By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher
PHILADELPHIA — Perseverance. Patience. The time has come for Kevin Corrigan to add National Championship to his resume.
The longtime Notre Dame Fighting Irish Men’s Lacrosse head coach helped guide his program to their first National Championship on Monday afternoon. The Fighting Irish defeated the Duke Blue Devils 13-9 at Lincoln Financial Field.
This was the Fighting Irish’s third appearance in the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse National Championship game. They lost previously to the Blue Devils in the 2010 and 2014 title games.
“I’m not sure I want to watch the film of this one, other than maybe the defense from the first half,” Corrigan said. “You wait your whole career to see this right now.”
Notre Dame snapped an 0-5 record against Duke in the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Tournament. However, with the win, they are now 4-0 against the Blue Devils in the past two seasons, as the three previous meetings came in the regular season.
Corrigan was hired by the Fighting Irish in 1989. The team first competed in the Final Four in 2001. Their first Championship game appearance was the aforementioned 2010 game.
This was the second meeting between the two programs this season. Notre Dame won the other meeting 17-12 over Duke on April 8th.
The Fighting Irish jumped out to a 6-1 lead at halftime. They held the Blue Devils to their lowest-scoring half of the season.
Plus, it was the lowest-scoring half since 1988 when the Cornell Big Red trailed 8-1 against the Syracuse Orange. Syracuse went on to win that game 13-8.
It was nearly an identical game score to this game. After the Blue Devils scored six of the first seven goals to begin the second half, Notre Dame responded with two goals to end the quarter with goals by Brian Tevlin and Chris Kavanagh.
Notre Dame then outscored Duke with a 4-2 goal advantage in the final stanza.
The Fighting Irish had six players score two goals each. Those players were Jake Taylor, Kavanagh, Eric Dobson, Quinn McCahon, Jeffrey Ricciardelli, and Tevlin. Jack Simmons also had a goal.
Liam Entenmann, the Fighting Irish goaltender, had a season-high 18 saves. He received the win.
He was also named the Most Outstanding Player for the Men’s Lacrosse Championship.
Garrett Leadmon led the Blue Devils with two goals. Seven other players scored one goal. These players were Brennan O’Neill, Dyson Williams, Charles Balsamo, Aidan Danenza, Jake Caputo, Owen Caputo, and Jack Gray.
The Fighting Irish held the Blue Devils’ best players in O’Neill and Williams to just two goals.
William Helm, the Blue Devils goaltender, received the loss. He made 10 saves in the game.
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