Hey, it's just a scrimmage, but Notre Dame beat a group of MLL players 15-9, on Saturday night on the turf indoors at Meyo Field, and well worth the drive from Chicago to watch. As Irish coach Kevin Corrigan is fond of saying, "Scrimmages don't mean much other than they show you how you apply what you have learned in practice to date". Well, the 2003 Irish lacrosse team are a much different brood than last year's version. Some key freshmen additions by Corrigan have added some spark to Notre Dame. Notre Dame is vastly improved on offense and demonstrated a lot of hustle and speed in working the ball around the offensive side of the field. Last year, for the most part the Irish played a patient, slow tempo game, waiting for an opening to develop. Saturday night, they worked the ball around the net at a much quicker pace, tossing feed passes before you knew a cutter was coming. The Irish have always been athletic, but this year's team has quite some speed.

Notre Dame controlled this game and that was to be expected given the fact that they had practiced together and most of the MLL players had last seen each other last summer. Nevertheless, the MLL gang was not a bunch of galoots and the victory does demonstrate that Notre Dame may be the team that must be unseated in the GWLL in order to get to Baltimore. The game started with Notre Dame scoring easily and often and leading at the end of the first quarter 4-2. A few breakdowns on the part of the MLL team gave the Irish some easy goals, including a strip of the MLL goalie by Dan Berger during a broken clear to give Notre Dame its 10th goal. Travis Wells then punched in the 11th goal on the next possession from 5 yards up top. Wells was fed by Brian Hubschmann No, 26 on a quick reverse and shot. The half ended 12-3 with the Irish on top.

The third quarter saw Notre Dame experimenting with various sets . The Irish middies and attackmen were particularly agressive this night on rides, leading to at least three broken clears. Owen Mulford was a ball hawk this night, creeping up at full speed on a clearing defender and dealing out some hard stick checks. He will make things happens this season for the Irish. The third quarter saw the Irish up 14-4.

On their opposite end, the defense is as strong as last year. Stewart Crosland started in the net for Notre Dame and for the times he was called upon to make a save, he did...with ease. The Irish defenders were very deliberate in their clears, trying to have at least three passes before crossing the mdifield stripe. Some exceptions to this strategy occurred when Eric Simon and Brendan Creaney moved open and took the ball across the stripe. Look for Simon to notch two goals this year by initiating a longstick fast break come the beginning of the season. Freshman Matt Kerwick from Penn Yan is running longtsick midfield on the face offs and then being replaced by AA candidate John Souch. Kerwick is strong and fast and will be pushing Creaney, Simon and Mickey Blum hard or playing time this year. Nick Antol will be the back up for Crosland in the nets and he played the fourth quarter and was hit for 5 goals, while the Irish added another to end the scrimmage 15-9. Hey, it's just a scrimmage, but Irish opponents should be wary. This team is a fast shooting team that rides hards and clears fast. Key games this year include the opener at Penn State, North Carolina, Virgina and Hofstra on the road and Loyola, Denver and Maryland at home.