Notre Dame beat Syracuse 15-7 on Saturday, May 23, advancing to the NCAA championship game Monday at 1 p.m. ET in Charlottesville, Virginia, and forward Josh Yago said the victory was the product of the team’s chemistry. "We play such an unselfish brand of lacrosse," Yago said. "This late in May, it works."
The Irish turned the game into a special-teams showdown. Notre Dame scored five extra-man goals in four opportunities while Syracuse went 0-for-5 on its chances, and Thomas Ricciardelli finished with 14 saves to blunt any comeback. Josh Yago collected three goals and four assists, Will Maheras and Brock Behrman each finished with four-point games, and ten different Notre Dame shooters scored in the win.
Syracuse had pulled to 9-7, but Notre Dame answered at the start of the fourth quarter with three man-up goals within a roughly two-minute stretch that erased Syracuse’s momentum and put the game out of reach. The margin, the special-teams edge and Ricciardelli’s work in goal combined to produce the 15-7 final score at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville.
“For us to do what we did on man-up and man-down today is huge" and "It’s probably the difference in the game," Kevin Corrigan said, explaining the split on opportunity and execution between the teams.
Context sharpens the stakes: Notre Dame entered the weekend as the No. 2 seed and is hunting its third national title in four seasons, while Syracuse reached its second straight Final Four after a 12-year wait. The Irish have now won 57 straight games in which they held opponents to single digits, a run that underlined how the defensive and special-teams performance in Saturday’s semifinal carried the contest.
The contrast between the teams was stark down the stretch. Syracuse pressured and briefly found life to make it a two-goal game late in the third; Notre Dame answered by extending possessions, sharing the ball and converting when given man-up chances. "Guys are tired," Yago said. "Longer games. Possessions matter." He added a clearer note on why the Irish sustained their attack: "When we get deeper into possessions and share the ball the way we do … it’s going to be hard to stop just because of how well we move the ball."
Notre Dame’s depth showed in the box score: multiple contributors, a long list of scorers and the margin that followed the fourth-quarter burst. Ricciardelli’s 14 saves and the five extra-man goals — produced in just four opportunities — were measurable confirmations of the Irish plan working at both ends.
There is a small historical twist waiting Monday. Notre Dame and Princeton meet for the national title at Scott Stadium at 1 p.m. ET, and the teams’ only prior lacrosse meeting came in 2010 when Notre Dame won a first-round game at Princeton. The matchup will pit Notre Dame’s quest for a third crown in four seasons against a Princeton program familiar with the environment and the stakes.
What matters next is simple and immediate: Notre Dame must translate Saturday’s special-teams performance into one more near-perfect day. The Irish have the personnel and the recent history to make that plausible; their margin for error will be smallest against Princeton on Memorial Day. For now, Yago and his teammates head into championship weekend with their confidence intact and one clear aim — finish what they started.
