Duke Falls to Notre Dame in NCAA Championship

Monday, May 29

Philadelphia, Pa.

1 p.m.

Duke University

16-3

Notre Dame (Championship)

14-2

Notre Dame

Duke

Duke Falls to Notre Dame in NCAA Championship

5/29/2023 3:40:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score Duke Postgame Quotes Notre Dame Postgame Quotes Photo Gallery

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – Duke rallied from a 6-1 halftime deficit to tie the game, but couldn't complete the comeback as Notre Dame captured its first NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship with a 13-9 victory over the Blue Devils at Lincoln Financial Field Monday afternoon.

Duke concludes its season as the NCAA runner-up with a 16-2 overall record. Notre Dame finishes its season 14-2.

Graduate student Garrett Leadmon led a balanced Blue Devil offense with two goals and an assist, while Brennan O'Neill finished with a goal and an assist. Eight different Duke players scored goals. Six different Irish players notched two goals apiece with Chris Kavanagh leading the way with two goals and an assist. Liam Entenmann anchored an outstanding defensive effort by Notre Dame with 18 saves, including seven in the fourth quarter.

O'Neill, Leadmon and Jake Naso represented Duke on the NCAA All-Tournament Team.

How it Happened

Garrett Leadmon continued his impressive Championship Weekend performance to open the scoring for the Blue Devils just 35 seconds into the game. That proved to be all the Blue Devils could manage in the first 30 minutes as Duke went scoreless for the next 31:29.
The Irish answered at 11:33 in the first with Brian Tevlin beating the shot clock to even the score, 1-1. Eric Dobson put the Irish in front, 2-1, four minutes later as Notre Dame continued their lockdown defense to take a 3-1 lead into the first break.
Duke's man-down defense came up huge at the end of the first period and opening minute of the second, killing off a two-minute penalty. William Helm made a spectacular save on the doorstep to keep the Irish off the board on the extra-man opportunity.
Leading 4-1, the Irish added two more and held the Blue Devils scoreless for the quarter to head into the locker room up 6-1.
After not scoring for the previous 31:29, Duke came out with energy in the third quarter, scoring three times in a span of 1:40 to pull within two, 6-4. Jack Gray started the spurt and Dyson Williams and Leadmon added scores. O'Neill capped the 4-0 run at the 9:03 mark to make it a one-goal game, 6-5. It was the closest Duke had been since it was 2-1 at 7:16 of the first quarter.
Notre Dame stopped the run with a man-up goal midway through the period before Duke's man-down defense came up big again, killing off the remainder of the full-time penalty. Aidan Danenza pulled the Blue Devils back within one, 7-6, with 4:15 left in the third and little luck fell Duke's way as a Charles Balsamo pass hit a Notre Dame defenseman's stick and snuck past Entenmann to even the score for the first time since it was 1-1.
Notre Dame scored twice in the final 27 seconds to head into the final quarter with a 9-7 lead. The Irish stretched the lead back to three, 10-7, with a goal from Eric Dobson four minutes into the fourth frame.
Owen Caputo brought Duke back within two at the 8:51 mark, his first goal of the afternoon, but Notre Dame answered with three goals in 1:42 to ice the victory. Jake Caputo put the final score on the board for the Blue Devils with 12 seconds left in the game.
William Helm was solid between the pipes with 10 saves. Jake Naso went 10-of-24 at the faceoff dot and picked up six ground balls.

Duke outshot the Irish 47-40 for the game, including 24-18 in the first half. The Blue Devils struggled to put shots on cage in the first half, firing only nine on goal.

Notes

Duke moves to 3-4 in NCAA Championship games and 5-2 all-time in NCAA Tournament contests against Notre Dame. The Blue Devils' 16 wins are tied for the third most in a single-season in Duke history.
Dyson Williams scored one goal to give him 60 for the season, just the eighth time a Duke player has scored at least 60 in a year. He is the fifth different Blue Devil to reach the 60-goal mark, joining Max Quinzani, Zack Greer, Justin Guterding and Jordan Wolf.
Wilson Stephenson took over sole possession of third on the Duke single-season chart with 29 caused turnovers this season. The 29 are two fewer than his previous three seasons combined.
Brennan O'Neill finished the afternoon with two points to push his season total to 97 to tie Matt Danowski for fourth on the Duke single-season chart. O'Neill finished his season with 42 assists, tying Danowski for eighth on that single-season list.
O'Neill has 73 career assists to sit in a tie for 16th on the Duke career chart.
O'Neill and Williams extended their goal scoring streak to 28 and 22 games, respectively. O'Neill has 89 goals in that stretch and Williams has 70.
William Helm's 41 saves in the NCAA Tournament are the third most by a Duke goalie in program history. He is only the seventh goalie in Duke history to record double-digit saves in at least three NCAA Tournament games in his career.

Quotes
Q. Dyson, after that first half, how did you change your game plan to deal with Liam Entenmann who was making a lot of saves in that second quarter?

DYSON WILLIAMS: Yeah, a player like him can really change the outcome of a game. Once again, just reminded it's a six-by-six net, and shooters gotta shoot, and you can't change the way you're playing just because things aren't going your way. I thought we came out with more confidence, and that made it a better game.

Q. How would you size up that first half, especially since defensively I'm sure you were irritated about a couple garbage goals, like ground balls off and whatnot. It felt like defensively you were okay –

JOHN DANOWSKI: Defensively we were terrific. I thought we only gave up two goals in the box. Even though it was
6-1, two goals in the box against a dynamic team like Notre Dame, I felt pretty good even at halftime defensively. I
kept saying that in the huddle. But Notre Dame was very opportunistic. They've been like that all year. If you've watched them play before, they're terrific off the ground, ball bounced their way once or twice, and they'll take advantage of it. Good for them.

But with all that being said, we did take 24 shots in the first half, and that's a pretty good day, too. But defensively
they're very good. They're very disciplined. We're not a very dynamic two-handed team, so if you have a good scouting report and you overplay guys' hands, and the guys did a nice job that way, too.

Q. You had some graduate students that wrapped up their Duke careers today, Wilson Stephenson, Garrett Leadmon just to name a couple. Any closing thoughts on them and their time at Duke?

JOHN DANOWSKI: Yeah, I'm so proud of those guys. Last year after we lost to Notre Dame we had a film session the next day, and we really were very direct and very honest with the fifth years because that was their senior year. If they're going to come back, things they were going to have to change a little bit. Right from day one, they've been awesome. They've been absolutely spectacular. Weight room, classroom, practice, leadership, on, off the field. They're just amazing. I think we had seven graduate degrees, or eight, and the guys were just a joy to be around.