Baltimore, Maryland – Matt Kavangh led the Irish and Conor Kelly stopped Maryland time and time again to get Notre Dame to Monday’s championship game. Notre Dame was efficient with possession of the ball and their long possessions put enough pressure on the Terps to advance. Notre Dame will face Duke in a rematch of the
Notre Dame opens the scoring in the game when Matt Kavangh puts one byMaryland goalie Niko Amato. The Irish continued the pressure early and got their second, this time with Kavanagh assisting to John Scioscia. From the start, Matt Kavanagh looked as though he really was the
Maryland finally got on the board when Joe LoCascio scored. LoCascio always has the green light in the Terps offense and he cut the lead to 2-1 in favor of Notre Dame. When Connor Cannizzaro scored to tie the game at two the offenses of both teams really looked to have found their groove.
As the last minute of the quarter, Notre Dame put the pressure on Maryland to close the half. Matt Kavanagh would give the Irish the lead at 3-2 and on the ensuing face off Nick Ossello would win moving forward, beating Niko Amato to go up two with under ten seconds to play in the quarter.
Notre Dame continues the stretch when Connor Doyle gets his first of the game to push the lead to three. The Terps with an uncharacteristic substitution error and this left Doyle wide open. Matt Kavanagh continued with the hot hand and in doing so gave Notre Dame a four-goal lead at 6-2.
Joe LoCascio got his second of the game to cut the lead to three as he beat Conor Kelly lowand away. Maryland gets to within two when senior Jay Carlson gets his first of the game. It really was a two goal swing as the Irish had a similar goal disallowed and Maryland got one much the same to count. At the half, Notre Dame led the Terps 6-4.
With face offs heavily in the favor of the Terps, Charlie Raffa looked as though he could stand up and his day would be done just prior to half. To the crowd’s amazement, he took the opening draw of the second half but it resulted in a time violation against the Terps. Raffa would have to be replaced by Jon Garino for the rest of the game.
Nick Ossello scored his second of the game and gave the Irish a three goal lead at 7-4. Following a missed Niko Amato ground ball that ended up in the stick of Notre Dame’s Connor Doyle behind the cage, Doyle found Kavanagh who finished his jump shot to double the Terps on the scoreboard.
The Terps would finally respond to the Notre Dame run when midfielder Henry West scored. Conor Kelly untl that Terp opportunity had turned away many great scoring chances. Kavangh got the Irish lead to four when he ran past Goran Murray and Pat Cotter finished a Kavanagh pass to double up the Terps at 10-5.
Mike Chanenchuk gets the score to 10-6 when he finally beat Kelly low. The Terps had been turned away numerous times by Kelly through most of the quarter. After Kelly made another great save with 4:40 left in the game, the Irish ran patient possessions to eliminate Maryland’s opportunities left in the game.
With 1:17 left in the contest and under ten second in the stall warning, Jon Scioscia scores to finish the Terps season and today’s scoring. With a penalty following, the Irish were able to run out the clock with the Terps not getting possession again.
Notre Dame was led by Matt Kavanagh’s seven points on five goals and two assists. Conor Doyle also had four on one goal, three assists. Conor Kelly had fourteen saves in the win. Maryland was led by Joe LoCasio’s two goals and Niko Amato’s ten saves.
