Ohio State
Notre Dame
No. 17 Buckeyes Fall at No. 3 Notre Dame – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
March 21, 2015
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 17-ranked Ohio State men’s lacrosse team lost to No. 3-ranked Notre Dame, 9-0, Saturday at Arlotta Stadium in Notre Dame, Ind. The matchup vs. the Irish (5-1, 1-0 ACC) was the final nonconference matchup for the Buckeyes (7-3), as the squad will play its inaugural Big Ten game at 3 p.m. March 29 at Penn State.
“We are disappointed with the outcome today,” Nick Myers, Ohio State head coach, said. “We struggled to find any rhythm on offense. I am proud of our defensive effort and the way we hung in there. The bottom line is we need to execute better in every aspect to beat a team like Notre Dame. We will grow stronger from this and use it as fuel to head into our first Big Ten game.”
The Irish led 3-0 at halftime. Nick Ossello scored at 13:07 of the first quarter and Matt Kavanagh put ND ahead 2-0 at the 5:55 mark. Conor Doyle scored the only goal of the second quarter at 4:09, converting a man-up chance. Notre Dame outshot Ohio State 11-1 in the first quarter and 11-6 in the second quarter. Buckeye redshirt sophomore goalie Tom Carey had two saves in the opening stanza and each team’s goalie made four saves in the second quarter.
Notre Dame scored two early goals in the third quarter (14:53 and 13:24) to extend the advantage to 5-0 and Doyle tallied his second of the day with 59 seconds left in the stanza. Ohio State outshot Notre Dame 10-8 in the quarter and Carey made four saves in the Buckeye net.
The Irish scored three times in the fourth quarter (at 12:27, 10:07 and 7:03) and two Irish goalies combined for six saves to preserve the shutout. Each team had seven shots in the quarter.
Ohio State was outshot by Notre Dame, 37-24, in the game. Carey played all 60 minutes for Ohio State and had 10 saves, his fourth consecutive (and seventh overall) game with double-digit stops this season. He has a 7.47 goals-against average and .565 save percentage this year.
Ohio State had the advantage in faceoffs, 9-4. Graduate student Christopher May won 8-of-12 faceoffs and had a team-high seven groundballs. May has won 111-of-164 (.677) faceoffs this season and leads the Buckeyes with 80 groundballs. Notre Dame had the edge in groundballs, 32-30, in the game. Buckeye senior Jesse King, who had a 45-game point streak stopped in the loss, had five groundballs, along with three caused turnovers. Junior defenseman Robby Haus had four groundballs vs. the Irish.
Ohio State was unable to score on five extra man opportunities, all in the second half. Notre Dame was 1-for-3, including the first EMO goal allowed by the Buckeyes this season. The team is 12-for-13 on man-down defense (.923) this year.
The game against the Irish wrapped up a stretch of three games in a week vs. ranked teams for the Buckeyes. The squad topped then-No. 3 ranked Denver at home last Saturday (13-11) and won at No. 16 Towson (7-6) Tuesday.
