For the third time in four years, the Notre Dame Men’s Lacrosse team is heading back to the Final Four, and as Memorial Day weekend looms, we are looking for our third national championship in four seasons.
On a beautiful Saturday afternoon on Long Island, the Irish beat Johns Hopkins by a final score of 15-9, punching our ticket to Charlottesville, while also exercising the demons from last year’s May quarterfinal loss to Penn State.
It was an all around excellent effort from our Irish so let’s get
into everything and give you all our thoughts on the big Irish win.
How did the Irish win on Saturday
When Josh Yago transferred from the Air Force Academy to Notre Dame, I am not sure a lot of us knew what we were going to be getting. I think a lot of us thought we were maybe getting an X attackman who was going to lead our offense from behind the goal. I am not sure many of us pictured an alpha with the ball up top who has the speed and physical presence that Josh has. He is fast, he is quick, he is intentional, he is two-handed, he is strong, he is serene, he is uber-talented, and he was every bit the best player on the field on Long Island on Saturday. 4 goals and 3 assists in his first ever quarterfinal game was just awesome. He has shown so much this year, but I think Saturday was his best overall game as Johns Hopkins did not have an answer for him all day.
Speaking of his best game of the season, this is becoming a weekly thing with Matt Jeffery, but he continues to expand his game every time he steps on the field. If he can continue to pass the way he did on Saturday, he is going to be a point machine moving forward. Earlier in the season we would see Matt get bogged down by too many defenders collapsing on him and having nowhere to go. He is now seeing the field so well and not only is he hitting home on his shots, but he is finding the open man either through the next pass or through a skip pass. He had 2 goals and 3 assists on the day, and his vision throughout the whole afternoon was excellent. It is not hyperbole to say he is playing like one of the best midfielders in the country right now.
All season long, one of the biggest things we have talked about around our Irish, is making sure the passing is crisp and on our teammate’s stick. We did such a good job of this on Saturday, and when things are clicking, there are not a lot of teams that can beat us. Really, watch the replay and you will barely see any bad passes from our Irish. When this is the case, it allows us to speed up and slow down the tempo at our own discretion; I think Hopkins struggled to stay with us when we wanted to play fast and then when we were more settled, with passes on point, we are just really hard to defend.
Before the game, we talked about one of the keys being if Notre Dame could limit Hunter Chauvette and Matt Collison, and force Johns Hopkins to have other players step up, that would be the ideal case for our Irish. Notre Dame held these two to 4 goals and 3 assists on the day. Neither of them was able to get into a rhythm and by limiting their playmaking ability, it put pressure on the rest of the team. The Blue Jays were only able to get five goals from four other players, and it was textbook defensive lacrosse from the Irish. Credit to Nate, Shawn, Will and Thomas. This close defense and our goalie, they have been so good all season long.
This game was won from the 7:50 mark to the 4:40 mark in the third quarter. At 7:50, the Blue Jays made the score 9-7. Across the next over three minutes, they would have two full possessions with the opportunity to get the score to within one. Notre Dame forced a shot clock violation on the first possession and then on their next offensive opportunity, it was a yard sale forced through a double team by Will Donovan and Chris Reinhardt on Matt Collison. Brock Behrman would get a goal at 4:40 to push the score to 10-7; Will Maheras would score with 1:05 left in the third to get us to 11-7 as we entered the fourth quarter. A 5-1 third quarter for the Irish was the ball game.
My favorite thing about the Notre Dame defense on Saturday was that we were not afraid of any of the matchups. We knew Johns Hopkins would try and get Matt Collison on a short stick and I think we all thought that Shawn Lyght would be guarding Hunter Chauvette. So what did we do? We had Shawn on Charlie Iler for most of the day, and when Collison got the short stick matchup, it did not matter. We didn’t need to double or make a quick switch, which continues to show to me the confidence and faith that our coaching staff has in our SSDM unit. Did you notice that across the first half, Notre Dame ran SIX short stick defensive middies out there in Christian Alacqua, Chris Reinhardt, Kyle Bergen (I thought he played really good man on man defense), Thomas Porell and Brendan Mullahy? It’s the most important game of the season and we are running a ridiculous amount of players out there at that position – in the first half. I don’t think this can be overstated enough, but this could be the biggest developments and one of the biggest differentiators for this Notre Dame team. As the weather heats up, and as the days in between games becomes less and less, our ability to have depth at that SSDM position, and our ability to be okay with a variety of matchups, is absolutely huge. Oh, and need a juice goal to get the team on the scoreboard? Yeah, your captain and Long Island native, Christian Alacqua, has you covered.
15-26 at the faceoff dot from Tyler Spano and Aidan Diaz-Matos and a 37-22 ground ball advantage for our Irish on the day. While a lot of playing lacrosse is spent with the ball in the air, a lot of winning lacrosse is done on the ground. Notre Dame was the better team when the ball was on the turf and it showed all day up and down the field.
Will Maheras had 2 goals, Will Angrick had 1 goal and 1 assist, Brock Behrman had 2 goals and 1 assist, Luke Miller had 2 goals and 1 assist, Brady Pokorny had 1 goal, and Jalen Seymour had 1 assist. It was an all around great effort from the Irish and as Coach Corrigan said after the game, “The thing that makes it hard to defend us is right now I couldn’t tell you who our best (offensive) player is; so I’m certain that the people watching us don’t have a lot better idea than I do. And no one on our team cares….When you have that kind of approach and you have a number of guys with that kind of ability, it becomes pretty special.”
The field turf…where to begin? From what I understand, this new surface was installed less than six weeks ago. Supposedly it is of the best quality and it does a better job of preventing leg injuries. But the word as well is that it takes a new field about a year before it is in a good spot and ready to go. Malpractice having this field be the surface that four teams had to play on across Saturday afternoon. The biggest stage demands the best and while I absolutely LOVE Long Island as a spot for the quarterfinals, you have to be able to offer better than what we saw in Hempstead. Players were slipping all over and when the coaches and announcers are talking about it, you know it is a problem.
Let’s talk about the leadership on this team for a minute. Let’s all be honest, if you are reading this article, you are a fan of Notre Dame lacrosse. And if you are a fan of Notre Dame lacrosse, then you remember what happened in the quarterfinals last year. This game was tied 6-6 at halftime and the doubt could have crept in; the thoughts of Penn State and their goal run from last year could have been on everyone’s mind. What did this team do to respond in 2026? They dominated in the final 30 minutes and left no doubt who the better team was and who would be heading to Charlottesville. That is coaching and that is the leadership on this team. That is Notre Dame lacrosse.
What else happened this past weekend
From last week’s article, my choices to win the games were Georgetown, Syracuse, Notre Dame and Princeton.
Georgetown took it on the chin and lost 16-6 to Duke in a game that was never close.
Princeton and Penn State were tied at 10 in the fourth quarter before the Tigers scored the last four goals of the game to book their spot in the Final Four.
Syracuse, after being down 6-2 to North Carolina, was up 9-8 after three quarters and won by a final score of 13-11.
So for Memorial Day weekend, we have Duke vs Princeton in the early matchup on Saturday followed by Notre Dame vs Syracuse. Both games will be played at Scott Stadium on the University of Virginia’s campus in Charlottesville. The winners will meet on Memorial Day, Championship Monday, to see who gets to raise the trophy.
Notre Dame vs Syracuse
I am not going to get into a full preview of this game, because being honest, I don’t follow our opponents as well as David Brogan does; I will leave a lot of that for our next Exit 77 podcast which will be releasing later this week. We will cover off on the Johns Hopkins game and look at the matchup against the Cuse.
What I do know is that these two teams do not like each other at all. The overall series is tied 12-12 and while the Orange owned the Irish in the earlier years, Notre Dame went on to win seven straight from 2019 – 2024. Syracuse won both matchups in 2025 and Notre Dame beat the Orange earlier this year at a packed Arlotta by a final score of 16-11. If you have watched these games the last few years, this game has been must watch lacrosse with tons of different storylines. There is zero love lost between these two squads and that was absolutely evident as the last game almost got out of hand with some pushing and shoving at the end of the Irish win in South Bend.
Syracuse is led by their all-time points leader in Joey Spallina, they have talent up and down the field and they have a goalie and a faceoff man who can get hot and be difference makers. They are known for their passing and they live off juice goals and highlight reel scores.
It’s going to be an epic game as never before have these two teams met this late in the season. The winner gets to spend Sunday prepping for a National Championship matchup, while the loser goes back to their school to pack up for the summer.
We’ve been saying it all year, and it is no different this time….“It’s Time to Be Great” on the biggest stage in all of college lacrosse. The eyes of the lacrosse world will be on the state of Virginia, and when it comes to our sport, there is no better time of the year than Memorial Day weekend. This is what the season has built up to; this is what those early mornings in the fall were based on; this is what those long walks in the cold to practice in snowy South Bend have led to; this is what playing for your teammate means; this is why Notre Dame is built differently; this is where the Irish separate themselves.
I will be there in Charlottesville as I land on Friday night. See you there.
Notre Dame wins on Saturday and gets ready for Championship Monday.
Go Irish!
