The No. 3 Irish put their undefeated record on the line on Wednesday at the Loftus Center in its GWLL opener against Bellarmine and needed a late run to defeat the Knights 11-6.
Irish coach Kevin Corrigan was thankful for the win after what he thought was a lackluster performance by his team, who was playing its second game in four days.
"I wasn't real pleased with our effort," Corrigan said. "Our execution wasn't good, our preparation wasn't good, and that's on me."
Corrigan was not pleased with offensive execution in particular.
"In the first half we were too quick offensively and not very good," Corrigan said. "We didn't take advantage of opportunities from the outset."
The Knights remained within striking distance for much of the day, and the Irish (7-0, 1-0 GWLL) only had a 7-5 lead with 1:15 left in the third quarter. However, senior attack Duncan Swezey scored three of his four goals in just over 1 1/2 minutes at the end of the third and the start of the fourth period to give the Irish a 10-5 lead and squander any hopes of a Bellarmine rally.
Corrigan thought that Swezey should have had an even stronger performance, but was pleased with it nonetheless.
"Duncan was like a lot of our guys," Corrigan said. "He should have had seven goals, but I'm glad he had four."
Bellarmine scored the first goal of the game at the 12:47 mark when Knights sophomore Jarrett Davis tallied his first of two scores on the day. The Irish responded nearly two minutes later with Swezey's first goal off an assist from sophomore midfielder David Earl at the 10:49 mark.
The teams remained tied until Irish sophomore midfielder Zach Brennenman scored with 2:35 left in the first quarter. Senior midfielder Dan Gibson scored 50 seconds later to make the score 3-1, but a goal by Bellarmine sophomore Dereck Hopcroft made the score 3-2 at the end of the period.
Bellarmine tied the game at three with a goal from junior Brian Doyle nearly two minutes into the second quarter. However, two goals from junior midfielder Grant Krebs put the Irish on top 5-3 with just over 11 minutes to play in the half, and a tally from junior attackman Matt Ciambella put the Irish on top by three halfway through the second quarter. Knights sophomore Chase Williams scored with 4:11 play in the half to make the score 6-4 at the break.
Doyle scored his second goal of the game to narrow the gap to one just 50 seconds into the third quarter. The Irish responded as Krebs scored his third goal of the game at the 7:59 mark to put the Irish up two. Swezey would score two of his three straight goals in the final 1:15 of the quarter to put the Irish up 9-5 heading into the final period.
Swezey scored his fourth goal with 14:37 left in the game to give the Irish a five-goal cushion. Davis added his second tally for Bellarmine almost a minute later to make it a 10-6 game, but that would be as close the Knights would get, as Irish junior attack Neal Hicks concluded the scoring with 9:20 left in the contest.
Notre Dame improved to 4-0 all time against Bellarmine and 15-1 in GWLL openers. The Irish return to action on Tuesday for a non-conference tilt at home against Villanova.
