The Fighting Irish jumped on the board first as defenseman #18-Steve Fiamingo(1g-0a) took a loose ball out of his defensive end all the way down the field to stick it high, as the Army defense went with a no rotation on the fast break but forgot to pick up the man who actually had the ball. This Notre Dame goal was followed up by another unassisted one by #14-Tom Glatzel(2g-0a) who drove the left pipe from behind, inside rolled his defender and then finished the ball low and away, putting the Irish up 2-0 early in the first quarter. The home team got their first goal of the day from senior midfielder #17-Alex Fyfe(1g-1a) who beat his man lefty from up top, drove the left lane, and finished the ball up top to put the game at 2-1. At the 6:30 mark of the first quarter in a settled down 6 on 6 situation #43-Chris Young(0g-1a) forced an Army slide from the crease after he beat his man from up top and dished it to #10-Todd Ulrich(1g-0a) who finished the ball from the crease. 28 seconds later Notre Dame strikes again with an unassisted goal by #4-Stedman Oakey(1g-0a) bumbing the lead up to 4-1. Coming out of an Army timeout, Notre Dame's goalie #31-Kirk Howell makes a sick 1-on-1 save as he left his feet and then somehow came up with the ball on a stick-side hip crease shot. Army possessed for a good part of the last five minutes of the opening quarter but were unable to break through the Irish defense and Howell in the hoop. First quarter ended with Notre Dame leading 4-1 over Army.
While the Army Cadets looked to be controlling the ball at the end of the first quarter, the Notre Dame squad was leading the game by 3 and playing very well on both ends of the field. Army starts off the second quarter how they ended it by possessing the ball. After having the ball for the first minute of action #14-John Ryan(1g-0a) sticks a righty shot to cut it to 4-2. It was late February when I watched John Ryan score his first two collegiate goals in an opening day blowout of Air Force and boy has he come a ways since then. Coach Emmer has landed himself a solid midfielder in Ryan for the next three years since he is presently a freshman. Ryan only had one goal today and wasn't even the best player out there today, but time will only better this kid making him one to watch over the next few years.
The Cadets trimmed the Irish lead again as #1-Lee Dingman(2g-0a) finished off a feed from Fyfe. On the face-off following the goal Army execute's a textbook fastbreak as the face-off man picked up the groundball that he had pushed forward, hit point man #15-Tim Pearson(0g-2a) who then pushed the ball down the right side to #10-John Fernandez(1g-0a). Fernandez finished off the fastbreak to the tie the game up at 4. Irish's goalie Howell makes another highlight save as he dove from the left side in order to make a save on the right pipe which would have put Army up for the first time in the game at 5-4. Thanks to Howell's great save the two teams go into halftime tied 4-4, as Army's defense was able to blank ND in the 2nd quarter along with their offense throwing 3 g's up.
After Army failed to convert on a man-up situation early in the 3rd, Notre Dame's #17-Steve Bishko(1g-1a) fires a rocket from the top slot of the Irish's man-up that sneaks into the upper left corner, 5-4 ND. Irish's #3-Devin Ryan(2g-0a) scores an unassisted goal a minute later to give Notre Dame a 2 goal lead, followed up by another #6-Jon Harvey(2g-1a) man-up goal from the crease off a feed from Bishko. Army finally puts one up in the second half as Dingman scores his second goal off another feed from Pearson. Notre Dame's Ryan scores his second unassisted goal of the day to almost immediately answer Army's goal, 8-5 ND. Army had taken the game's momentum from the Irish in the second quarter with solid defense and offensive execution, but the 3rd quarter saw multiple penalties by the Cadet defense combined with effective Notre Dame man-up's which put the game's momentum back into the laps of the visiting Irish.
The fourth quarter started off with ND leading 8-5 and saw two goals being scored the entire fourth quarter, neither by Army. Notre Dame scores yet another man-up goal around the midpoint of the final quarter as Glatzel hit Harvy to increase the lead to 4 at 9-5. The final goal of the game was scored by Glatzel off a feed from #7-David Ulrich(0g-1a). Notre Dame wins the game over Army 10 to 5.
The Notre Dame faithful were very unimpressed with the game's officiating to say the least, and were not shy about expressing their feelings. Personally, I thought the the game was very well controlled and didn't see any really bad calls.
Army more-or-less shot themselves in the foot time and again throughout the second half with numerous trips into the penalty box. These sentences to the box were often short-lived as they were almost always released by a Notre Dame man-up goal. Sitting on the turf at halftime it appeared as if the second half would be one involving a tight score and good action. Army's serious penalty problem did them in and helped to propel Notre Dame to another win in their undefeated month of April, along with eliminating any real hopes they had for the playoffs.
Not only did Notre Dame's goalie Kirk Howell make multiple jumping and diving saves throughout the game worthy of highlight films, he also sucked up almost all of Army's second half attempts ending the day with 14 saves while only allowing 5 goals against.
Army vs. Notre Dame
| Current Record | |
|---|
| Notre Dame | 6-3 |
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