What a day of lacrosse at James M. Shuart Field at Hofstra University! In front of a record crowd of 13,519 people, the Maryland Terrapins earned their third trip in four years back to the Final Four in a beatdown of upset-minded Bryant Bulldogs. Meanwhile, Notre Dame beat the Albany Great Danes in an overtime thriller 14-13 in the second game of the double header.
Maryland came out firing on all cylinders against Bryant. Maryland won 9-of-10 faceoffs on their way to building a 7-2 lead after the first quarter. Bryant head coach Mike Pressler admitted that Maryland turned the tables on his Bryant squad. “They did to us what we usually do to other teams and we got to experience that for the first time.”
Attackmen Shane Morrell and Colin Dunster, who had two and four goals on the day respectively, echoed those same feelings saying that they “felt helpless” as they watched Maryland’s offense work methodically against Bryant’s defense.
Meanwhile, Maryland’s senior midfielder Mike Chanenchuk was a key part in fueling Maryland’s opening 7-2 run. Chanenchuk had two goals and three assists in the opening quarter as the St. Anthony’s graduate enjoyed his homecoming to Long Island.
The second quarter saw a more even play as both teams scored two goals and Maryland ended the first half up 9-4. In a very anticipated matchup at the faceoff X, Maryland’s Charlie Raffa dominated one of, if not the best, faceoff man in the country in Kevin Massa. He won 11-of-15 faceoffs over Massa and was a key contributor in Maryland’s first half dominance.
The third quarter saw the game open the same way as it started as Maryland scored four of the next five goals to go up 13-5. Raffa continued to dominate at the X and Jay Carlson added two goals during the run. Raffa would exit the game after injuring his knee during a faceoff and hobbling off the field. He would not finish the game and his afternoon ended with him going 17-of-20.
Raffa said postgame that he tweaked it and felt fine but it will be interesting to see what happens this week heading into the Final Four.
Bryant added two goals to start the fourth quarter to come within six goals at 14-8 but Maryland was just too much and the Terps won 16-8. Chanenchuk finished with nine points on the afternoon (5 G, 4 A) while Connor Cannizzaro, Carlson and Joe Locascio all had hat tricks.
Massa ended the afternoon going 10-of-27 from the X and Bryant’s other key contributor, goalie Gunnar Waldt saved seven shots but allowed 15 goals. He was clearly hobbled by the ankle injury that he suffered against Siena. Dunster finished with five points as well.
Maryland goes back to the Final Four and gets to play in front of its home crowd which is certainly a plus for them. Coach John Tillman eluded to the homefield advantage saying, “It is pretty special to play there and it is one of our goals every year to make it to the Final Four. It is also super special for the guys who were on the 2011 squad that reached the National Championship Game. They have another opportunity to play there.”
In the second game of the doubleheader, Notre Dame and Albany played an instant classic. Notre Dame jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead thanks to two goals by Matt Kavanagh and goals by Conor Doyle and Nick Osello as well. However, the Albany Great Danes would not be shut out for long as the Thompson show started. Lyle Thompson set off the fireworks with a beautiful underhanded goal at goaline extended and Miles followed up with two straight goals, including a goal over his shoulder.
Notre Dame opened the scoring in the second quarter to go up 5-3 before Albany tied it up at five thanks to Miles Thompson’s 82nd goal of the season. With that goal, Miles tied the single season goals record set by Yale’s Jon Reese from 1990.
Notre Dame got the last goal of the half as Trevor Brosco scored an unassisted goal put the Irish up 6-5 heading into the half. Liam O’Connor was dominant at the faceoff X after winning 50 percent of the faceoffs in the first quarter. He was 9-of-13 in the first half while Albany tried two different faceoff men. Notre Dame was also outshooting Albany 19-14 up to that point.
The tide quickly turned after both teams traded goals to open the third quarter. Albany scored six unanswered goals and held Notre Dame scoreless from the 7:03 mark in the third quarter until the 8:11 mark in the fourth quarter. During the run, Lyle Thompson tied the NCAA single season assist record (77) set by Steve Marohl in 1992.
Great Danes goaltender Blaze Riorden stood tall in between the pipes during the run as well, as he registered four of his 14 saves during the third quarter. The crowd predictably pro-Albany and Notre Dame seemed to be out of it until Coach Kevin Corrigan made an adjustment. Afterwards Corrigan said that he changed up his ride to try and keep the ball out of the Thompsons’ sticks.
“We went to a 10-man ride which does two things for us. One, it pushes us down and makes No. 2, 4 and 91 (The Thompsons) the last guys to touch the ball in that situation. And two it changes our mentality and makes us play more aggressively. If we get turnovers, we get great situations off of them.”
Using that 10-man ride, the Fighting Irish lived up to their names and stormed all the way back to find themselves down one, 12-11, in favor of Albany. Notre Dame had a chance to tie but Riorden made two point blank saves and a shot hit the pipe which bounced fortuitously to Ryan Feuerstein. Feuerstein then went coast to coast to put the Great Danes up by two with 4:43 left in the game.
Notre Dame scored two goals courtesy of Westy Hopkins and Sergio Perkovic to tie it up at 13. The Great Danes got a great chance to win it as they had the last possession and got a shot off with three seconds left from the left side. However, Conor Kelly was in good position and had the shot go off his helmet with two seconds left and the game would head into overtime.
Coach Marr talked about the end of the game situation saying, “There was no set play, we were looking to put the ball in our best player’s stick and we had a look and it was just one fo those things. It wasn’t anything we hadn’t done all game and all season.”
The end of the game was tense and physically draining as defenseman Stephen O’Hara said, “It was tiring, as I remember looking at the clock with three minutes left and then not looking up again until the horn sounded.”
Notre Dame won the faceoff as Liam O’Connor finished the day 21-of-31 at the X. The Irish ran their offense before the ball would get jarred loose and head to the endline. As it was heading there, Kavanagh made a diving save to keep it in bounds and retain possesion for the Fighting Irish before they called a timeout.
Right off the whistle the ball got into Kavanagh’s stick, and the rest they say, is history. He drove top side from the left side of the field and beat Riorden off stick side low for the game winner. Kavanagh wasn’t even looking to shoot as he recounted the goal.
“I was trying to bait their slide guy and bait my guy also. My defender hedged toward Sergio and drew a switch onto a short stick and then they sluffed off of me and I attacked right off of it.”
Notre Dame outshot Albany 47-32 and had 39 ground balls to Albany’s 24. Miles Thompson finished with four points to give him 121 for the season while Lyle had six points and finished with 128 points on the season.
Conor Doyle had five points (2 G, 3 A) while Kavanagh scored three goals on the afternoon. John Scioscia, Sergio Perkovic, Westy Hopkins and Nick Osello all had two goals for the Irish as well. Kelly only made six saves on the afternoon but came up big when it counts.
Notre Dame will play Maryland in one of the Final Four matchups and it will be a rematch of the 6-5 ACC Semifinal thriller in Philadelphia and their third matchup of the season.
