denver has scored in a game this season.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Denver scored the opening goal but then the Irish controlled the rest of the first quarter scoring three straight to take a two-goal lead into the second quarter. Chris Kavanagh scored twice in the first period, including a beautiful crease dive and his brother Pat added one in transition.
The Pioneers battled back, scoring the first two goals of the second quarter to level the score at 3-3. The Fighting Irish once again answered with goals from Jake Taylor and Jordan Faison to push the lead back to two at 5-3. With less than 10 seconds left in the half the Pioneers got one back, making the score 5-4 going into the break.
The Irish scored the opener of the second half, courtesy of Pat Kavanagh to extend the lead to two before Denver pulled one back to make it 6-5. Notre Dame controlled the rest of the stanza, outscoring the Pioneers 3-0 to take a 9-5 lead into the fourth. Devon McLane, Eric Dobson and Chris Kavanagh did the damage to give Notre Dame the four-goal cushion.
Denver sent home their sixth and final goal of the day at the 13:37 mark to open the fourth period, but the Irish would respond with three unanswered goals in a minute’s time. Back-to-back goals from McLane and a goal from Nick Harris gave the Irish the 12-6 edge before Pat Kavanagh completed his fourth hat trick of the season, scoring the goal for the Irish with 2:56 remaining to put the exclamation mark on the 13-6 win.
NOTRE DAME NOTES
- The Fighting Irish will play in its fourth NCAA Championship title game in program history and also for the second-straight year.
- Notre Dame improves to 28-25 in NCAA Championships history, including a record of 23-11 over the last 13 tournament appearances.
- Notre Dame extends its win streak to 13 games, which is the longest since winning 15 consecutive games during the 2009 season.
- The Irish improved to 17-11 against Denver in the all-time series.
- With the win, Notre Dame improves to 9-0 against teams ranked in the top-10 at the time of the matchup in 2024.
- The Irish are now 9-0 in games played away from South Bend this season.
- The Pioneers are the seventh team this season to suffer their worst defeat of the year to the Irish.
- The Notre Dame attack has finished in double-figures for goals in every game this season.
- Pat Kavanagh has recorded at least three points in every game this season.
- Will Lynch has won 76.0 percent of the faceoffs he has taken over the three postseason games this year, going 57-of-75.
UP NEXT
Notre Dame will face No. 7 Maryland on Memorial Day at 1 p.m. ET back at Lincoln Financial Field and the game will air on ESPN. Buy tickets here.
— ND