College Crosse Roundup: Notre Dame, Drexel earn one-goal wins

Bad news, we didn’t have a boatload of college lacrosse games today.

Good news, you could watch the Elite 8 and college hockey games without missing lacrosse!

Even better news, the two lacrosse games that were on provided excitement throughout!

Below is today’s Big Board with all of today’s results, box scores, and winning team recaps. Clicking on any box score will take you to that game’s box score. Clicking on the recap cell will take you to that team’s recap.

Game Recaps

• Notre Dame 9, Ohio State 8: After losing to Michigan at home on Wednesday, the Fighting Irish couldn’t afford to lose back to back games against Big Ten opponents. And thanks to a 3-0 run to begin the fourth quarter, the Irish got Kevin Corrigan his 300th career NCAA win, and 290th win with Notre Dame. The game was even throughout, but the Buckeyes carried a one goal lead into the fourth thanks to John Kelly. That’s when the Irish turned it on with goals coming from Ryder Garnsey, Brendan Gleason, and Mikey Wynne. After a JT Bugliosi tally, Garnsey scored the eventual game-winner with 4:11 left. Jack Jasinski scored with 2:41 left and there was some hope for the Buckeyes, but the Irish defense stood tall for a final Buckeye possession.

Gleason, Wynne, and Garnsey each scored two goals with Matt Schmidt making nine saves. But the big key for the Irish was the face-off work of John Travisano, who went 17-of-19 on draws with nine ground balls.

For the Buckeyes, Tre Leclaire led all scorers with three goals and two assists for five points. The Irish defense did a great job limiting him in the second half, only letting him record an assist on the Jasinski goal late in the fourth quarter. After replacing Matthew Smidt in the Denver game, sophomore netminder Josh Kirson made 13 stops in his first start in goal.

• Even though the ND-OSU game got the most attention, Drexel-Providence also provided some second half excitement. The Friars led 7-3 with 3:06 left in the second quarter, but things changed with the Dragons going on a 5-0 run to take the lead, spearheaded by two Matthew Varian goals. The teams would exchange goals for the remainder of the game, which would lead to not one but two overtime sessions. The second overtime ended with Marshal King scoring the game-winner 1:43 into that OT session.

That was King’s only goal on four shots. The Dragons got the majority of their production from Varian (two goals, three assists) and Reid Bowering (three goals, two assists), who each had five points. Nick Fox also added a hat-trick.

Providence was led by Sean Leahey’s two goals and one assist, but defenseman James Barclay was a dominant force on defense, causing four turnovers and scooping up two ground balls.

Three Stars

⭐️⭐️⭐️: Tre Leclaire, M, Ohio State: Despite playing the majority of this season at attack, Leclaire moved back to the midfield and put up a hat-trick and two assists. Unfortunately, all but one assist came in the first half.

⭐️⭐️: Ryder Garnsey, A, Notre Dame: Maybe Kevin Corrigan should consider starting the junior attackman? Garnsey came up clutch for the Irish, scoring two goals in the fourth quarter when Notre Dame needed his contributions. Four days after scoring five goals against Michigan when Notre Dame needed an offensive spark, the Fighting Irish are a much better team on offense when Garnsey is out on the field.

⭐️: Reid Bowering, A, Drexel: The sophomore was one of two Dragons who had five points, but his fifth and final point was a vital one, as he recorded the assist on Marshal King’s game-winner in double overtime. There’s no sense of a sophomore slump with the British Columbia native.