Division I Men :      April 7, 2001 [ The Game Story]
Notre Dame 16 Denver 6 Scoring: Scoring: Tom Glatzel Todd Ulrich David Ulrich Jon Harvey Chris Young John Flandina Steve Bishko Matt Howell Mike Adams Kyle Frigon (3, 2) (4, 0) (1, 2) (3, 0) (0, 2) (2, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) (0, 1) (1, 0) Chad Wittman Jeff Biggs Mike Law Devin Farrel Dustin Straight Kenny Crowley (2, 1) (1, 1) (1, 1) (0, 1) (1, 0) (1, 0) Saves: Saves: Kirk Howell Nick Antol 4  (0.500) 2  (0.500) Brian Berger Jeff Nunziato 7  (0.333) 2  (0.500) Current Record :     (7-1) Current Record :     (3-5) Team Page For 2001 Team Page For 2001       The Game Story:

On a windy April Saturday, the Denver Pioneers came to South Bend looking for an upset, and instead were blown away by the Irish Boys Latin' trio of Tom Glatzel and David and Todd Ulrich in an Irish 16-6 victory. These three teammates rudely treated Brian Berger, the Denver goalie and a former high school teammate as the trio accounted for 8 of Notre Dame's 16 goals. The wind was powerful throughout the game causing a hat of one of the Notre Dame ROTC color guard to go airborne as well as a referee's hat.

"I don't think at all that we are intimidated coming here to play", said Denver coach Jamie Munro before the game, "there was some intimidation earlier in the year when we were in Duke and Carolina, but I think we are past that now." Munro has assembled perhaps the most "western" of all the GWLL teams, with 11 players hailing from Colorado, 2 from Illinois, 2 from Michigan, 3 from Missouri and 1 from Ohio, while the remainder come from the East Coast. Munro finds it this "local" talent to be improving and that Denver has an advantage in recruiting these type players in that the distance to Denver from the East Coast sometimes works against him. He was optimistic before the game and even at halftime, that the Pioneers could pull off an upset and beat the Irish. Although many other upsets occurred on Saturday, one would not happen today against Notre Dame. The Irish at times appeared to toy with Denver, working the ball very methodically, forcing mistakes by the Pioneers, and the Irish stepped out to a quick 5-0 advantage in the first quarter. Todd Ulrich scored first for Notre Dame on an assist from Tom Glatzel, and Ulrich would register a career-high 4 goals on the day.

Denver's play in the first quarter was somewhat sloppy, with a lot of missed passes and strips occurring from an Irish defense that gave up only 6 goals, two in the waning minutes of the game. In six out of its seven games this year, Notre Dame has kept opponents under 10 goals. The relentless pressure exerted by Notre Dame and the youthful inexperience of the Pioneers - 19 of the 28 players who traveled to the game were freshmen and sophomores played a factor in the first quarter. However, Munro has been noted for getting his teams up and battling back when they are down. The Pioneers did exactly that in the second quarter, when at 11:16, attackman Chad Wittman beat Irish goalie Kirk Howell on an assist by Jeff Briggs to narrow the gap to 5-1. Denver controlled the ball for the next two minutes and at 8:48, Pioneer leading scorer, Mike Law, beat Howell and narrow the lead to 5-2. After a time out, Kevin Corrigan got the Irish offense back in gear again, when at 7:28, Irish middie John Flandina beat Pioneer goalie Brian Berger. David Ulrich followed with a score at 6:16 to increase the Irish lead to 7-2. Chris Young fed Jon Harvey at the 0:51 mark to put Notre Dame out in front 8-2 at the half.

At halftime, Munro noted that although some of the Irish scores were one-on-one scores, he didn't mind that. That was there game plan. He was disappointed with the way the Pioneers had been throwing the ball away with bad passes and bad clears. He told his team that they could come back by patiently attacking the Notre Dame defense, forcing them to slide and looking for an opportunity to attack the crease. Irish coach Corrigan was worried about the third quarter. He knew that Denver had often come back in the third quarter, but he was more worried about how his own troops would react, " We are just hoping that we come out and play; we have had trouble this year coming out in the third quarter and we are just hoping that we can come out in the third quarter and keep our intensity". Denver reacted and scored first in the quarter to cut the lead to 8-3, but John Flandina answered that goal with one of his own to increase the Irish lead to 9-3 at 13:45 and Todd Ulrich scored less than a minute later to put Notre Dame up 10-3. Denver long pole Kenny Crowley notched another goal for the Pioneers to make it 10-4. The Irish offense toyed with Denver for the remainder of the game, picking and choosing its opportunities and scoring for the 11th time five minutes later on a series of passes from Chris Young to long pole John Souch to Tom Glatzel, who dished it off to Jon Harvey who scored to make the score 11-4. Todd Ulrich scored again 45 seconds later to increase the lead to 12-4. Glatzel dove past Berger to notch the 13th goal of the contest and his 25th goal on the season. With less than a minute remaining in the thrid quarter, Berger was suckered out of the crease for a failed save and the Irish put it in the open net to lead 14-4.

In the fourth quarter, Corrigan displayed some of his younger and yet unknown players. Sophomore goalie Nick Antol played the quarter and gave up two goals at the 2:47 mark to Dustin Straight and a minute later to Jeff Biggs. Irish attackmen Matt Howell (no relation to Kirk) of Huntington, NY and Dan Berger (Brian's brother from Phoenix, MD), middie Steve Clagett of Chesapeake Beach, MD and Mickey Blum Garden City, NY all saw significant playing time.

Munro was gracious in defeat. "They're good, they're very good", he said of the Irish, "they move the bal great and if you make a mistake, they take advantage of it." "Notre Dame moves the ball so well that if you slide against them, they pick and choose their openings and then jump on them."

Denver moves on to a four game home stretch staring with Villanova on Thursday and followed by three straight GWLL games against Ohio State, Butler and Air Force. Munro realizes his team's shortcomings, but remains objective and analytical about it, "we are just not that far away." "We are a young team. Today, at times, we had 3 freshmen in on close defense and at times 3 freshmen in on attack." He told his team after the loss to remember it as an example of how Notre Dame put time and work into their team and that Denver will be at that point in a year or two.