March 27, 2011
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The No. 3 Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team opened BIG EAST play on Sunday afternoon with an 8-3 win over Rutgers at the RU Turf Field. The Fighting Irish are 6-0 this season.
Senior attackman Colin Igoe notched three points on two goals and an assist, while senior midfielder David Earl also chipped in two goals for the Fighting Irish. Junior attackman Sean Rogers registered one goal and a career-high three assists.
The Fighting Irish opened the scoring just 30 seconds into the contest as Earl netted his first goal of the afternoon. Rutgers (5-3) knotted the contest with 8:20 remaining in the first quarter on a man-up goal from Matthew Klimchak. The Irish responded 16 seconds later on a man-up tally from Earl off a pass from Pat Cotter.
Goals from junior midfielder Max Pfeifer and Rogers gave Notre Dame a 4-1 lead by the 3:09 mark of the first quarter. A Rutgers goal from Kory Kelly with two seconds left in the stanza made it a 4-2 contest at the end of the first period.
Notre Dame carried a 4-2 lead into the intermission after neither team scored in the second quarter.
Junior attackman Nicholas Beattie snapped the scoreless drought as he put the Irish up by three (5-2) with just over six minutes elapsed in the second half. Steve Murphy assisted on the goal. Rutgers’ Scott Klimchak scored seven seconds later to make it a two-goal contest (5-3).
A man-up goal from Igoe off a pass from Edison Parzanese gave the Fighting Irish a three-goal cushion (6-3) with just under three minutes left in the third quarter.
Notre Dame went up by four (7-3) with 11 minutes left in the contest as sophomore attackman Ryan Foley found the back of the net. The Irish grabbed their largest lead of the game (8-3) on Igoe’s second goal, which was assisted by Pfeifer.
“Today was probably our best all-around effort of the season,” said Notre Dame head coach Kevin Corrigan. “We played well in all areas. We rode well and cleared well and even got a goal off of the ride. Our defense played well and our settled offense was good. It was nice to see that we got eight assists on our eight goals and we had four different attackmen score.”
Rutgers held a 30-26 advantage in shots. Irish sophomore John Kemp made 10 saves in goal to up his record to 6-0 this season. His counterpart Joseph Donnelly made seven stops for the Scarlet Knights. Rutgers won 10 of 14 faceoff attempts.
“They (Rutgers) wanted to control the game but we didn’t give up any cheap goals,” added Corrigan. “John Kemp played well in goal and our whole defense played well.”
The Scarlet Knights, who entered the game averaging 10.14 goals per game this season, scored just one goal in the final 45:02 of Sunday’s contest. The Notre Dame defense kept Rutgers off the scoreboard for the final 23:50 of the game. The Irish defense is surrendering just 5.83 goals per game this season.
The Fighting Irish will return to action on Saturday when they play host to No. 7 Villanova in BIG EAST play. Opening faceoff against the Wildcats is slated for 1:00 p.m. (ET) at Arlotta Stadium.
March 27, 2011 – RU Turf Field – Piscataway, N.J.
#3 Notre Dame (6-0, 1-0) – 4 0 2 2 – 8
Rutgers (5-3, 0-1) – 2 0 1 0 – 3
Notre Dame Scoring (goals-assists):
Colin Igoe 2-1, David Earl 2-0, Sean Rogers 1-3, Max Pfeifer 1-1, Nicholas Beattie 1-0, Ryan Foley 1-0, Edison Parzanese 0-1, Pat Cotter 0-1, Steve Murphy 0-1; Goaltender: John Kemp (W, 60:00, 10 saves, 3 GA)
Rutgers Scoring (goals-assists):
Scott Klimchak 1-1, Matthew Klimchak 1-0, Kory Kelly 1-0, Christopher Mattes 0-1; Goaltender: Joseph Donnelly (L, 60:00, 7 saves, 8 GA)
— ND —