Notre Dame Men’s Lacrosse: Irish outlast a tough Cornell team, win 18-17 (2024)

On a Sunday afternoon on Long Island, the #1 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish lacrosse team beat the Cornell Big Red by a final score of 18-17. It was a thrilling back and forth matchup and the Irish were able to get the game-winning goal on a Ben Ramsey bouncer from up top, off a nice feed from Chris Kavanagh, with 6.4 ticks left to play. It was the sixth straight win for the boys and we moved to 8-1 on the season and 2-0 in ACC play. Two more regular season games remain before the ACC tournament that first weekend in May.

For those in attendance, it was an awesome afternoon put on by Corrigan Sports as people from all over the NYC area came out to support both tradition-led lacrosse schools. Over 7,300 fans were in attendance and it was the second most attended college lacrosse game in 2024 behind only the Army-Navy game from the day before (which drew over 10,000 people).

Sunday’s matchup was a tremendous opportunity for fans and alumni of Notre Dame to get together across the whole weekend, and pictures and videos have been coming out that showcase how much people were able to meet up over the Friday through Sunday festivities. For Notre Dame, it was another reminder of how strong our school’s presence is no matter where we go, but especially in the northeast as there are a ton of ND alumni, and specifically ND lacrosse alumni, in the area. Really cool to see so many gathering across the three days to celebrate our Irish.

Dave and Todd UIrich, class of 2001 Notre Dame lacrosse alumni, were in attendance with fellow grads and their families, and Todd sent me a note around sharing this link. He played on the Cornell Big Red Steelheads lacrosse team at Lake Placid last year and one of his friends from the Cornell team passed along a post around raising funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. If you have a chance, check it out and give to what is a great cause and something that truly makes a difference in people’s lives.

At the end of the day, the matchup on the Island did not disappoint as it was a neck and neck affair that saw the Irish get some early leads, Cornell go on some runs and even take a late lead, but as we have seen time and time again from our Irish squad, we are just a really hard team to beat and we made the plays down the stretch which got us the victory.

All right, so much to talk about around this game, let’s get after it...

First Quarter

Cornell got on the board first off the opening faceoff and scored right off the bat to make it 1-0. Pat Kavanagh tied at 1-1 on our first possession coming from X unassisted. Chris Kavanagh had a shot go off the pipe at just under 7 minutes in the quarter and Notre Dame went to the man-up with 6:26 left in the first. Pat Kavanagh had the ball up front, made a slick inside feed to Jeffery Ricciardelli who put it home to make it 2-1 Irish. Then Pat Kavanagh from X, made another great feed, this time across the backside to Eric Dobson who fired it home low and away to make it 3-1 Irish. Cornell would get one back as they got a man free uncovered on the backside to make it 3-2. Reilly Gray would make it 4-2 with a nice left handed shot off a pass from Chris Kavanagh. Nick Harris would then get on the board with his first of the season as he made a great dodge in transition and hit the bouncer to make it 5-2 Irish. Dobson next from up top took his man on the run and hit home right handed to make it 6-2 Notre Dame with 2:24 left. CJ Kirst made it 6-3 with 41 seconds left and that is where we would end the quarter with the score being 6-3 Irish.

Second Quarter

Will Lynch won the opening faceoff of the quarter, but after a long opening possession by Notre Dame, Cornell got the Irish to turn it over. Our ride would then cause a delay of game to get the ball back and we made them pay as Jordan Faison got on the board from the left wing to make it 7-3 with 12:18 to go. Mikey Long would get around X and get the score to 7-4 Notre Dame with 11:38 to go. CJ Kirst next scored with about 1 second left on shot clock and made it 7-5 at the 10:15 mark. Cornell went on the man-up shortly after, Notre Dame fended it off, and Max Busenkell scored with a great dodge up top and a lefty rocket and made it 8-5 Irish. Cornell went back on the man-up with 7:11 to go and hit a backside pass to make it 8-6. Reilly Gray got his second of the day with his left hand to make it 9-6 Notre Dame before CJ Kirst again came from X and and took it to GLE to make it 9-7 Irish. Notre Dame made it 10-7 with 2:18 to go on an awesome feed from Chris Kavanagh inside to Jake Taylor as he got loose in front. Colin Hagstom scrapped and won the faceoff, hit Will Donovan in front who made it 11-7, scoring the first goal of his career, with 2:02 left. Notre Dame shortly after went offsides and Cornell went to the man-up and that is where they would be as halftime arrived. The score was 11-7 Notre Dame.

Third Quarter

Notre Dame once again defended the man-up advantage, but soon after CJ Kirst went top shelf to make it 11-8. The Big Red would get their second of the half off a nice inside feed on a pass from X and made it 11-9 Irish with 13:10 left. Notre Dame finally got their first possession with 11:25 to go and there would soon be a penalty on Cornell as they took off Nick Harris’ helmet. A two minute penalty was called and Jeffery Ricciardelli cashed in off a loose ball and made it 12-9 Irish. Cornell got one back to make it 12-10 (another goal with 1 second to go on the shot clock) and eventually Cornell got the next three goals as well and took a 13-12 advantage. The Irish tied it up with 1:31 to go in the quarter as Jake Taylor picked the goalie save out of midair and went BTB and we were at 13 all. Pat Kavanagh with a nice roll back and he made it 14-13 Notre Dame with 21 seconds to go and that is where we ended the quarter.

Fourth Quarter

Cornell tied things at 14 before Eric Dobson hit home on his third of the day to make it 15-14 Irish with 13:06 to go. Notre Dame, with Liam Entenmann on the clear, got a timeout and Coach Corrigan was livid as he thought there could have been a penalty on Cornell for a push from behind on Liam. Cornell eventually got possession and tied it at 15 with 10:42 to go. There was some good back and forth before Mikey Long took it to X, beat his man and gave Cornell a 16-15 lead with 5:14 to go. Colin Hagstrom won the ensuing faceoff and we saw a great ground ball save by Devon McLane which kept possession for the Irish. What ensued was a feed inside to Jake Taylor (from Devon) to make it 16 all. The Big Red again took the lead at 17-16 with a step down from outside with 3:01 to go. Notre Dame won the next faceoff and called timeout in order to retain possession as Ross Burgmaster brought it into the offensive zone with 2:50 to go. Jordan Faison started with the ball after the timeout and hit a great pass through the crease to Chris Kavanagh who was on the side and his low shot went in to make it 17 all, tied again, 2:45 left. We would next get possession but turn it over, only to see Jordan Faison make the play of the day with a check that caused a turnover at midfield. WHAT A PLAY!! Notre Dame had the ball with less than 40 seconds to go, but we had no timeouts so we had to move. Pat Kavanagh eventually got the ball up top, he made a pass that did not go through, but Chris Kavanagh got the ground ball and hit Ben Ramsey in front. He took a step down bouncer and it went home to make it 18-17 Notre Dame with 6.4 second to go. WHAT A FINISH!! Cornell would not get another possession and that would be the final score, moving the Irish to 8-1 overall and 2-0 in the ACC.

Notes and Thoughts

Lots to focus on here, let’s start with the positives....

There were some nice early saves from Liam Entenmann and with his first save of the day he became the all-time Notre Dame goalie career saves leader. Shout out to Liam, in what has been a storied path and time at ND, he was able to get the record on Long Island, where he grew up, and where it all started. He deserves it and just so wonderful to see for Liam, his family and his teammates.

On the day, Cornell led 1-0, 13-12 and 17-16. They had three leads on the day, but they could never get more than a one goal advantage on our Irish. And they had plenty of chances to make it a two goal game, but they just were not able to do so. That’s a credit to our team and the resiliency we show week in and week out. We saw this when things got close against Duke (and Syracuse) and no matter how close things got, we always seem to find a way to get the possession, get a big stop, pick up a ground ball, get a big goal....all not allowing our opponent to get too much of an advantage. That’s the sign of a championship winning team and these types of games / scenarios, while nerve-wracking, will pay dividends later on in the season.

For those watching at home, you could not help but laugh at some of the goal calls by the announcing team. There were too many to write down and some of them were a little inappropriate, but here are a few:

“Call that corner an Uber, because it just got hammered.”

“Time Room, Bullseye. That’s why they call it execution.” (this was a nod to Eamon McAnaney)

“Taco Bell Filthy.”

“Hold your nose because here comes the cold water.”

What an unreal play by Jordan Faison at the end of the game. He was on offense when Notre Dame turned the ball over, he followed his man across the midfield line and he made just an unreal check with his stick to dislodge the ball, it popped up right to him and Notre Dame was able to get the final possession that led to the Ben Ramsey game-winning goal. HUGE play by Jordan and he continues to impress with his all around game.

Colin Hagstrom and Will Lynch finished a combined 50% (19 of 38) on the day with faceoffs. We have talked about it many times in my articles, but it is always best to have two faceoff men you can rely upon in big games and as the season moves along. Sometimes the matchups don’t always work out and sometimes one person’s style just works differently and is a better fit against an opponent. Colin took the majority of faceoffs on the day and when his # was called, he was ready to perform.

Three goals total across some of our primary defensive players - Ben Ramsey, Nick Harris and Will Donovan. All three were in unsettled / transition situations and all three were huge goals on the afternoon. So good to see these three players get in the scoring column as they all play positions that demand a lot of running, a lot of effort, a lot of hustle, a lot of grit and a lot of times they go unnoticed as so many of their plays don’t show up in the scoresheet. Awesome work by them on the afternoon as they continue to have excellent seasons.

Notre Dame went 2-2 on their man-up opportunities and we continue to be setting the bar around our extra man offense. Jeffery Ricciardelli is a menace a the crease on this unit and he is pretty much unstoppable when he gets the ball in close. He has extremely quick hands and can fake out the best goalies before he puts it into the back of the net. Additionally, he made a nice play on a loose ball to get in his second of the day on Sunday. As the season moves along, this unit’s ability to find the back of the net will only get more and more important.

Great work by Eric Dobson and Reilly Gray in this game. These are two really big, physically large midfielders who throughout their career have made their living by dodging their defenders and getting shots on the cage. Reilly had two left-handed goals on the afternoon and Eric had a hat trick across varying spots on the field. That’s five goals total and it’s good to see these two starting to heat up as the post-season is not too far away now. And with them on different middie lines this year, it just makes our offense that much harder to stop.

Let’s give some credit where credit is due....this is a really good Cornell team. They are not going to blow you away with their size, but this was an extremely talented and hungry Big Red team. They are scrappy with ground balls on the faceoffs, they do a good job riding, they have a nice offensive scheme, they play unselfishly and find the open man, and they do a lot when they have the ball to create different matchups. I said this to a few people across texts, but I would not be surprised one bit to see them win the Ivy tournament. In fact, I would be shocked if they did not. This is a team that can score on anyone and they proved that again on Sunday. They will be a tough out as the season goes along.

17 goals given up by the Irish is something that I am sure the coaching staff is taking a long and hard look at this week. Lots of tape for the team to go through and lots for us to learn from around this game. I am not a coach and I do not have an eye to analyze everything, but I took a look back and as far back as I could see was the 2016-2017 and no time since then (or even that season) have we given up 17 goals in a game. So it would not be wrong in saying that this was one of our tougher performances on the defensive side of things. Each game is a learning experience and we saw what we were able to do across our two Virginia losses last year. I have the utmost confidence in this coaching staff that any mistakes that were made will be learned from, that we will be better moving forward, and that we will put this game in the rear view mirror and move onto the next.

One thing that I know the coaching staff will be looking at is the trend across the last three game and the second halves of those games. We held Syracuse to 5 goals in the first half and gave up 7 in the second half. We held Duke to 4 goals in the first half and then gave up 8 in the second half. Against Cornell we held them to 7 goals at the half and gave up 10 in the second half. Now it’s not like these are bad teams, these are three of the best offensive units in the country, and I think that needs to be taken into account, but I would imagine there is something the staff can focus on this week that will help our Irish as we look to finish teams off in the last 30 minutes of the game.

Fred’s Pics

As always, at the bottom of this article will be some of the pics that Fred Assaf took while in person at the game. Some awesome shots from Fred, including a bunch that show how big the crowd was out there on Long Island. Amazing job, as always, by the man with the eye and the lens.

What’s Next

It’s Senior Day for the Irish as Notre Dame takes on North Carolina at Arlotta for the last home regular season game of the year. If all breaks well, it will not be the last home game of the year as we are tracking to host a first round NCAA tournament game.

The matchup is set for Saturday, April 20th at 11:30 AM EST and it should be an awesome weekend at Notre Dame with the Blue-Gold football game happening later in the afternoon on campus as well. A double dip of a day? For those that can do it, get after it and go to both! And let’s see what Jordan Faison’s schedule looks like for the day, I am curious if he will hop in a golf cart (ala Sam Assaf last year) and get whisked away to Notre Dame Stadium to get suited up for the second half of the football game. Guess we will see.

North Carolina is a young team that is looking to get back to where they were in years past. They have done a good job recruiting of late and they have more talent coming in the years ahead, but it is a team that is still looking to make their mark this year. I am sure they would like nothing more than to beat the Irish. And for those of you who have followed this matchup over the years, these two teams are not fans of each other. This one could get chippy early so let’s see what things look like as the two squads take the field at Arlotta.

Come on out on Saturday, honor these Notre Dame seniors (and graduate students), they have put in so much for this Notre Dame program over the years. I am going to list them here, be there on Saturday to cheer them on and then say hello to them afterwards:

Fulton Bayman, Danny Parker, Jake Taylor, Max Manyak, Reilly Gray, Chris Conlin, Devon McLane, Marco Napolitano, BJ Burlace, Sam Assaf, Liam Entenmann, Pat Kavanagh, Nick Harris, Jake Bonomi, Colin Hagstrom, Bryce Walker, Eric Dobson, Michael Lynch, Carter Parlette, Ross Burgmaster, Casey Doyle, Ridge Johnson, Jack Conroy, Mick Lee and Conrad Delgado (I think I got everyone, but sorry if someone was missed!!)

I cannot be at the game this weekend, it is my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary and we will be celebrating my amazing Mom and Dad this weekend here in the Chicago suburbs. On April 20th, 1974, Jackie and Michael Brennan tied the knot and on Saturday, April 20th, 2024, they will renew their vows in front of their extended family, which will then be followed by a celebratory party. Besides the two of them, no one is more excited for this weekend than their four children (Betsy, Drew, JP and Chris) and their eight grandchildren (Colin, Emmett, Meara, Georgia, Conner, Eloise, Rosey and Margot). Congrats to my parents, they are a wonderful example of what it means to be a husband and wife, what it means to be true partners, what it means to be loving parents and what it means to live a life for others. I am lucky to be their son.

Go Irish!