Division I Men :      April 21, 2002 [ The Game Story]
Notre Dame 10 Fairfield 11 Scoring: Scoring: Travis Wells John Flandina Brian Giordano Matt Malakoff Owen Mulford Matt Howell Kyle Frigon Dan Berger Chris Richez (3, 1) (3, 0) (0, 1) (0, 1) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) (0, 1) (0, 1) Garrett Bamann Matt Buecker Troy Bamann Keith Urgo Rob Scipioni Kevin Finnerty Tom Cook Tom Werney Peter Vlahakis Brian Holland Aj Califano Joe Beaudet (2, 1) (3, 0) (1, 2) (0, 1) (0, 1) (0, 1) (0, 1) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) (1, 0) Saves: Saves: Nick Antol Stewart Crosland 8  (0.444) 1  (0.500) Cj Kemp 8  (0.444) Current Record :     (4-7) Current Record :     (7-4) Team Page For 2002 Team Page For 2002       The Game Story:

It had been raining most of the morning in South bend, and the skies were dark and gloomy. Ted Spencer brought the Fairfield Stags into these conditions to battle Notre Dame for the GWLL title. The mud in Moose Krause stadium gave both teams fits today and the Stags proved they were better on the sloppy track than the Irish. A late surge in the fourth quarter by the Irish to cut the lead from 11-6 to 11-10 and had the crowd, players and media on the edge of their seats, but the Irish wound up on the low end today as Fairfield becomes the GWLL player in the Big dance.

Fairfield has been somewhat of an erratic team, beating Denver and Ohio State in double overtimes, yet losing to Air Force, while Notre Dame owned a 3-0 conference record. For years, the Irish had been the regional representative at the Big Dance in May, but not this year. A number of 1 goal losses to ranked teams gave the Irish a 4-6 record coming into today's game, while Fairfield had eked out a number of close wins. The Stags' coach, Spencer seems to be aging quickly as a result, "My players know how to add a few years to my life with these one-goal games."

" I think coming in here in our second year and playing for the right to represent the league is a great effort by our team, for we've been busting out butts to get here all year" noted Spencer before the game. His game plan was simple "We are going to ride them and have to be good on the ground balls. We need to control the ball and get good looks before we shoot."

The Irish were playing partly injured. Chad DeBolt, their face off beast was coming off an injury, while Matt Howell and Eric Simon made their appearances after being on the injured list. Simon returned to his "cheap suit" form and was all over his men today, stripping the ball at key times. Watch him to step it up even more next year. Howell, a promising shooter, was injured early in the year and toll a hit today that threatened to place him back on the IR. DeBolt was facing off against Peter Vlahakis, who has what appears to be the stingiest clamp in D1.

DeBolt is a walk-on on the Irish football team and is far from being small, but today, Vlahkis used a quick dip to flip DeBolt over him twice. DeBolt used a rake on the first face of the game to kick the ball out to Steve Clagett, who flipped it back to Irish goalie Nick Antol, who brought the ball out. Note Dame lost the ball and at 13:12, Rob Scipioni for Fairfield fed Tom Werney at the center, and Werner went low, about a foot off the ground past Antol to put the Stags up 1-0. The Stags started the game strong and kept the pressure up on the Irish, for at 11:03, Scott Raasch rang up the net unassisted with a hard shot from the top right near the edge of the line that Antol didn't see.

CJ Kemp was stellar in the first half for the Stags, rejecting Notre Dame's John Flandina from about 6 yards out after the face. The Irish tried to ride the Stags on all the clears and were hampered in their efforts by the footing. Irish middie Steve Clagett slipped a number of times in the game, easing the pressure on Fairfield. Spencer employed an odd tactic today. When in possession, Fairfield would bring the ball behind the Irish goal at X, and then stack up 4 or the remaining 5 men up top, with the X man probing the defense by coming forward. The Fairfield players up top would then break out, pick up a feed pass, or feint picking one up. This often resulted in a close isolation with a particular defender. The Irish got on the board, 2-1 when Chris Richez fed Travis Wells from top right to the center at 7:12. Wells took three steps at angle to the right and beat Kemp with a hard shot, during a flag down situation. Fairfield won the face-off, but AJ Wright stripped the ball to turn it over to the Irish. The Irish took advantage of another flag down moment to tie the game 2-2 at 5:57 with a Dan Berger feed to Owen Mulford. Berger had run behind the cage and flipped it to the left to Mulford, who dipped a bit and shot a hip level ball past Kemp. The Irish won the ensuing face-off, a penalty was called on Fairfield and Corrigan called time out to set up. This time, the Irish extra man unit accomplished its task, at 5:29, when Brian Giordano took the ball at the top of the line and fed Matt Howell on the right. Howell took two steps, hesitated for a second to freeze his defender and smoked the near corner of the goal. It was the only lead, 3-2 of the game for the Irish. DeBolt won the next face off. Flandina took a close shot and Kemp, as he had done before, clearly rejected him. Kemp was good on the close and point blank shots; they seem to be his trademark, stopping four of them in the stags escape over Stony Brook earlier in the week. Fairfield went on a fast break and tied the game at 3-3 at 3:40 when senior midfielder Brian Holland brought it down the right side, watched his defender slip in the grime and let loose an odd bouncer that Antol couldn't grab.

In the next possession, Devin Ryan from Notre Dame got his pocket picked up top but Eric Simon stripped the thief to return the ball to the Irish. Chris Richez began to set the Irish offense and his pass hit Owen Mulford's helmet as Mulford went to the center, turning the ball over to Fairfield. The quarter ended 3-3.

Three long possessions began the second quarter. Each team was all over the other on defense, contesting every ground ball and checking every stick that came near them. Often, it would take the teams a good minute and a half to get the ball over the midfield line. The teams would advance, lose the ball, regain the ball, lose the ball, etc. Both teams were not letting anything go to the other. It's a pleasure to watch a game with this intensity, and neither team disappointed the fans, although each would go into a slump for a time. The Irish could not convert on a 30-second penalty and at 8:39, the flags went against the stags again. A slow shot by Mulford went wide and the Irish took their time working the ball around and probing. Fairfield recovered the ball at about 6:44 and drove down field and converted a goal at 6:36. Freshman attacker AJ Califano came down the right side with a quick shot that beat Antol to put Fairfield up for good 4-3. The Stags smelled blood, and at 2:50, they went up 5-3 on a defensive lapse by the Irish went Stag longstick Joe Beaudet came down fast from the midfield line along the left side and jumped, spun in the air and shot. At 1:18, Troy Bamann was fed on the left and used a quickstick move to hit the net, putting Fairfield up 6-3. With 0:07 left, Matt Howell fell victim to a vicious hit which put Fairfield a man down. The Irish held the ball to take it in the second half. The momentum in the second quarter was all Fairfield, Notre Dame had to come out and make a quick score to regain their edge.

They did. At 14:27, Travis Wells took the ball down the right side, juked an beat Kemp from 5 yards out. 6-4, Fairfield. Fairfield won the face and the Irish were called for a minute. John Souch stripped the ball from Fairfield and Chris Fallon recovered and tossed the ball to the Irish offense, who killed the penalty. Fairfield recovered and brought it down and a shot by Bamann hit Notre Dame's Wright in the tail, and the ball was picked up by Fairfield. Wright lost a step on Matt Buecker, who came around the back on the left pipe and went low on Antol to put Fairfield up 7-4 at 10:15. Vlahakis won the face and Fairfield rung up the Irish net again at 9:14 when Tom Cook fed Bamann on the middle right about 10 yards out. Bamann took the ball, curled, shot and hit the inner part of the near pipe. 8-4 Fairfield. Notre Dame stiffened and answered with their 5th goal of the game at 8:42 when Wells fed Flandina. Fairfield answered at 5:11 when Bamann hit the net on a pass from Keith Urgo from top left to increase the lead to 9-5. The Irish were called for a push and went man down. Fairfield responded with their up top stack, and tried to curl a man over to the right side when the stack broke, and this time the Irish defense held and denied them a goal. The purpose behind this stacking, according to Spencer, was to stymie Notre dame. "We were trying to frustrate them (the Irish defense) a bit because they were playing very good defense in our regular sets. They were pressing out and not allowing us to dodge real well. By stacking, we were able to eat some clock and wait for Notre Dame to make a mistake and take advantage of that a pop a few goals in."

AJ Wright then brought the ball across the line for Notre Dame, Corrigan called a time out and the Irish methodically worked the ball around the net for two minutes. Fairfield stopped the Irish and the teams traded possession, but at 0:34, Flandina took the ball along the right side of the line and headed for the goal, half cradled his stick, deceiving Kemp that he would pass, and then hitting the near side of the net before Kemp could react. 9-6 Fairfield. Fairfield wouldn't quit and thirty ticks later at 0:04, Vlahakis was fed by Raasch and hit the right side of the net. 10-6 Fairfield to end the quarter.

Now the action would begin, albeit slowly. The teams started hitting even harder than before and it seemed as if every ground ball would multiply to two, three, and even four times in the slop. Two minutes into the last quarter, Devin Ryan took the ball up top on the right, ran twelve steps to the net and fired what would have been a bouncer, but it stuck in the mud an inch in front Kemp's right foot. At 10:49, Howell tried a helicopter spin move that went wide, and the Irish retained possession. Stewart Crosland replaced Antol at 8:45 with the Irish down by four. At 7:29, Fairfield welcomed Crosland on an invert by Bamann behind the net, who fed Buecker on the left side. 11-6, Fairfield.

Although behind with 6 minutes to go, Corrigan's Irish never quit. The began to pepper Kemp with shots. At 5:58, Matt Malakoff hit a leaping Kyle Frigon in front of the crease, and Frigon's stick was checked as he was landing but he managed to power through the check and find the net low, stick side. 11-7, Fairfield. At 4:17, Notre Dame cut the lead to 11-8 with John Flandina taking down the right straight to the goal and letting loose a right handed shot on the run. At 3:32, Travis Wells lit up the net to cut the Fairfield lead to 11-9. In two and a half minutes, Notre Dame had rung Kemp up three times. The Irish weren't done with him yet. In the ensuing face-off, DeBolt used his muscle to push Vlahakis aside on the face and tore upfield and moved along the left side of the crease and pushed a low shot right between Kemp's foot and the left pipe at 3:19 to narrow the margin to 11-10. The Irish fans went ballistic with this show of heart. The Irish recovered the ball in the next series, and Devin Ryan's 3-yard shot was rejected. Crosland made a stop and with 1:50 to go, the Irish began their own clear and as an attacker was ready to jump him, Crosland passed to AJ Wright on the right, who passed cross-field to Simon who brought it across and fed Flandina. Flandina was stripped of the ball, then Fairfield was stripped, then Mickey Blum was stripped as the two times battled for possession to the point where the last minute resembled a game of Pong. Fairfield recovered and brought in on the attack but was called for failure to advance at 0:52. Giordano lost a pass and turned the ball over to Fairfield, but John Souch came up with a key strip of the Stag ball carrier. The Irish brought the ball down, but their last shot was wide and the ball was turned over to Kemp at 0:01, who sat on it to let time expire.

Spencer praised the Irish in their late comeback, "I give a lot of credit to Notre Dame for they fought hard and came back in a manner we expected from them. This is a great victory for our program." Spencer and the Fairfield program have youth in the favor for the future. The Stags are a very young team with much of their production coming from juniors and seniors. They will be a force to reckon with in the next few years as well as in the tournament. Fairfield has a gritty determination in their style of play. "We have got a great group of kids in our sophomores and juniors, but we have great senior class, who really wanted this win today and they are a great group of leaders, and it showed in the team's play today", added Spencer. Fairfield takes on North Carolina next, while the Irish travel to Cambridge to meet Harvard.