After beating Quinnipiac 16-6 Friday in South Bend, the Irish decided just one win for the weekend wasn't enough.
They defeated Lehigh on the road 14-7 Sunday for their second win of the weekend. Friday was the first time No. 10 Notre Dame (9-2, 3-1 GWLL) had played since losing a 9-8 heart breaker to Denver April 5. After that loss, coach Kevin Corrigan said the team wanted to take a step back and reconsider where they stood.
"We just said going into the break after the Denver game that we wanted to reestablish who we were and what our identity was going to be," Corrigan said Sunday. "We wanted to use those weeks to improve individually and collectively. We're in a stretch of three games in five days. The job was to win all there and we're just considering ourselves in the middle of it right now."
Corrigan was referring to the stretch of Quinnipiac on Friday, Lehigh on Sunday, and Notre Dame's next game, which comes Tuesday at Air Force.
Junior attack Ryan Hoff started off the weekend hot, scoring two quick goals against Quinnipiac with 14:09 and 11:14 left in the first quarter. Hoff's goals sparked a 5-0 Irish run that culminated in a goal by sophomore attackman Neal Hicks and set the tone for the game. The Bobcats never recovered from the deficit and didn't get within five goals of the Irish for the entire contest.
Hoff, Notre Dame's leading scorer this season, finished the game with four goals and was supported by two goals apiece from senior attackman Alex Wharton, junior attackman Duncan Swezey, and sophomore midfielder Grant Krebs.
After a Saturday trip to Pennsylvania, the Irish had to again gear up, this time to take on Lehigh.
The game started off fairly even, with each team scoring two goals in the first quarter. Despite another early goal from Hoff, it looked like the Mountain Hawks would put up a much tougher fight than the Bobcats had. That is, until the Irish decided to flip the proverbial switch.
Beginning with Hicks' goal with 5:31 left in the second quarter, the Irish went on an astonishing 9-0 run in which seven different players scored to put them up 11-2 and put the game out of reach for Lehigh.
Hoff finished up with four goals and one assist, making Sunday the fourth time the junior has scored four or more goals in a game this season. After the game, Corrigan talked about Hoff being a product of a team-oriented offense.
"Ryan Hoff scores a lot when we play well offensively," Corrigan said. "He gets the ball from other people and we have to play well together to get him the ball and get him open. Him scoring a lot is a good indication of us playing well."
Corrigan also added that the Irish dominance was due a lot to the possession battle - Notre Dame won 17 of 25 face-offs. Corrigan specifically credited senior midfielder Taylor Clagett as a main reason for the Irish's face-off success.
"Taylor is the one who really broke today's game open," Corrigan said. "He was winning face-offs by the bunch and that really helped us."
After the two wins, the Irish look ahead to Colorado Springs where they will play Air Force on Tuesday in their second-to-last game of the season.
