No. 7 Notre Dame (6-1) added another win to its record with a 13-6 victory over No. 11 Drexel Tuesday night.
The Dragons entered the match on a seven-game winning streak with their only loss coming from their first match of the season against No. 3 Virginia. Their streak was easily broken by the effective Irish offense, led by junior attack Duncan Swezey, who recorded five points on the match with three goals and two assists. Senior attack Alex Wharton notched three goals and one assist on the evening, and senior midfielder Michael Podgajny added one goal and four assists to the team effort.
"I felt like today might have been our best game all around," Irish coach Kevin Corrigan said. "We did a lot of things well today and I feel pretty good about the way the offense played."
The game began with a Drexel goal three and a half minutes into play. The Irish offense quickly retaliated within 21 seconds when Wharton assisted Grant Krebs for the first Irish goal. Three minutes later, Podgajny assisted junior attack Ryan Hoff to give the Irish a 2-1 lead.
The Irish dominated play in the Drexel half of the field during the second quarter, scoring four more goals to conclude the half with a lead of 6-2. Junior midfielders Dan Gibson Peter Christman, each scored while Swezey contributed two more goals for the Irish in the second quarter.
"The defense gave up one goal early on off a rebound," Corrigan said. "[Drexel] had a really tough time generating any offense for most of the rest of the game."
The Irish returned from the half and continued their goal run during the third period. A goal by Krebs and two by Wharton pushed the Irish lead out to 9-2. Drexel freshman attack Scott Perri scored a goal and sophomore midfielder/attack Greg Casey scored two goals before the Irish concluded the period with a final goal by Podgajny.
The Irish headed into the final period of play with a 10-5 edge. Another goal by Wharton at the 8:56 mark preceded the final Drexel goal of the game. The Irish finished out the game with strong offense and three consecutive goals by Swezey and Hoff to finally defeat the Dragons 16-5.
"I was very happy with our guys today with how efficiently they played at both ends of the field and in terms of executing what we wanted to do," Corrigan said. "It was another step forward for us we're off to a great start and ready to begin conference play."
While the Irish were prepared to open its Great Western Lacrosse League conference schedule in Colorado Springs versus Air Force on Saturday March 22, the game was postponed due to inclement weather in Chicago that prevented the team from flying. A make-up date for the game is yet to be determined.
The Irish instead will open conference play this Saturday when they travel to Louisville, Ky., to compete against Bellarmine. Bellarmine currently sits behind the Irish in the No. 3 spot in the conference with a record of 6-2. The Irish defeated Bellarmine 11-3 at home during the 2007 season. The game will begin at 1 p.m.
