Irish DOMINATE the Buckeyes, move on to the quarterfinals

The Irish beat the Buckeyes by a final score of 15-6; Penn State looms in Annapolis

Photo Credit: Notre Dame Lacrosse Twitter account

“Behind Every Lacrosse Player Is A Mom Who Believed In Him First”

On a beautiful Mother’s Day Sunday in Columbus, Ohio, our Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team did their Moms proud and celebrated by hugging them following a 15-6 win over the Ohio State Buckeyes in the opening round of the 2025 NCAA lacrosse tournament.

Happy belated Mother’s Day to all the Moms out there and no better way to start this article than with that quote; and no better way for our Irish to get our back to back National Championship defense underway than with what we saw on Sunday. It was a dominant performance from our lacrosse team in front of over 2,700 fans who gathered to watch the second matchup of the season between the Irish and the Buckeyes. Earlier this spring Ohio State came into Arlotta and beat Notre Dame by a final score of 10-9. So while revenge was on Irish fans’ minds, the players came out with only one goal in mind: play team lacrosse that was unselfish, physical, unrelenting and dominant. Mission accomplished and then some as Notre Dame put together our most complete game of the season.

And no one more happy than the Irish lacrosse players’ Moms who have been there from day one. They have been there each and every day thereafter, their sons’ biggest fans, the ones who believed in them first.

Last week in my article I shared what I expected of our Irish on Sunday against Ohio State:

A team playing with urgency.

A team playing physical lacrosse.

A team doing the simple things well.

A team who finishes possessions with goals.

A team wanting to prove itself.

A team going hard after every last ground ball.

A team winning runouts to the end line.

A team riding with an unwavering commitment.

A team playing overall excellent team defense.

A team knowing that the next game is not a given.

A team that is unselfish.

A team that refuses to quit.

A team looking to avenge an early season loss.

A team playing for each other.

We checked all the boxes from above and excited to go through the game with you, give some overall thoughts on what we saw in Columbus while also taking a look ahead to our Sunday game against the Penn State Nittany Lions. Game time is at 12 PM EST with a trip to Foxborough and the Final Four on the line.

Don’t forget as well to catch up on the latest “Exit 77” episode as David Brogan and I will be recording on Thursday night. That show will be ready later in the evening on Thursday or for sure when you get up on Friday morning.

Okay, let’s get into it, so much good to cover off on this week in our article.

Eight Key Plays that Defined and Led to our Win against the Buckeyes

With 12:41 left in the second quarter, our Irish were down 3-1 to the Buckeyes. Ohio State caused a turnover in ND’s offensive zone which led to an unsettled situation. Jordan Faison stayed on the field to play defense and as the OSU player was coming over the midfield line, Jordan caused a turnover, fought for the loose ball (against three Buckeyes) and in the process drew a penalty. Shortly thereafter on the man-up Chris Kavanagh fed Jeffery Ricciardelli backside for a slick goal to make the game 3-2. Unreal ride by Jordan and had he not made that play, we could have been looking at a possible 4-1 Irish deficit. A team that refuses to quit.

With the Irish down 3-2 and with possession, Jalen Seymour got the ball on the wing from a pass, and with a very heads up play, he spotted Jake Taylor coming open in the crease, fed him with a perfect pass; Jake buried it to make the score 3-3. This was important for a couple of reasons: first off, awesome job by Jalen making his presence as a feeder felt. Secondly, we all know that when Jake Taylor gets going early and starts to find fissures in the defense, it always spells good news for our Irish. It means we have seen something on film that we know we can exploit and I think overall it gives the rest of the team a big boost of confidence. It’s so good for Jake to get an early goal and from there it seemed to just waterfall. A team who finishes possessions with goals.

With the score tied 3-3 and about 8:20 to go in the second quarter, Garrett Haas made a nice move from X and tied up Shawn Lyght and Tyler Buchner as they were not able to switch. Haas kept coming and he was one on one with Thomas Ricciardelli. He shot high and Thomas made a point blank save. It was a huge moment and from there the Irish would go on to score the next four goals and eventually take a 7-4 lead into halftime. A team wanting to prove itself.

With the score 4-3 Irish, OSU made a save, they tried to clear it, Chris Kavanagh caused a turnover, picked up the ground ball and fed Devon McLane in front of the crease. After a few fakes he hit home with a twister to make the score 5-3 Irish. A team riding with an unwavering commitment.

With the score 5-3 Irish, Chris Reinhardt had a fast break, but as he got closer to the goal he realized he did not have the looks he was hoping for. He settled it down, the Irish eventually took a couple of shots, missed, but retained possession. Ben Ramsey stayed on the field instead of subbing out, eventually got the ball up top, took his man one on one and hit home with a five hole goal to make the score 6-3 Notre Dame. Heady play by the freshman SSDM to not push the envelope and instead settle things down. Then a heady play by Ben to stay on the field in a mismatch and awesome finish by the All-American senior SSDM. A team doing the simple things well.

Great save by Thomas Ricciardelli with the Irish up 8-5. That’s it. Just a solid save by Thomas at a micro-moment that led to the Irish going up 12-5 rather than looking at an 8-6 advantage. A team playing overall excellent team defense.

With the score at 8-5, so shortly after Thomas’ save, as Caleb Fyock was trying to clear after a save of his own, Chris Kavanagh was able to get his stick on Fyock’s, cause a turnover and Will Angrick somehow came out of a big scrum with the ball. He put it home to get the Irish up 9-5. Just overall awesome on all levels from Chris and Will. A team playing with urgency.

While not a specific play, thought I would end this section with the overall play of Will Lynch. We have said it before in this column, and we will say it again, no one we would rather ride with than Will Lynch. When the team needed him most, all he did was go 17-23 at the faceoff dot while picking up 13 ground balls. He did an incredible job of winning possession to himself, and along with that, he was smart with the ball when looking to hit his outlet. No forced passes, no unnecessary turnovers, just overall dominant play once again in May from someone who has consistently delivered over his career at Notre Dame. A team going hard after every last ground ball.

What else did I like down in Columbus from our Irish

There was so much about our Irish on Sunday that was fun to watch; here is some more of what I liked about our Irish:

Mentioned above Jordan Faison’s big ride and caused turnover that eventually led to a goal, but he did that a separate second time at the midfield in the second quarter too. Reminiscent of his ride against Cornell last year that led to the game winning goal by Ben Ramsey. A complete day from Jordan that was finished up by a fourth quarter goal that I am sure felt good after that evening in January in Atlanta against Ohio State.

Shawn Lyght. ENOUGH SAID. Find me a better defender in all of college lacrosse. You can’t. His full skill set was on display in Columbus. Not only was his defense elite, but his ground ball pickups were next level. He is so fun to watch and hope all young defenders out there are taking note and modeling their game after what Shawn is doing at Notre Dame.

Notre Dame went down 3-1 to start the game. We didn’t panic and from that moment on we went on a 14-3 run to close out the game. Reminded me of last year’s national championship game against Maryland where we went down 2-0, eventually the score was tied 3-3 and we went on a 12-2 run to eventually win 15-5.

The Notre Dame attack played an absolutely complete game gathering 7 goals and 4 assists on the afternoon. Jake Taylor was excellent, Chris Kavanagh was the heartbeat of the team and Devon McLane’s game is really looking good right now. I know I talked last week about Devon possibly going back to midfield, and with him not doing that, you can see why I am not a coach with the Irish. This unit was everywhere against the Buckeyes and so good to see them playing at a high level at this time of year.

Speaking of Jake Taylor and his three goals on the day, how about his twister? Remind anyone of 2023 and his goal late in the fourth quarter against Virginia? Yep. BTW, he wasn’t credited for it, but I thought they could have given Will Maheras an assist on the goal.

I thought the SSDMs were excellent on Sunday. Admittedly, it has been an up and down year for this group, but they played really solid lacrosse in Columbus. Led always by Ben Ramsey, whose offensive game is coming to the forefront right now, the unit did a really good job of keeping their man in front of them and not letting OSU get easy shots. For SSDMs, it’s the little things and as we make a run for Memorial Day, this is the unit that will separate us from everyone else. Keep it up. Shout out as well to Chris Reinhardt on his first career goal.

Really liked the look again of the Irish with two longpoles on the faceoff wings. While Will Lynch was winning most to himself, when the ball did get out of the circle, they were right there to make a play or cause disruption. I thought Nate Schwitzenberg was excellent in this role and he continues to build his resume as just an overall complete defenseman (who deserves some form of All-American honors this year).

Talked about him above, but an incredible effort from Thomas Ricciardelli. He was the better goalie on the field on Sunday….and it showed. Really strong outing for him in his first ever NCAA tournament game.

Max Busenkell was back on the first line midfield with Jordan and Will; the unit as a whole looked great. Loved seeing Max get a goal as we all have come to expect that from him on a game to game basis. Shout out too to Will who got the Irish on the board with our first goal of the game – a rocket that beat Fyock high.

Ohio State had two man-up opportunities in the 4th quarter to try and get the score closer; Notre Dame stopped them on both chances. Awesome job by the man-down unit as they were active, they had sticks in passing lanes and both times OSU did not get good shots on goal. Will Donovan does a really good job on this unit as he is incredibly disruptive.

Notre Dame won the ground ball battle 40-20 on the day. That right there tells the story of a lot of the game. We wanted it more and it showed on each and every single play when the ball was on the ground.

Finally, shout out to the Notre Dame players and coaching staff. This was a complete team win, and while no one will probably admit it, I am sure a lot of folks within the Notre Dame program felt we could have been hosting a tournament game at Arlotta last weekend. Instead we had to travel to Columbus and then listen all week to people questioning whether our Irish had it in themselves to go on one more run. Add into that all the talk about how Ohio State “deserved a better matchup than the Irish” and I could not keep track of if OSU was that good and they should have been playing someone worse? Or that they didn’t want to play Notre Dame because we were better than them? It was confusing ;). End of the day, our Irish came together as a team, got through finals week and played what we have all come to expect: Notre Dame lacrosse. It was so awesome to see and such a great start to our path to Memorial Day weekend. We left no doubt on Sunday in Columbus.

What’s Next and the NCAA Tournament

Pretty happy with myself as I went 8-8 last week with my picks in last week’s article:

Cornell, Richmond, Penn State, Notre Dame, Princeton, Syracuse, Georgetown, Maryland.

I did not put my full bracket that I filled out in the article, but going to stick with my original picks from the bracket I filled out; here is who I have winning this weekend:

Cornell

Notre Dame

Syracuse

Maryland

Some quick, overall thoughts on the matchups:

I think that the Cornell versus Richmond game is going to be really close. And in reality, I would not be shocked to see Richmond win. They have an excellent overall team that plays really strong team first lacrosse. Watch out lacrosse world, the Spiders might shock everyone on Saturday.

Maryland is going to be Maryland at this time of year and I expect them to be in Gillette Stadium over Memorial Day weekend. I think Coach Tillman has lost only once in the quarters in his career? But credit to Georgetown, they are playing some really good lacrosse right now. Shout out as well to Fulton Bayman who is having an excellent season.

Syracuse versus Princeton might take us back to the highlight reel late 1990s / early 2000s lacrosse. I think it could be the first team to 20 that will win this game. Get out your popcorn, this one will be fun to watch.

Which leads us to our Irish versus the Nittany Lions at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland on Sunday at 12 PM EST.

I will once again let David Brogan speak on the podcast as to Penn State and what we should be watching for with them. I know I will have a lot of questions based on what he says, but here are some quick thoughts from me around our Irish:

The goal remains the same. Be the most unselfish, physical, unrelenting and dominant team on the field on Sunday. Sometimes it can be that simple: do the little things right in lacrosse and big goals can be accomplished.

A lot of players on our Irish team have been in this position before. We beat Johns Hopkins on the same field back in 2023 to punch our ticket to Philadelphia and our eventual first ever national championship. Lean on the teammates that have been there to calm the nerves of younger players. Have the veteran leadership of the team speak up, lead by example and let their play do the talking. I said it last week, but it rings true against Penn State as well: Good teams can win NCAA tournament games, but good teams with great leadership can win championships.

We are one step closer to our ultimate goal and when we play Notre Dame lacrosse, there is not another team in the country who can beat us.

Let’s Go Irish. Once again, leave no doubt.

It’s May. It’s Time To Be Great.