April 2, 2016
By: John Heisler
Senior captain Matt Kavanagh had a career-high nine points (three goals, six assists), freshman Ryder Garnsey fired in five goals, sophomore Mikey Wynne scored four times–and the Irish defense set the stage for Notre Dame’s biggest offensive explosion of the 2016 season.
All that turned into a dominating 17-7 victory for the second-ranked Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team against the seventh-rated Orange of Syracuse at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York. It marked Syracuse’s most one-sided home defeat in 29 years.
“Things really came together for us today,” said Irish coach Kevin Corrigan. “We’ve been working toward this and making progress in practice. We simplified some things and reduced what we are trying to do.”
The Irish victory marked its first in four tries at the Carrier Dome and ended a 13-game home win streak for Syracuse. The loss was the third straight for the Orange (5-3) and marked its worst home defeat since a 19-6 loss at the hands of Cornell in 1987. The seven goals marked the lowest offensive output of the year for Syracuse.
The Irish (7-1) led all the way, playing a poised and impressive opening period in which Notre Dame dominated possession, didn’t commit a turnover and finished with a 5-2 advantage.
Kavanagh notched a hat trick in a 2:17 span of the second period, scoring Notre Dame’s sixth, seventh and eighth goals (the last giving the Irish an 8-4 advantage) as he needed just those couple of minutes to notch his biggest goal-scoring performance of 2016.
Then Kyle Trolley came from behind the goal and underhanded in a dart with :12:3 in the second period to finish the first-half scoring. Notre Dame led 9-4 at the break.
Syracuse got two quick goals from Jordan Evans to start the second half, but Notre Dame responded with successive tallies by Garnsey (twice) and Austin Gaiss (his first career goal) and the Irish were never headed from there.
Notre Dame scored the final five goals of the night and eight of the last nine.
Irish net-minder Shane Doss made 10 saves–and he and the Irish defense effectively neutralized top Syracuse scorer Dylan Donahue (he finished with a single goal).
Notre Dame’s P.J. Finley and John Travisano, Jr. combined to win 15 of 27 face-offs against Ben Williams of Syracuse who had ranked second in the nation in that category.
Notre Dame returns home to meet Duke at noon next Sunday at Arlotta Stadium.
Score by Period 1 2 3 4 F
#2 Notre Dame (7-1, 2-0 ACC) 5 4 5 3 17
#7 Syracuse (5-3, 1-2 ACC) 2 2 3 0 7
Syracuse Scoring: Goals: Jordan Evans 3, Tim Barber 1, Ryan Simmons 1, Dylan Donahue 1, Nick Mariano 1; Assists: Barber 2, Nick Weston 1, Sergio Salcido 1, Derek DeJoe 1
Notre Dame Scoring: Goals: Ryder Garnsey 5, Mikey Wynne 4, Matt Kavanagh 3, Kyle Trolley 2, Austin Gaiss 1, Sergio Perkovic 1, Bobby Gray 1; Assists: Kavanagh 6, Drew Schantz 1, Garnsey 1, Trevor Brosco 1
Goalkeepers: Syracuse: Warren Hill, L, 48:46, 14 goals against, 4 saves; Evan Molloy, 11:14, 3 goals against, 5 saves Notre Dame: Shane Doss, W, 55:55, 7 goals against, 10 saves; Conor Kelly, 4:05, 0 goals against, 0 saves