Division I Men :      May 3, 2003 [ The Game Story]
Notre Dame 4 Maryland 10 Scoring: Scoring: Owen Mulford Matt Ryan Travis Wells Matt Howell Brian Giordano (1, 1) (0, 1) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) Justin Smith Joe Walters Ryan Moran Mike Mollot Brian Hunt Matt Urlock (2, 1) (2, 0) (2, 0) (1, 1) (2, 0) (1, 0) Saves: Saves: Stewart Crosland 19  (0.655) Danny Mccormick Teddy Murphy 6  (0.600) 2  (1.000) Current Record :     (9-5) Current Record :     (10-3) Team Page For 2003 Team Page For 2003       The Game Story: NOTRE DAME, Ind. - A stifling Maryland defense shutdown Notre Dame's top two scorers as the No. 4 Terps posted a 10-4 win at the No. 18 Irish on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The win gave Maryland coach Dave Cottle his 200th career win (200-77) in 21 years of coaching at Loyola (1983-2001) and Maryland (2002-03). The Terps defense equaled its fewest goals allowed this season in holding the Irish to just four and held Notre Dame to its lowest output since the 2000 season as Loyola -- coached by Cottle -- held them to two in a 12-2 win on March 18, 2000. Maryland's defensive trio of Michael Howley (Wantagh, N.Y.), Chris Passavia (Stony Brook, N.Y.) and Lee Zink (Rowayton, Conn.) held Notre Dame's leading scorers Patrick Walsh and Dan Berger pointless. Walsh entered the game as the nation's fifth leading scorer with 52 points. Zink had his second sensational performance of the week as he posted a career high nine groundballs and forced seven turnovers -- the most by any Terp this season. Walsh was held to just one shot -- which came in the final minute of the game -- as his high school teammate and friend Howley shut him down all afternoon. Defensive midfielders Paul Gillette (Millersville, Md.) and Brett Harper (Columbus, Ohio) were also key in the team's success. Goalie Danny McCormick (McLean, Va.) made eight saves in goal as the Terps outshot the Irish 42-25. The Terps' offense also clicked early and late in the game as four players scored twice: Brian Hunt (West Chester, Pa.), Joe Walters (Rochester, N.Y.), Justin Smith (University Park, Md,) and Ryan Moran (Setauket, N.Y.). Maryland opened a 5-1 lead at halftime and outscored the Irish 5-1 in the fourth quarter on the way to the win. After Notre Dame opened the scoring Maryland scored the nest five goals brigding the first two quarters. Moran and Smith scored unassisted to make it 2-1 after the first quarter. Then Hunt, Smith and Walters all tallied in the second quarter to make it 5-1 at intermission. The Terps limisted the Irish to just eight first-half shots. Notre Dame cut the lead to 5-3 at the end of the third quarter as Matt Howell and Brian Giordano scored. But the Terps turned up the offense and defense in the fourth outscoring the Irish 5-1, including the first five goals of the quarter. All five goals were unassisted as Moran and Hunt scored on great indivdual efforts to make to 7-3. Then Mike Mollot (Holbrook, N.Y.) made it 8-3 before Walters and Matt Urlock (Lutherville, Md.) scored to close out the Terps' scoring. Maryland now awaits its fate in the NCAA Tournament as the 2003 bracket will be revealed on Sunday, May 4 at 8 p.m. and televised live on ESPNEWS.

This was a must win game for Notre Dame to be considered for the Big Dance. It was an opportunity for Maryland to show what their new coach, Dave Cottle has done for its program. Cottle employed a tough defense that forced Notre Dame to the perimeter for most of the game, and shut out down the Irish's high point man, Pat Walsh. Cottle was pleased with his defensive matchup against the young Irish attack. " We really tried to get our poles on the ball and make them [the Irish] attack out poles. We wanted to take away the middle and make them beat us on the perimeter because they are so good inside. We didn't want to give up anything inside and we wanted them to have beat our poles on the outside", he noted after the game.

Maryland (for most of the game) kept all their men above the GLE and gave the Irish the back of the net. The trio of Mike Howley, Lee Zink and Chris Passvia kept the Irish flat for the first two quarters, allowing only a single goal in each quarter. Danny McCormick, who started in the nets, also had some nasty mojo about him as three times, the Irish got off a clean shot and three times, the pipes stopped the ball from ripping into the net. The last pipe shot came on an open goal attempt by Walsh after Dan Berger rode the Terp goalie and forced a turnover. Walsh scooped up the ball and fired hard at the empty net, but a clang was all he got.

The game started out favoring the Irish, winning the face on a procedure call (both teams spilt the faces for the day) and working the ball around the Terp goal twice. Owen Mulford took the ball up top, came at the goal in a shallow arc and worked a pick to give himself an open look to nail the net at the 14:00 mark. ND was playing crisply, contesting every possession. Many times the Terps were under pressure and turned the ball over or let the Irish pick off a pass. Overall ND led the turnover column 31-20, many coming from forced passes as a result of the Terp defense. 11 more minutes of traded possessions occurred before Maryland scored, with the most interesting possession coming from a hard laser by ND's Dan Berger, to give Maryland their first pipe save of the game. Irish goalier, Stewart Crosland, made 18 saves on the day and many of them stoners as he easily tracked and caught some of the shots. Crosland's first such stop was put on Maryland's Matt Brock. Crosland let one in from Ryan Moran during a flag down. 1-1. Maryland could not convert for the next minute and ND killed its first penalty. Thirty ticks later, Justin Smith converted on a slow motion step toward the goal, then a quick body fake and shot to put the Terps up 2-1 to end the first quarter.

The second quarter was all Maryland, scoring on goals by Brian Hunt, Smith and Joe Walters. Notre Dame could manage only 5 shots in this period, totaling 8 for the half. Although they passed the ball around the goal effectively, the Irish just couldn't get inside today on Terps and they had to settle for movement rather than shooting. Maryland had a 42-25 advantage in shots. Matt Howell lined up one good shot and the pipe again stood solid and deflected the ball. The pipes also worked in favor of Notre Dame for Moran had a hard bounce shot bounce up off the ground into the pipe and out to the top of the box. Maryland took a 5-1 lead at the close of the first half.

Notre Dame owned the third quarter and scored tow goals to narrow the gap to 5-3 at the 11:05 mark and then 10 minutes later at the 1:30 mark on a solo shot by Matt Howell and an Owen Mulford pass to Brian Giordano. The Irish defense played well this quarter holding the Terps to only 5 shots. Howell got another good look with a minute left, but McCormick stopped him to end the quarter at 5-3.

Notre Dame was unable to get a run going in the fourth quarter and a few errant passes gave the ball back to Maryland and killed a Notre Dame drive. Ryan Moran picked up his second goal of the game a minute into the period and Brian Hunt followed two minutes later with his own. Ten turnovers in this period killed Irish drives and it appeared as if the Irish were forcing passes. Maryland kept capitalizing on these turnovers and went up 10-3 at the 2:34 mark with a goal by Matt Urlock, who came down on the right, fended off a hard check to his stick , and dipped his stick to roll one past Crosland. Notre Dame's Matt Ryan freed up coverage on Travis Wells and fed him on the left, and Wells hit a hard overhand to make it 10-4 with 1:12 left. Maryland won the ensuing faceoff but turned the ball over. A simple shot was stopped by new Terp goalie Teddy Murphy and Berger rode him hard on the clear, stripping the ball. Pat Walsh for the Irish scooped the ball as shown in the pictures but rushed a hard shot on an open net and clanged the post. Walsh, Notre Dame's leading point man was not only held pointless by his former teammate from Wantagh, Mike Howley, but Howley held him to just one shot. Murphy stopped two more shots from Notre Dame. Maryland finishes 10-3 and the Irish finish 9-5.