April 30, 2011
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The No. 1 Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team fell to No. 4 Syracuse 11-8 on Saturday night in front of 14,751 fans inside the Carrier Dome. The loss puts the Irish at 10-1 on the season and 5-1 in BIG EAST play.
Notre Dame opened the game’s scoring one minute into the contest on a Ryan Foley goal. The Irish went up 2-0 with 8:36 left in the first quarter on a Zach Brenneman tally. Brenneman, a senior midfielder, notched his second hat trick of the season by depositing a team-high three goals.
Syracuse (13-1, 5-0) responded with four straight goals to claim a 4-2 lead by the end of the first quarter. The run started on a Jeremy Thompson goal with six minutes left in the opening quarter. A Stephen Keogh tally evened things up (2-2) with 3:49 on the clock. Syracuse grabbed the lead for good 16 seconds later on a score from Tommy Palasek. Scott Loy made it 4-2 with seven seconds left in the first quarter.
A Brenneman goal at the 12:41 mark of the second quarter snapped the Syracuse surge.
The Orange answered back with another 4-0 run. Syracuse went back up by two (5-3) on a goal from Jeff Gilbert with 4:59 left in the opening half. The Orange increased the lead to three (6-3) with 3:23 remaining in the stanza on a Keogh goal. Keogh had a game-high four goals. Syracuse led 6-3 at the intermission.
“Syracuse is a very good team,” said Notre Dame head coach Kevin Corrigan. “We said this game would come down to making plays and they made a few more plays than we did tonight. Both teams were attacking the cage and getting opportunities. I think they did a better job at finishing those opportunities.”
Syracuse opened the second-half scoring with a Palasek goal with 11:45 left in the third quarter. The Orange grabbed a five-goal lead (8-3) 41 seconds later on a Thompson score.
Irish freshman Westy Hopkins sliced the Orange lead to four (8-4) with just over eight minutes left in the third period. Keogh put the Orange back up by five (9-4) with 4:20 remaining in the quarter. A goal from Notre Dame’s David Earl made it a 9-5 affair after three quarters of play.
Goals from Keogh and JoJo Marasco gave Syracuse a six-goal advantage (11-5), which was its largest lead of the game, by the 8:45 mark of the fourth quarter.
Notre Dame did not quit as the Irish ended the game with three consecutive goals. Sean Rogers scored with 4:24 left and Earl made it a four-goal contest (11-7) with two minutes showing on the clock. Brenneman tallied the game’s final goal with 1:19 remaining.
“We’re a better team right now than we were before this game,” added Corrigan. “We’ll be a better team next week after we get a chance to digest this one and make our adjustments after what we learned about ourselves.”
Sophomore goalie John Kemp made nine saves for the Irish. His counterpart John Galloway had 12 stops for the Orange. Both teams had 33 shots. Notre Dame won 14 of 23 faceoff attempts. Freshman Liam O’Connor was 12-19 and senior Jake Marmul was 2-4. O’Connor also picked up a game-high eight ground balls.
The Fighting Irish will conclude their regular-season slate on Friday at No. 9 North Carolina. Opening faceoff against the Tar Heels is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. (ET). The game will be aired live on ESPNU.
April 30, 2011 – Carrier Dome – Syracuse, N.Y.
#1 Notre Dame (10-1, 5-1) – 2 1 2 3 – 8
#4 Syracuse (13-1, 5-0) – 4 2 3 2 – 11
Notre Dame Scoring (goals-assists):
Zach Brenneman 3-0, David Earl 2-1, Westy Hopkins 1-0, Ryan Foley 1-0, Sean Rogers 1-0, Max Pfeifer 0-1; Goaltender: John Kemp (L, 60:00, 9 saves, 11 GA)
Syracuse Scoring (goals-assists):
Stephen Keogh 4-0, Tommy Palasek 2-0, Jeremy Thompson 2-0, JoJo Marasco 1-2, Jeff Gilbert 1-0, Scott Loy 1-0, Steve Ianzito 0-2, Jovan Miller 0-1; Goaltender: John Galloway (W, 60:00, 12 saves, 8 GA)
— ND —