March 15, 2003
Notre Dame, Ind. – The No. 9 Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team saw its comeback bid fall short when Craig Georgales’ goal with 41 seconds remaining lifted the No. 11 Loyola Greyhounds to a 9-8 victory. Notre Dame, which had won its first three games of the season, falls to 3-2 on the season, while Loyola improves to 4-1.
Notre Dame trailed 8-4 with 4:44 before mounting their comeback. Junior Owen Mulford (Ocean City, Md.), who registered both of his goals in the second half, got the rally started with 1:29 remaining in the third quarter off an assist from freshman Matt Howell (Huntington, N.Y.). Sophomore Dan Berger (Phoenix, Md.) cut the deficit to 8-6 with 41 seconds remaining when he tallied his game-high third goal of the contest off an assist from freshman Matt Ryan (Ridley Park, Pa.).
Neither team could generate much offense to start the final quarter of action, but the Irish finally got on the scoreboard with when Mulford tallied his second goal of the game off a Walsh assist at the 7:22 mark. Howell, who registered a goal and two assists on the afternoon, tied the game for the second time with his unassisted goal with 2:35 remaining.
Georgales provided the game-winning score off an assist from Chris Summers with 41 seconds remaining. Prior to that goal, the Greyhounds had been held scoreless since the 4:44 mark of the third quarter when Summers’ second goal of the game opened up an 8-4 advantage.
Loyola goalkeeper Mark Bloomquist frustrated the Irish with his 14 saves in the game. Notre Dame outshot the Greyhounds 39-25 in the game. Irish goalie Stewart Crosland (Bethesda, Md.) finished with eight saves on the afternoon and held Loyola to just three second-half scores.
Loyola dominated the Irish in the first half, jumping out to an early 2-0 lead on goals by Summers and John Halip. Notre Dame evened the game at 2-2 just before the end of the first quarter on goals by Berger at the 3:29 mark of the contest and by Brian Giordano (Princeton, N.J.) with 1:57 remaining.
Loyola then answered with four unanswered goals in the second quarter. Brundage gave the Greyhounds a 3-2 advantage and then Joey Case, Gunnar Goettelmann and Matt White increased lead to 6-2 with 7:33 remaining in the second-period stanza. Goettelmann finished the game with two goals and two assists in the contest.
Walsh snapped the Greyhounds scoring streak as Notre Dame trailed 6-3 at the intermission.
With the victory, Loyola now improves to 12-2 all-time against the Irish and is 5-0 all-time in games played between the two schools at Notre Dame.
Coach Kevin Corrigan’s Irish have opened the 2003 campaign by playing five straight ranked opponents. The Irish will face their sixth consecutive ranked foe on Friday, March 21 when they travel to Hempstead, N.Y. to face the Hofstra Pride, ranked 12th nationally, at 7:30 p.m.