No. 4 Irish Rally to Down Bucknell
from staff reports
NORTH BETHESDA, Md. - Fourth-ranked Notre Dame
scored eight second-half goals to come from behind and defeat
Bucknell 10-6 on Thursday afternoon in a non-league men's lacrosse
game played before a large crowd on the campus of Georgetown
Preparatory School. Joe Mele and Perry Menzies scored two goals
apiece and Austin Winter had a goal and two assists for the Bison,
who fell to 1-4 on the season, with three of the four losses coming
against nationally ranked teams and the other coming to a
still-unbeaten team in Hobart.
Goalie Nick Sciubba was terrific for the Bison, making 10 of his
career-high 16 saves in the first half. Bucknell led 3-2 at the
half and 4-2 early in the third period, but trouble in the clearing
game finally caught up to the Bison, and Notre Dame (5-0) scored
four straight goals to take the lead for good.
Notre Dame, which had already beaten Loyola, Penn State, Dartmouth
and North Carolina, received three goals from Zach Brenneman and
two goals and two assists from Neal Hicks. Fighting Irish goalie
Scott Rodgers also had a strong game with eight of his 11 saves
coming in the second half.
Winter bounced in a shot from the left side at the 8:49 mark of
the first quarter, and it remained a 1-0 game into the second
period. Sciubba had seven saves before he yielded his first goal of
the day, including a spectacular two-save flurry in the first
minute of the second quarter. Grant Krebs finally got one past
Sciubba 17:42 into the game on a pass from Hicks behind the
cage.
The Bison tallied the next two scores. First, Mele finished a Tim
Brandau feed for a 2-1 lead, then the Bucknell ride set up a goal.
Rodgers got stripped near midfield, Winter picked up the ground
ball and fed Mike Danylyshyn, who scored before Rodgers could
scramble back to his crease.
Brenneman's extra-man goal 2:29 before halftime brought Notre Dame
within 3-2, but senior midfielder Perry Menzies got going for the
Bison in the second half. Menzies had been scoreless through
Bucknell's first four games, but his laser shot on the run just 43
seconds into the second half restored the two-goal cushion.
But a mistake on a clear about two minutes later proved to be a
turning point in the game. The Bison defense had just come up with
a stop, but a bad pass on the clear left the ball sitting on the
ground 15 yards in front of their own net. Hicks scooped it up and
walked in for a big momentum-turning goal. A Bucknell penalty
followed, and Hicks scored again right on the doorstep to make it
4-4.
Brenneman scored with a hard lefty shot to put Notre Dame ahead
for the first time all day at the 6:31 mark of the third quarter,
then long-pole Andrew Irving walked in from almost midfield and
scored just over a minute later to make it 6-4.
Menzies and Duncan Swezey swapped goals 36 seconds apart later in
the quarter, and Notre Dame took a 7-5 lead into the final
stanza.
A nice diagonal feed from Winter to Mele for a slam dunk brought
Bucknell within 7-6 with 9:47 to play, and Jake Clarke won the
ensuing faceoff. The Bison turned it over, however, when Winter's
pass to a cutter missed the mark and skipped out of bounds.
Crease attackman Ryan Hoff, who had been quieted all day, finally
broke through on Notre Dame's ensuing possession, finishing a
Swezey pass with a quick-stick from in close. Bucknell tried to
answer, but Mele lost the ball on a shot attempt at the top of the
box, and Notre Dame countered with a fastbreak goal with pole Mike
Creighton passing to Hoff for a 9-6 lead.
Brenneman finished his hat trick with 37 seconds left to make it
10-6.
Bucknell had more faceoffs (10-8) and ground balls (37-30), but
turnover problems led to a 43-29 shot advantage for the Fighting
Irish. The Bison were just 14-for-22 on clear attempts, with five
of the failed clears coming while trying to protect the lead.
Michael Cooke led the Bison with six ground balls, while Clarke
and Billy Haire had five each.
This was just the second game ever played between Bucknell and
Notre Dame, with the other a 12-7 Irish win in the 2001 NCAA
Tournament.
