Notre Dame holds off late surge by Blue Devils to win high stakes road game
NOTRE DAME, Ind. (BVM) 鈥� The No. 16 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse team jumped out to a sizable four goal lead after the first quarter on Saturday and never looked back. The No. 10 Duke Blue Devils staged a late comeback in the fourth quarter, but Notre Dame goalkeeper Liam Entenmann fended off the attack to secure the road win.聽聽
Offensively for Notre Dame, Pat Kavanagh along with Wheaton Jackoboice both turned in hattricks to add to the Irish鈥檚 win.聽 Kavanagh had four assists with 10 shots on goal to give him seven points for the game. Jake Taylor turned in two goals and two assists for the team.聽聽
Freshman Will Lynch notched his first collegiate goal paired with an assist. But his impact was felt most in the faceoff circle winning 19 out of the 35 he took for the Irish.聽
Defensively the Fighting Irish were led by Entenmann in goal who played the full 60 minutes. He made 11 saves on 26 shots to secure the win in net.
The Duke offense was consistent through the game with contributions from many different players. Four players recorded hat tricks for the day to push back against the Fighting Irish鈥檚 early lead. Despite the contributions from Brennan O鈥橬eill, Andrew McAdorey, Nakeie Montogomer and Reed Landin, the Blue Devils couldn’t finish the comeback in the fourth quarter.聽
Defensively, Mike Adler played almost the whole game in net making five saves on 20 shots before being relieved by Andrew Bonafede who took over for the final seconds of the game. He allowed one goal. The defense stood strong to defensive in the second half to help stage the comeback. They held Notre Dame scoreless for 10 minutes and forced 10 turnovers in the second half.
The Blue Devils struggled on the penalty kill giving up three goals on their five kills. They collected 3:30 in total penalty minutes on five penalties compared to Notre Dame鈥檚 one penalty for 1:00 which the Blue Devils could not capitalize on.聽聽
For the Fighting Irish, they hope to carry their momentum into Tuesday for a road game against Marquette. The Blue Devils hope to rebound Thursday against No. 6 Virginia at home.聽聽
The two teams will face off one more time in the regular season on May 7th in both teams regular season finales in Southbend, Indiana in what should be another high stakes matchup.聽聽
