IRISH ADVANCE TO FIRST FINAL FOUR OVER HOPKINS

T.D. PAULIUS

College Park - It was a match up of a storied program and a determinative newcomer in the last NCAA quarterfinal, and on a rain-soaked field reminiscent of last year's Preakness race at a muddy Pimlico. However, the newcomer Fighting Irish were the best "mudders" of the day, for their horses (or four horsemen) were faster, more determined and less error-prone than those of Hopkins. Hopkins' coach Dave Pietramala was upset after the game; he found the loss hard to take, as did some of his teary-eyed players in the pressroom. "It's tough to sit in the locker room with as many seniors as we have and know that the season has come to an end very abruptly, noted Petro after the game. "I'm not only proud of my team but my hat is off to Notre Dame. They executed to win, both teams did what they had to do, and unfortunately we didn't do as much as we wanted nor do we execute in the manner I would have liked."


GAME PHOTOS

GAME VIDEO


Most Irish opponents prepare for the Boys Latin trio of Tom Glatzel, David and Todd Ulrich, as did Hopkins today. "We felt we had to defend the Glatzels and Ulrichs, but when we did that effectively, out of the clear [John] Flandina and [Travis] Wells come at us and get four goals" added Pietramala. "We prepared for them and our game plan was not wrong" Hopkins was basically out muscled in many aspects of the game. Notre Dame enjoyed a 47-29 advantage in shots today. The Hopkins storied senior defense, which had given up double-digit numbers in he past three games was rung up again, but in a game more important than the previous three. "We just didn't slide to Glatzel when needed and we didn't execute well on him" were the comments from Blue Jay long stick Shawn Nadelen (Henrietta, NY) after the game. Last year, Brandon Testa (Bethpage, NY) kept Glatzel away from the cage except for one goal and this year. Testa was an invisible man on the field. Glatzel noted that Hopkins played him only for his left arm, yet Glatzel lit up the cage and Blue Jay goalie Rob Scherr (Reisterstown, Md) like a Christmas tree for 4 goals and an assist. Jon Harvey (Winchester, Mass.) for the Irish had 3 goals, while John Flandina (West Islip, NY) and Travis Wells (Severna Park, Md) each had a pair of goals. All told, the contributions of these four players were enough to win.

The game began on a wet field and Chad Debolt (Waterloo, NY) lost the face off to Eric Wedin (Levittown, NY), who consistently used a Cercy-like rearward rake of the ball to stymie Debolt. Hopkins brought the ball down and Debolt used his muscle to floor a Blue jay attackman, who passed off to Adam Doneger (Hewlett, NY), who beat Kirk Howell (Nashville, Tenn.) at 14:16 to put Hopkins up 1-0. Notre Dame won the next face off and Steve Bishko (West Islip, NY) initiated the attack, passing off to David Ulrich (Baltimore, Md.), who coordinated Notre Dame's offense on the field today. One of Ulrich's favorite targets was junior midfielder John Flandina. Glatzel took a shot at Scherr off a feed from Bishko, and a quick shot it was into the net, for Scherr never had time to react properly to the shot. With Glatzel's contribution, the Irish tied the game at 1-1. At this tie, the rain began to fall slowly and increased in tempo, much like the Hopkins attack. At 12:56, Matt Hanna (Geneva, NY) for Hopkins came from the left, faked a feed and threaded between two Notre Dame defenders to wind up 3 feet from Howell, who couldn't react in time. Hopkins 2, Notre Dame 1.

Notre Dame liked to operate out of a 2-3-1 with Ulrich at the helm. The Irish probed in the first quarter but couldn't find their rhythm, as they had against Bucknell. This game was similar to the game against Bucknell, for the Irish were prone to streaks, or spurts of goals. Hopkins 42 rolled right around the cage and let loose with a shot that Howell stopped as he fell to his knees. The ball crossed in front of the goal from right to left, and while Howell was down, at 9:49, Connor Ford (Timonium, Md) picked up the ball quickly and flipped it over the shoulder of Howell for a garbage goal to give Hopkins a 3-1 lead, reminiscent of last year's game.

The Irish remembered their loss of a year ago and were determined not to lose again to the Hop. At 7:05 Hopkins was whistled for a minute and the Irish EMO unit went to work, but unsuccessfully. Glatzel would drive the cage again and again for the next few minutes, with no success, other than for the welts inflicted upon him by the Hopkins defense. At this early stage, none of the Irish attackmen were getting good looks because the Hopkins defense was effectively screening the goal from the view of the Irish attack. They were bunched up on the crease forming a wall. The Irish patiently chipped away at this wall. Hopkins had a fast break to which Kirk Howell acrobatically ended their first scoring opportunity and a crease violation ended their second opportunity. David Ulrich worked from behind the Hopkins goal and called to Chris Young (Camillus, NY) to start moving, and this movement pulled his defender long enough for Ulrich to come along the left side of the cage and once he reached the goal line, he curled and fired one past Scherr. Hopkins 3, Notre Dame 2.

Travis Wells, who had only nailed down one goal the entire season stepped up to contribute when at 1:05, he approached the box on the right at an angle, was fed by Todd Ulrich and unleashed a hard shot to beat Scherr and tire the game at 3-3. The next face-off saw the second procedure call on Hopkins and the ball was turned over to the Irish. They used the next 18 seconds to their advantage, as Devin Ryan (Kensington, Md) flipped the ball from midfield to Harvey who trotted toward the right and unleashed a hard shot to and in the right side of the net to give Notre Dame the lead 4-3. The passing by Hopkins started to get sloppy, but the Irish failed to strip them as the quarter ended 4-3.

The teams played patiently for the next 5 minutes. Travis Wells received a pass and worked along the right side of the box and curled back, momentarily freezing the goalie, and used an underhand shot to beat Scherr and put Notre Dame up 5-3. Wells had previously had only one goal in the whole season and today he had already doubled that. Some Hopkins passes were sloppy, and found their way out of bounds. Hopkins was rough around the edges, but at 4:32, Joe McDermott (Rockville Centre, NY) scored unassisted to narrow the gap to 5-4. Glatzel answered with an unassisted goal at 3:42 from the left of the field to put the Irish up 6-4. Hopkins won the face off and came at the Irish running fast and Conor Ford passed to Bobby Benson (Baltimore, Md.) behind the goal. Benson evaded a push from Bishko to beat Howell and narrow the gap to 6-5. Hopkins was whistled for a holding call, and Notre Dame went man up, but to no avail, for the only aspect of the game on which the Blue Jays were on was their man down unit, which blanked Notre Dame 0 for 5 opportunities of the game. Glatzel came back with the help of Flandina who fed him on the left, but his shot was wide. Notre Dame retained possession and Glatzel again drove the cage, was held, popped out to the left edge of the crease where Flandina fed him. Glatzel was slashed so hard that he lost his footing and as he was falling, he pushed the ball past Scherr's lower right side. Notre Dame 7, Hopkins 5. The Hop managed to kill the first 50 seconds of the penalty as the half expired.

Due to the penalty, Notre dame received the ball at midfield without a face off and could not penetrate the Hopkins defense. There was much pushing and amassing of bodies on the field, clustering around the ball, likening the game more to a rugby match, with 5 to 6 players gathered around the ball pushing each other and kicking at the ball. Hopkins was no ready to lay down and roll over. It had its own streak, and last streak of goals to garner. The first of the third quarter was obtained due to an Irish miscue. Conor Denihan (Manhasset, NY) consistently drove the cage when he could get open, but was likewise consistently repelled by Irish long pole middie John Souch (Watertown, NY), at least once losing his footing in the soggy turf. Tim Muir, at 12:38 (Collingdale, Pa.) of Hopkins took the ball down the sidelines, appeared as he was going to cut behind the goal, but at the goal line, shot a low dribble ball, that bounced two times before it went in on the opposite pipe. His movements successfully faked Howell into covering the near pipe.

The Irish went on the attack and Scherr made a save but exited the crease. In bringing the ball up field, David Ulrich was called for a slash on Scherr simultaneously with Scherr passing the ball off. Hopkins jumped on the opportunity and at 11:04, Adam Doneger notched his second goal of the game on a feed by Bobby Benson (Baltimore, Md.) to tie the game at 7-7. Doneger rocketed the ball past Howell from the top left. Howell had no time to react. Notre Dame The Irish and Blue Jays traded a number of physical possessions with the Irish pelting Scherr with a flurry of shots, and likewise for Hopkins. Poor passes by Hopkins kept turning the ball to Notre Dame. This went on until 3:02 in the third quarter, when Glatzel notched his fourth goal of the game, unassisted to lead 8-7. Glatzel brought the ball behind the goal and he came out on the left side, faked a pass to David Ulrich to freeze both the goalie and the close crease man, and swept the ball on the ground past Scherr to give the Irish a go ahead goal 8-7. The Hop answered with a feed from Conor Ford to Bobby Benson to end the quarter at an 8-8 tie.

The teams struggled for the first half of the last quarter, pushing, slipping and missing passes. Toward the last third of the final quarter, Notre Dame went on its 5-goal tear that sealed the after of the Blue Jays and darkened their disposition blacker than the skies over Byrd Stadium. Corrigan had called time out when Notre Dame had stripped the ball from Hopkins in order to set up a play. Flandina was the chosen one this time as he charged down the left side at 6:29 and beat Scherr on an unassisted goal. Notre Dame won the face off but lost the ball temporarily. Then Hopkins was stripped of the ball by John Souch, who tossed it back to Howell. Notre Dame missed a shot and Hopkins charged back down the field, shooting and Howell stopping the shot, trapping the rebound and having a Blue Jay fall on him and the ball. Hopkins was whistled for withholding the ball from play, helping the Irish dodge a bullet and giving them a free clear. Steve Bishko scored next, also unassisted, with John Flandina ringing up his fourth goal of the game at 2:54 to put the Irish ahead 11-8 on a quick stick from the right side off a feed from Todd Ulrich. All Notre Dame had to do was hold on. Rather than stall and play ball control, Corrigan's troops kept taking the ball to the cage. At 1:54, Jon Harvey was fed by Glatzel for his second goal of the game, with the feed coming from behind the goal over the cage and Harvey dancing up in the air and placing over Scherr's right shoulder to 12-8. It was hard to tell what rain was falling harder: the rain due to the weather or the balls being rained on Scherr from the Irish offense. Jan Harvey finished the Irish scoring with an unassisted goal at 0:58 on a miscue by Hopkins. The ball was dropped in front of the net with Scherr out of position and Harvey, smelling blood picked up the ball and side armed it into the net to go up 13-8. Hopkins acted nervous during the final ticks taking too much time and coming up with a final score at 0:11, but it was too little, too late.

Pandemonium ensued as the Irish celebrated. A pile of Irish players was at the midfield stripe, flanked by two Blue Jays lying prone in disbelief at the top of the two boxes. The lacrosse community didn't believe that the Irish, the best team from the west carrying a 92% win percentage into the quarterfinals could do it, but they did. Notre Dame's athletic director, Kevin White was on the sidelines and congratulating players and coaches. He couldn't withhold the pride he has for this team, "We are all euphoric right now for this is a tremendous group of players". Notre Dame has passed through the quarterfinals and cracked the Final Four - all without scholarships. Notre Dame will begin next year to give scholarships until the full complement of 12.6 is given by the year 2004-2005. "We are really committed to lacrosse at Notre Dame", continued White, "we love Kevin [Corrigan] and his staff and the leadership they provided to this team and program over a number of years." "We're very hopeful that with the addition of scholarships, we can take this program to the next level, if that's possible, from this year's team. We have all the elements in place." He is proud, deservingly so, that the lacrosse team is yet another highly ranked athletic team at Notre Dame, "it's been one of those real special year with having four teams ranked No. 1 and eleven teams ranked in the top 10 in their respective sports. We've managed to do that by committee this year and a great effort on the part of a lot of student athletes and coaches"

It was hard to place the reason for the win on any single player for the Irish. Certainly Kirk Howell, already having a low-goals-against average, deserved most of the credit, giving up only 8 goals today. He kept the Blue Jays stymied during those times when Hopkins penetrated the Irish defense. Howell was acrobatic with many of his saves, jumping high at times and using his feet other times. He acutely manifested the Notre Dame desire to win, and that desire showed in the times he chose to bring the ball out on a clear in order to break the pressure of the Hopkins ride. Afterwards, Howell credited his defense, in his typical unassuming manner, and reasoning that he just wanted to keep it "close" to give his offense a chance.

Corrigan was mildly ecstatic after the game but spread the responsibility for the win around his team. "This was a game of runs up through 8-8, and then both teams got a little bit cautious and tentative, trying not to make mistakes and our guys made some breaks, some plays" he noted, "and then the impetus fell on them to come back." Hopkins did not. Hopkins ends its season, while Notre Dame faces off against Syracuse, another storied lacrosse program I the first game of the Final Four at Rutgers.

5/20/01


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