MENS' LACROSSE: Ulrich sets assists record as Irish beat Butler
By MIKE CONNOLLY
Sports Writer
With 5:30 left in the first half and the score tied at 3, it looked like this year's Notre Dame-Butler men's lacrosse game would be another hard fought nail biter to decide the Great Western Lacrosse League title.
Nine unanswered Irish goals later, it was hard to believe that the 12-3 Notre Dame blowout had once been a close game.
"I just thought we executed better," head coach Kevin Corrigan said about the nine-goal surge at the end of the first half and throughout the second. "We were sloppy in the first half. We were playing hard — fighting for ground balls and riding people — but we weren't executing. In the second half we settled down and did what we needed to do."
Irish senior David Ulrich, who set a new Irish record with 102 assists in his career, played a role in seven of the 12 goals with three goals and four assists. But Notre Dame also got three goals each from two less likely sources — junior Devin Ryan and senior Jon Harvey.
"The way teams are playing us right now, they are putting a lot of pressure on [midfielders] Steve Bishko and John Flandina," Corrigan said. "When people do that, it leaves some openings for other players. So you see Jon Harvey and Devin scoring more goals for us."
Ryan has been red hot this week. The junior midfielder also scored four goals in Notre Dame's 17-13 win against Army.
"I wouldn't really expect him to score seven goals in two games for us," Corrigan said. "That hasn't been his role but in my experience good teams take what you give them."
Ryan opened the scoring for the Irish with 12:14 left in the first quarter off an assist from Ulrich. Ulrich pushed the lead to 2-0 less than two minutes later.
The Bulldogs answered the Irish goals with two of their own.
Senior Tom Glatzel scored his 30th goal of the season with 6:28 remaining in the second. The Tewaaraton finalist, an award which goes to the best male lacrosse player in the country, came from behind the net and fired a shot past Butler goalie Brendan Winkler as Glatzel was falling to the ground.
Chris Aitkin answered Glatzel with a Bulldog goal but that was the last of the afternoon for Butler.
After Aitkin tied the game at 3, Harvey scored the first of his three goals 25 seconds later. Flandina scored a goal off a time out just before halftime to give the Irish a 5-3 halftime lead and the rout was on.
The Irish fired 28 shots at Winkler in the first half but a combination of bad bounces and spectacular saves limited the effectiveness of the offense. The Bulldog junior made six saves in the second quarter and seemed to stuff every Irish opportunity.
"He definitely kept them in there in the first half," Ulrich said. "When a goalie is hot like that there isn't much you can do. You have to keep plugging it in there."
The Irish launched another 25 shots at Winkler in the second half but this time seven of them found their target.
Harvey, Ryan and David Ulrich each scored two more goals in the second half while David's twin brother Todd Ulrich chipped in one as well.
Senior leadership once again played a big part in the second half turnaround, according to Corrigan.
"When you have a young team sometimes they don't realize the adjustments they need to make until the next day when they look at it on film," Corrigan said. "But we've got seniors out there and Tommy [Glatzel] and David [Ulrich] got comfortable with what they needed to do and they did it."
The physically draining win against Army this weekend combined with mental exhaustion following the armed robbery of several players at their homes Friday night played a role in the sloppy first half, according to Corrigan.
"We were very emotionally tired today. I give our guys credit for battling through the last two games," Corrigan said. "On Friday night at 2:30 in the morning I am standing in the middle of a parking lot in Turtle Creek [an off-campus apartment complex where the robbery took place] with half our team. Because even the guys who weren't involved were there to make sure our other gutsy were OK. Playing physically tired from a hard fought game and then emotionally tired from the situation Friday night, we didn't seem to have our usual enthusiasm and pep today. It was a game where we had to grind it out and we did that pretty well today."
South Bend police have arrested five suspects in relationship to a pair of armed robberies at off-campus students' homes last week.
With the win, Notre Dame stands at 10-1 overall and 4-0 in the GWLL. The Irish have all but clinched the league title and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The 10-1 start is Notre Dame's best since 1994.
All Sports Stories for Thursday, April 19, 2001
