March 7, 2003
Notre Dame, Ind. –
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THE WEEK AHEAD – The Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team (2-0) will face two Atlantic Coast Conference foes in its next two games. The Irish are ranked 11th in this week’s United State Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) poll and 13th in the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse poll. Coach Kevin Corrigan’s squad travels to Chapel Hill, N.C. for a 1:00 p.m. faceoff against the Tar Heels on Saturday, March 8 and then faces Virginia in Charlottesville, Va., on Tuesday, March 11 at 3:30 p.m. Originally, the site of the contest was going to be at the Episcopal School in Alexandria, Va., but field conditions at the school have forced the game to be moved to the Virginia campus.
SCOUTING THE IRISH – Notre Dame is off to a 2-0 start after posting a 14-5 victory against Pennsylvania in its home opener. After leading by just one goal (5-4) at the break, Notre Dame exploded for six third-period goals and cruised to the victory. Junior Matt Howell (Huntington, N.Y.) leads the Irish in scoring with four goals and seven assists (11 points). Freshman Pat Walsh (Wantagh, N.Y.), who has been in the starting lineup in each of Notre Dame’s firs two games, is the team’s second leading scorer with three goals and three assists. Junior Dan Berger (Phoenix, Md.), the leading scorer in 2002, leads the team with five goals. Another freshman Matt Karweck (Penn Yan, N.Y.), a starter in each of the first two games, has contributed four goals and an assist. Junior Owen Mulford (Ocean City, Md.) is the fifth multiple-goal scorer for the Irish as he has tallied three goals. Junior Stewart Crosland (Bethesda, Md.) has started both games and has played all but two of the 120 minutes. He has given up all 14 goals the Irish have allowed and owns a .641 save percentage and 7.12 goals against average. Defenseman Eric Simon (Flemington, N.J.) has been the lone senior in the on the field to start each of the first two games. Longstick midfield John Souch (Watertown, N.Y.) is once again Notre Dame’s primary player at this position.
SCOUTING THE IRISH – Notre Dame is off to a 2-0 start after posting a 14-5 victory against Pennsylvania in its home opener. After leading by just one goal (5-4) at the break, Notre Dame exploded for six third-period goals and cruised to the victory. Junior Matt Howell (Huntington, N.Y.) leads the Irish in scoring with four goals and seven assists (11 points). Freshman Pat Walsh (Wantagh, N.Y.), who has been in the starting lineup in each of Notre Dame’s firs two games, is the team’s second leading scorer with three goals and three assists. Junior Dan Berger (Phoenix, Md.), the leading scorer in 2002, leads the team with five goals. Another freshman Matt Karweck (Penn Yan, N.Y.), a starter in each of the first two games, has contributed four goals and an assist. Junior Owen Mulford (Ocean City, Md.) is the fifth multiple-goal scorer for the Irish as he has tallied three goals. Junior Stewart Crosland (Bethesda, Md.) has started both games and has played all but two of the 120 minutes. He has given up all 14 goals the Irish have allowed and owns a .641 save percentage and 7.12 goals against average. Defenseman Eric Simon (Flemington, N.J.) has been the lone senior in the on the field to start each of the first two games. Longstick midfield John Souch (Watertown, N.Y.) is once again Notre Dame’s primary player at this position.
SCOUTING THE TAR HEELS – North Carolina heads into the contest with a 1-1 record. The Tar Heels opened up the season with a 13-3 victory over Bucknell in the season opener, but fell to Navy 9-8 in a four-overtime thriller on February 28 in Annapolis, Md. North Carolina returns eights starters and 23 letterwinners from last year’s squad which finished with an 8-5 record. North Carolina stands 12th in the USILA ranking and are 11th in the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse poll.
SCOUTING THE CAVALIERS – Along with Johns Hopkins, Virginia is No. 1 in the USILA poll and stands second to the Blue Jays in the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse ranking. The Cavaliers are 2-0 on the season and are averaging 17.5 goals per game. They posted a 19-8 victory over Drexel in the season opener and then posted a 16-15 win on the road against top-ranked and defending national champion Syracuse with the game-winning score coming in the final 22 seconds.
RECAPPING THE PENNSYLVANIA GAME – Notre Dame posted a decisive 14-5 victory over Pennsylvania in the home opener. Holding a slim 5-4 advantage after the first two periods, the Irish outscored the Quakers 9-1 in the final 30 minutes of the game. Matt Howell led the Irish with three goals and two assists, while Matt Karweck recorded his first collegiate hat trick. Notre Dame opened the third quarter of the contest with four unanswered goals before the Quakers scored their lone goal of the second half. The Irish then finished the game with five unanswered scores. Pat Walsh and Owen Mulford scored two goals each in the game, while Dan Berger, Steve Clagett (Chesapeake Beach, Md.), Matt Ryan (Ridley Park, Pa.) and Brian Hubschmann (Short Hills, N.J.) each tallied a goal. Stewart Crosland played 58 minutes and made 10 saves. He allowed all five of the Quakers’ goals.
THE CAPTAINS – Seniors Eric Simon, John Souch and Travis Wells (Severna Park, Md.) and junior Steve Clagett are serving as captains for the 2003 campaign.
SERIES RECORD VERSUS NORTH CAROLINA – Saturday’s contest will mark the third-ever meeting between the two schools. North Carolina has won both matchups – 11-8 on March 5, 1995 in Chapel Hill, N.C. and 11-10 on April 13, 1996 at Notre Dame’s Moose Krause Field.
SERIES RECORD VERSUS VIRGINIA – This will be the fifth matchup between the Irish and Cavaliers with Virginia holding a 3-1 advantage in the series. All four of the previous contests have been played in Charlottesville. This will be the third consecutive year the two schools will be playing each other. Notre Dame’s lone victory in the series was an 11-8 decision on March 14, 2001 – the same year the Irish finished 14-2 and advanced to the NCAA national semifinals.
HEAD COACH KEVIN CORRIGAN – Kevin Corrigan is his 15th season at Notre Dame and 17th in the collegiate ranks. The four-time Great Western Lacrosse League coach of the year owns a 135-84 (.616) overall ledger and an 124-69 (.642) mark with the Irish. Corrigan has led Notre Dame to 10 NCAA tournament appearances in the last 14 years (including six straight from 1992-97) and 11 (either outright or shared) conference titles. In 2001, he guided the Irish to their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship national semifinals. Under Corrigan, Notre Dame has been victorious in the first round of the NCAA tournament on three occasions. He has had 12 different players earn USILA All-America honors. Previous to his tenure at Notre Dame, Corrigan served as head coach at Randolph-Macon during the 1985 and 1986 campaign where his teams compiled a 10-15 mark.
FRIEND OR FOE? – For the third straight year, Notre Dame will face perennial power Virginia in Charlottesville. The contest once again will be a homecoming for Irish head coach Kevin Corrigan, a 1982 Cavalier graduate and former assistant lacrosse coach at the school. Corrigan was an assistant coach during both the 1987 and ’88 campaigns under head coach Jimmy “Ace” Adams. He also enjoyed a three-year stint as a player, totaling five goals and six assists during his career. IN his sophomore (1979), the Cavaliers reached the NCAA final before losing to Johns Hopkins in overtime. This will be the fifth time Corrigan will be taking of his Irish teams to Charlottesville.
A NOTRE DAME RARITY – Notre Dame’s final 5-8 record a year ago marked just the third time in the 22-year history of the program that an Irish team fell below the .500 mark. The only other two times the Irish have experienced losing season were in 1983 (6-7) and 1998 (5-7). Notre Dame has also finished with a .500 record on two other occasions – 1981 (6-6) and 1991 (7-7). Notre Dame’s eight losses were the most ever by an Irish team.
PROTECTING THE HOME TURF – Notre Dame was just 1-4 at home, the fewest wins at home since the 1996 campaign when that Irish squad finished just 2-3. Only three times in 22 seasons did Notre Dame lose four home games – 1981, 1991 and 2002. Both the 1981 and 1991 squad finished with 2-4 home records.
CLOSE CALLS – Notre Dame’s first four losses in 2002 season were by a combined five goals. Three of the team’s eight setbacks during the campaign were decided in overtime. The Irish lost 10-9 in overtime to Penn State at home in the season opener and then dropped a 7-6 double overtime decision to Loyola at home, which marked the first-ever double overtime game in the program’s 22-year history. Notre Dame also lost to Harvard on the road (7-6) in overtime. Last year’s three overtime contests were the most ever played by an Irish team in a single season. Notre Dame played two overtime contests in a single season on three other occasions – 1981, 1994 and 1996. Notre Dame was 0-5 in one-goal games in ’02.
GOALS A PLENTY – In 2002, Notre Dame scored just 109 goals in 13 games – the fewest goals ever scored by an Irish team in a season as they averaged 8.4 goals per game. Notre Dame scored 10 or more goals on just four occasions. In the first two games of the ’03 campaign, the Irish have already netted 10-plus goals in each of the contest. The nine-goal differential in the 14-5 win over Pennsylvania last week was the largest since 16-4 victory over Harvard on April 28, 2001
HOME SWEET HOME – Notre Dame owns a 93-31 (.750) mark in home games since 1981. Last season, the Irish were just 2-4 in their six homes which marked just the third time a Notre Dame team suffered that many losses at home. Since back-to-back 5-0 campaigns at home in 1994 and 1995, Irish teams own a 39-12 record for a winning percentage of 76.5 percent. Since ’94, Notre Dame has been undefeated at home four times.
LOOKS FAMILIAR – Notre Dame’s 2003 schedule will feature 11 opponents the Irish faced a year ago – Penn State, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Loyola, Hofstra, Denver, Ohio State, Butler, Air Force, Fairfield and Harvard.
ALL IN THE FAMILY – Craig Bishko (West Islip, N.Y.), a freshman midfielder on this year’s Irish lacrosse team, is the brother of former Notre Dame standout Steve Bishko, a 2001 United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) third-team All-America selection and three-year starter. The Bishkos are the fourth brother tandem to play lacrosse at Notre Dame. The others are Todd (1992-96) and Joe Bialous, Jason (1992-94, ’95) and Connor (’98) Pett and David (1998-2001) and Todd (1998-2001) Ulrich.
ALL IN THE FAMILY II – Notre Dame’s men’s and women’s lacrosse teams are represented by members of the Simon family – defenseman Eric Simon’s sister, Meredith, is a junior on the women’s lacrosse team.
PRESEASON HONORS – Senior longstick midfielder John Souch and senior defensman Eric Simon were both tabbed as preseason honorable mention selections by Inside Lacrosse Face Off Yearbook.