Men's Lacrosse: Notre Dame wins home opener against Pennsylvania, 10-8
By MIKE CONNOLLY
Sports Writer
When the Notre Dame men's lacrosse players have their backs to the wall, they turn to senior attack Tom Glatzel.
And Glatzel delivers.
For the second week in a row, Glatzel scored consecutive goals when his team needed them most as the Irish erased a two-goal third period deficit to defeat the University of Pennsylvania Quakers, 10-8.
"Tom Glatzel is a big time player," Irish head coach Kevin Corrigan said after Notre Dame's home opener on Meyo Field in Loftus. "He is going to do that."
With the Irish trailing 7-6 with the 6:51 remaining in the third quarter, Glatzel went to work. With the Irish a man-down following a penalty, senior David Ulrich stole the ball near midfield and passed it to Glatzel in front of the net. Glatzel juked Penn goalie Ryan Kelly and tied the game.
Glatzel scored again three minutes later. Ulrich once again hit Glatzel with a pass who streaked toward the net from 25 yards away and buried a hard shot past Kelly for the game-winner.
The goal gave Notre Dame its first lead of the game and Glatzel his second hat trick of the year. Last week against Penn State, Glatzel rallied the Irish from a two-goal deficit with four consecutive scores.
"Second week in a row we are down two in the third quarter and second week in a row we come back to win 10-8," Corrigan said. "So I guess I'll take that every time."
Steve Bishko followed Glatzel's goal 27 seconds later with his second of the afternoon. Down 9-7 Penn scored 90 seconds later to close the gap to one. Penn attack Kevin Cadin slipped undetected into the middle of the Irish defense and set up directly in front of the goal. Adam Solow slipped him a pass that Cadin easily converted into a goal.
Following that mental lapse, however, the Irish defense toughened up in the fourth quarter. A.J. Wright and Mike Adams led an Irish defense that held Penn scoreless allowed just five shots in the four quarter.
"Right now I am happiest that they played well as a unit," Corrigan said.
The No. 10 Irish were not at the top of their game Sunday, according to Corrigan. Although they outshot Penn 51-24, won 75 percent of the face-offs and scooped up 34 ground balls to the Quakers' 27, the Irish looked sluggish at times —especially in the second quarter.
"We were less that our best today for whatever reason so it's nice to get one when you feel like you gutted it out and made enough plays to win," Corrigan said.
Although Notre Dame junior Devin Ryan tied the game at two 30 seconds into the period, the Quakers score three straight goals to put the Irish in a hole. Peter Scott scored two consecutive goals and Alex Kopicki to give the Quakers a 5-2 lead seven minutes before the half.
The Irish offense finally showed a little spark with 5:46 remaining in the period. Glatzel scored his first goal on the game before senior Chris Young scored 19 seconds later to move the Irish within one.
In the quarter, the Irish picked up only five of the 15 ground balls and let the Quakers control the ball for most of the quarter.
"We didn't have the ball the first half. We made some mistakes like moving picks on our clearing game and some stuff like that," Corrigan said. "We just didn't have the ball. They were very patient, very smart offensively. We don't play take-away defense. We play for the offense to come to us a little bit. If teams want to stall on us, it's going to be a slow patient game."
In the third quarter, the Irish started to take over — outshooting Penn 34-11. The offensive sets looked crisper and the midfielders controlled the ground balls.
"We did a good job of not losing our poise when we went down a couple," Corrigan said. "You can start trying to do things you don't do in that situation. Our guys did a good job of sticking to what we do."
The win moved the Irish to 2-0 on the season. When the latest Warrior/Inside Lacrosse.com Poll comes out March 8, Notre Dame will likely move up. Three teams ranked in front of the 10th-ranked Irish lost this weekend. No. 7 Duke lost to No. 6 Maryland. No. 1 Syracuse beat No. 2 Virginia and No. 2 Princeton defeated No. 4 John Hopkins.
All Sports Stories for Monday, March 5, 2001
