Notre Dame claims its first NCAA men's lacrosse national championship with victory over Duke
Chris Kavanagh #50 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish celebrates after defeating the Duke Blue Devils in the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship game at Lincoln Financial Field on May 29, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Credit: Getty Images/Mitchell Leff
PHILADELPHIA — Notre Dame earned its first NCAA men’s lacrosse title on Monday, and a goalie from Long Island was in the middle of it.
Liam Entenmann, a senior who starred at Chaminade High School, made a season-high 18 saves as third-seeded Notre Dame beat top-seeded Duke, 13-9, in front of 30,462 at Lincoln Financial Field.
But wait, the story gets sweeter: Notre Dame had made two championship game appearances before, and lost both times to Duke, in 2010 and 2014.
Not this time, as Brian Tevlin scored the go-ahead goal with 27 seconds left in the third quarter and Notre Dame held on.
Entenmann made eight saves on nine shots on goal in the first half as Notre Dame (14-2) cruised to a 6-1 lead after scoring six unanswered goals — from six different players.
Duke’s Charles Balsamo, who also played at Chaminade, knotted it at 7 with 1:01 left in the third — for the first tie since it was 1-1.
But Notre Dame scored two goals in the final 30 seconds of the third for a 9-7 lead.
Tevlin, who helped Yale win the 2018 NCAA title over Duke, and Chris Kavanagh of Rockville Centre both notched their second goals of the game.
Quinn McCahon capped a 6-1 scoring run for a 13-8 lead with 3:24 left to become the sixth Notre Dame player with two goals.
“I’m not sure I want to watch the film of this one, other than maybe the defense from the first half,” Notre Dame coach Kevin Corrigan said. “You wait your whole career to see this right now.”
After scoring 35 seconds into the game, Duke (16-3) was held scoreless for the final 29:25 of the first half.
Duke — which has won the title three times and was playing in its seventh national championship game — was 1-for-24 shooting in the first half but opened the second going 4-for-6 to get within 6-5.
Notre Dame held Duke to its lowest-scoring game of the season. Leading scorers Brennan O’Neill, who played at St. Anthony’s, and Dyson Williams had one goal apiece. Williams became the fifth Duke player with 60-plus goals in a season.
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