MEN'S LACROSSE: Cadets march past Irish in 11-8 victory
By JOE LICANDRO
Sports Writer
Before the Notre Dame men's lacrosse game against Army, Irish captain Devin Ryan said the key to victory was holding the Cadets to under 10 goals. Irish head coach Kevin Corrigan said the Irish must stop all-time Cadet leading scorer Tim Pearson.
Notre Dame found out the hard way that both tasks are easier said than done.
The host Cadets, led by Pearson, defeated the visiting Irish 11-8 Sunday. Pearson finished with one goal and two assists on the afternoon.
With the loss, the Irish's fell to 4-6 while the Cadets improved to 6-4. Corrigan attributed the loss to a lack of preparation and focus.
"We didn't prepare ourselves during the week very well," Corrigan said. "I'm very frustrated with that. This has been a problem for us all season. We ought to know by now that you can't just show up and expect to win. If you don't execute in practice, you won't execute in the games."
Unlike their past losses this season, Notre Dame jumped out to a quick lead against Army. Goals by attackmen Travis Wells and Owen Asplundh gave the Irish a 2-0 advantage only 3 minutes into the contest. The Cadets would come storming back scoring three straight unanswered goals to round out the first quarter.
The Irish started the second quarter much like they began the first. Notre Dame regained the lead 5-3 on consecutive goals by Devin Ryan, John Flandina and Dan Berger.
The lead proved to be short-lived. Army responded by scoring five straight goals in the final 5:13 of the second quarter to take a commanding 8-5 lead heading into halftime.
Five minutes into the third quarter, Berger cut the Cadet lead to 8-6 with his second goal of the game.
Just when it seemed Notre Dame had worked its way back into the contest, their hopes flickered away as Army reeled off three straight unanswered goals. At the end of the third quarter, the Irish trailed the Cadets by a score of 11-6.
In the fourth quarter, Corrigan replaced starting goalie junior Nick Antol with sophomore Stewart Crosland.
Sparked by the play of Crosland in net, the Irish held the Cadets scoreless in the fourth. Unfortunately, it was too little too late as the Notre Dame offense simply could not overcome the five-goal deficit. Berger added two more goals making the final score 11-8 in favor of the Cadets.
With four goals in the contest, Berger tied his previous career-high he set earlier this year against Pennsyl-vania. The sophomore from Kensington, Maryland now leads the Irish with 21 goals on the season. Berger has now scored at least one goal in every game this season.
Although the loss against Army snapped Notre Dame's three-game winning streak, the Irish can take comfort in the fact the loss was to a non-division opponent.
Notre Dame still sits atop the Great Western Lacrosse League with a 3-0 division record.
Corrigan knows his team must learn from the loss against Army and come back with a much better effort next weekend against Fairfield.
"We didn't play hard enough [against Army]," Corrigan said. "We're going to find out this week who loves to compete. We haven't showed that we know how to do that yet. We've got to be mentally tougher."
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, April 16, 2002
