SPECIALTY PROTECTION
WOMEN'S PROTECTIVE
Dave Cottle used a patient, ball control and clock-eating offense today to take down Notre dame in the first round of the NCAA Playoffs at Notre Dame. Maryland came out of the gates strong and established the tone charging at the goal and Scotty Rodgers of the Irish responded in kind on the Terp’s second possession when he used a chest save on a shot from Grant Catalino. However, Jeremy Seiverts managed to flick the ball behind Rodgers to put Maryland on the board first. On the next possession Notre Dame was driving when Jake Marmul turned the ball over and the Terps cleared the ball and got it to X where Will Yeatman was parked. Yeatman tossed a crisp one to Joe Cummings, moving in close on the crease from on the left of the crease and he beat Rodgers. Yeatman never got into any shooting rhythm because his old teammates, Regis McDermott , Sam Barnes and Kevin Ridgeway were ready for him and consistently were able to turn him away, limiting him to 3 shots and 2 of which were easily turned away by Rodgers.
Turnovers killed Notre Dame today as they constantly killed their own drives with a bad pass, an out of position catch and the like. This was an uncharacteristic aspect of the Irish not shown before in the season. Wide and high shots on opens also were their enemies today. The Maryland kept the Irish big guns silent, keeping Ryan Hoff from even taking a single shot. Maryland pressured the Irish up top and sealed off the center for most of the game, and kept the Irish from scoring for almost a 37 minute span from their first goal in the first quarter at the 10:22 mark to the 3:561 mark in the third quarter. Maryland was alo very effective int he second half with taking their tiome on each possession, working it worund 3-4 times before moving in. Try as they would the Irish just couldn’t get it going today.
Now, we’ll go to the press release: The Terps (10-6) got some good luck early as they jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. Senior Jeremy Sieverts tallied the first goal of the day, burying a bouncer from eight yards out from the center of the goal. The luck really kicked in on the second goal as junior Will Yeatman found a cutting Joe Cummings on the right side of the crease, got off a good shot that bounced off the body of Irish goalie Scott Rodgers and trickled into the Notre Dame goal. The Irish cut the lead down with their first goal at the 10:22 mark as Zach Brenneman scored on a runner from the left side.
Maryland opened the second quarter with a slick two-man goal to push the lead back to a pair. Ryan Young raced around the right side of the goal and slipped a pass to Grant Catalino, who rolled around the left side and stuck a shot into the top right corner for a 3-1 Terrapin lead. The Terps got a boost from their third midfield with 5:11 in the second quarter when Warren Hansen fired a pass to the left alley where Adam Sear ripped a laser into the right side of the Irish net for a 4-1 Maryland advantage. The third quarter started just like the first two with the Terps scoring early. This time it was Dan Groot finding the back of the Irish goal with a low-and-away lefty shot to build the lead to 5-1 in favor of Maryland.
With 10 minutes left in the third, Rob Morrison took a pass from Young on the right alley and laced a sidearm shot stick-side past Rodgers. The long scoreless stretch for the Irish, which spanned 30:47, finally was snapped by an unassisted goal by Peter Christman with 3:51 left in the third, from 10 yards out, but the Terps stymied the Notre Dame push and headed into the fourth quarter with a 6-2 lead. The lead grew back to five with less than two minutes into the fourth. The Notre Dame defense was busy trying to adjust to Maryland's substitutions and lost track of Groot, who cut to the crease and one-timed a pass from Yeatman for his second goal of the day. Notre Dame refused to give in and tried to climb back into the game with a goal by Grant Krebbs with 7:38 left, but the Irish were unable to muster a solid drive.
| Scoring | |
|---|---|
| Neal Hicks | (0, 1) |
| Peter Christman | (1, 0) |
| Grant Krebs | (1, 0) |
| Zach Brenneman | (1, 0) |
| Saves | |
|---|---|
| Scott Rodgers | 14 (0.667) |
| Current Record | |
|---|---|
| Notre Dame | 15-1 |
