Pride knock Irish from No 2 ranking in OT thriller
Mike Connolly
Sports Writer
Head coach Kevin Corrigan said the men's lacrosse team's No. 2 ranking was a big target for all Notre Dame's opponents for the rest of the season.
On Saturday, Hofstra's Michael Tierney hit the bullseye.
Tierney scored his second goal of the game in sudden death overtime as the Pride handed the Irish their first loss of the year, 11-10.
The Pride led for most of the game by taking advantage of Irish mistakes.
Although Notre Dame made several mental errors in their wins against Virginia and Loyola, Hofstra was the first team to make the Irish pay for their errors.
"Hofstra jumped out to an early lead and whenever we made a mistake they capitalized on it unlike Virginia and Loyola," attack David Ulrich said. "We just had a lot of mental break downs in whatever we did. It kind of took us out of our game."
"We made even more [mistakes] than the past couple of games," defender Mike Adams said. "In other games, in one area we might have done poorly in clearing or defense but this game, it was pretty poor across the board. We got lucky because we made some big plays but just not enough."
Although the Pride took advantage of several Irish mistakes, Notre Dame still managed a comeback to send the game to overtime. Hofstra scored three third quarter goals to build a 9-6 lead. Todd Ulrich scored a goal with 45 second left in the third to cut the lead to 9-7.
The Irish opened the fourth with back-to-back goals from John Flandina and Chad DeBolt. DeBolt's game-tying goal was the first of his career.
Bryan Walker scored his second goal of the game 34 seconds after DeBolt's goal to give the Pride a 10-9 lead with eight minutes left in the game.
With 30 seconds left, the Irish set up a play to try and tie the game. The play broke down, however and Hofstra goalie J.P. Brazel made the save. Brazel attempted to clear the ball but Irish midfielder Steve Bishko came up with a clutch play to steal the pass.
Bishko passed the ball to David Ulrich who spotted his brother Todd Ulrich streaking down the middle.
Todd Ulrich took his brother's pass right in front of the goal and tied the game with just seconds remaining.
"That was a pretty clutch play right there," David Ulrich said.
Todd Ulrich's goal was not enough, however, as Tierney's goal in overtime won the game for the Pride. After battling back from a three-goal deficit and tying the game so late in the game, David Ulrich said the Irish had a let down in overtime.
"It seemed like every time we clawed our way back into it, they would put a couple more on the board," the senior captain said. "When we did finally tie it, we let our guard down because we were so relieved to catch them. But you have to hand it to Hofstra, they played a great game."
The loss dropped the Irish from No. 2 to No. 7 in the latest USILA /STX men's lacrosse poll. The Irish hope to return to basics and cut down the mental mistakes in their next game against Ohio State.
"These [next games] are the most important games because if we win our conference we are definitely going to the tournament," Adams said. "We just have to get back to the basics. All the mistakes we made were basic errors."
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, March 27, 2001
