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.
Notre Dame vs. Maryland
| Current Record | |
|---|
| Notre Dame | 9-5 |
| Current Record | |
|---|
| Maryland | 10-3 |
SPECIALTY PROTECTION
WOMEN'S PROTECTIVE
