April 26, 2003
Notre Dame, Ind. – The No. 17 Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team won its fourth straight game as the Irish defeated Harvard 16-11 in a non-conference test on Saturday afternoon at Moose Krause Stadium. Leading scorer Patrick Walsh (Wantagh, N.Y.) continued his impressive rookie season as he led the Irish with four goals and four assists in the victory.
With the win, Notre Dame improves to 9-4 on theseason, while the Crimson dropped its fourth straight to fall to 4-9. The Irish continued their scoring bonanza as they have averaged 13.0 goals in the last four games while outscoring their opponents 52-21.
Junior Steve Clagett (Chesapeake, Md.) recorded the first hat trick of his career as he and senior Travis Wells (Severna Park, Md.) each tallied three goals in the game. Wells also added an assist in the contest. Junior Matt Howell (Huntington, N.Y.) returned to the Irish lineup for the first time in five games and scored two goals. He underwent an appendectomy the last week in March and hasn’t been in the lineup since the Hartord game on March 23.i
Junior Dan Berger (Phoenix, Md.), one of eight different goal scorers in the contest, finished with a goal and two assists, while sophomore Brian Giordano (Princeton, N.J.) registered a goal and an assist.
Harvard, which lost to the Irish for the fourth time in five games, was led by Sean Kane’s four scores. Doug Ligigian and Jay Wich tallied two goals for the Crimson, while Anders Johnson scored twice and also added an assist.
Walsh struck quickly for the Irish with two goals in the first three minutes of the contest. Kane netted Harvard first score of the contest at the 14:19 mark of the second quarter, before Notre Dame rattled off three unanswered goals on two scores by Wells and one from Clagett to jump out to a 5-1 advantage with 8:44 remaining in the second quarter.
Ligigian halted Notre Dame’s scoring streak with the first of his two goals at the 8;12 mark, but back-to-back goals by Walsh and D.J. Driscoll (Downington, Pa.) gave the Irish a five goal cushion with under seven minutes to play in the first half. Driscoll’s goal was the first of his career for the Irish defenseman.
Mike McBride and Johnson scored Harvard’s last two goals of the second quarter, while Berger, Howell and Clagett closed out the scoring for Notre Dame as the Irish built an impressive 10-4 halftime advantage.
Clagett scored Notre Dame’s first goal of the second half 1:13 into the third quarter and Walsh netted his fourth score at the 9:12 mark as the Irish led 12-4.
Harvard scored three unanswered goals on scores by Ligigian, Kane and Wich. Howell stopped the Crimson scoring streak by tallying Notre Dame’s 13th goal of the contest . Wells netted the final goal of the third quarter as the Irish headed into the final 15-minute stanza leading 14-7.
Notre Dame’s 15th goal of the game came from Giordano at the 13:47 mark of the fourth quarter. The Irish lead was cut to 15-10 on two goals by Kane and one from Johnson. Owen Mulford (Ocean City, Md.) tallied the final Irish scord on an assist from Walsh with 4:55 remaining in the contest. Wich scored the final goal of the game at the 2:07 mark.
Junior Stewart Crosland (Bethesda, Md.) started in goal for the 13th time this season played 38 minutes. He finished with five saves, while allowing just four goals.
Notre Dame plays host to No. 5 Maryland next Saturday, May 2 in the final regular season contest of the 2003 campaign.