April 7, 2001
Notre Dame, Ind. – The seventh-ranked Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team returned home for the first time in more than a month after five straight road games and continued its winning ways as the Irish used a balanced scoring attack in recording a 16-6 victory over Great Western Lacrosse League foe Denver.
Senior midfield Todd Ulrich (Baltimore, Md.) scored a season-high four goals and Tom Glatzel (Ellicott City, Md.) and Jon Harvey (Winchester, Mass.) added three goals each as the Irish won for the seventh time in eight outings as they improved to 7-1 on the season and 2-0 in the GWLL. In addition to his four goals, Glatzel also dished off two assists. Junior midfield John Flandina (West Islip, N.Y.) also was a multiple-goal scorer in the contest as he added two scores to lift the Irish to their highest goal total this season.
Notre Dame’s defense to be one of the strengths of this squad. Heading into its contest with Denver, the Irish had held six of their seven opponents to under 10 goals. Notre Dame’s offense as has been in high gear as well in the last two games as the Irish have outscored their last two opponents – Ohio State and Denver – by a combined 29-10.
The contest was never in doubt as the Irish raced to a 5-0 lead after the first quarter and 8-2 advantage at the intermission. Todd Ulrich scored Notre Dame’s first two goals of the game less than four minutes into the contest off assists from Glatzel and Chris Young (Manlius, N.Y.), who finished with two assists on the afternoon. Glatzel, Steve Bishko (West Islip, N.Y.) and Harvey rounded out the first-quarter scoring.
Chad Whittman and Mike Law tallied back-to-back goals for the Pioneers to cut the Irish lead to 6-2 with 8:48 remaining in the second quarter. The Irish than scored three unanswered goals on scores by Flandina, David Ulrich and Harvey to give Notre Dame an 8-2 halftime advantage.
After Whittman tallied his scored goal of the game 21 seconds into the third quarter to pull the Pioneers to within 8-3, the Irish responded with eight straight goals with Flandina, Todd Ulrich and Glatzel each contributing two goals each. Sophomore Kyle Frigon (Salem, Mass.) netted his first collegiate goal in the fourth quarter to give Notre Dame its largest lead of the game, 15-4, with 8:30 remaining in the contest.
Freshman Matt Howell (Huntington, N.Y.) also tallied the first goal of his career when he scored Notre Dame’s final goal of the afternoon with 2:21 remaining in the contest to give the Irish a 16-5 advantage.
Kirk Howell (Nashville, Tenn.) was victorious for the seventh time in eight starts as he played 45 minutes, allowed four goals and made four saves. Sophomore Nick Antol (Baldwin, Md) played the final 15 minutes of the contest as he made two saves and allowed two goals.
With the loss, the Pioneers fall to 3-5 on the season and 0-1 in the GWLL.
Notre Dame returns to action at home on Mon., Apr. 9 at 4:00 p.m., when the Irish face another GWLL foe, Air Force. That game will be the second of four straight home games for the Irish.