The difference between a season-changing win and a disappointing flight home is often very trivial. For the Dartmouth men's lacrosse team, stick-work--passing and catching--was the undoing of an effort that left the Big Green on the losing end of an 8-7 battle against No. 11 Notre Dame Sunday.
Dartmouth's offense found its rhythm early and dictated the pace of the game throughout the first half and into the second half.The Big Green's offense worked the ball around Notre Dame's defensive zone for minutes at a time, which stretched the Fighting Irish defense while allowing Dartmouth's defenders to rest, and forced a very athletic Fighting Irish team to play a more conservative, slower-paced game.
With seven minutes and forty-three seconds left in the third quarter, Nick Bonacci '07 fed a cutting Brad Heritage '06 to score an unlikely man-down goal. The shorthanded score gave the Big Green a 6-5 lead and was an apparent momentum swing.
But just as Dartmouth took the lead, Notre Dame rallied to score three unanswered goals. The Big Green defense, anchored by Ben Lovejoy '07, stood stronger against the Irish than against previous opponents, but wore down over the three-goal stretch. Turnovers, infractions and diminishing success on ground balls kept the ball in the Irish's sticks on Dartmouth's end of the field.
With only minutes remaining, the Big Green men found themselves behind 8-7 and without the ball. On four occasions with less than five minutes remaining on the clock, Dartmouth controlled the ball but could not clear the zone to have an offensive possession. The Big Green had two successful clears that were thwarted by errant passes.
Sloppy stick-work prevented Dartmouth from returning to its game-plan and running a settled offense.
For Dartmouth, it was a tale of two halves. The Big Green dominated the ground balls in the first half 22-9, only to have those numbers reversed in the second half, as Notre Dame controlled 34 ground balls to Dartmouth's 17.
The possession difference produced a similar disparity in shot totals. The Big Green out-shot the Irish 20-16 in the first half, and Notre Dame out-shot Dartmouth 23-12 in the second half, limiting the Big Green to only four shots in the fourth quarter.
The Big Green's ability to control the pace of the game was notably absent in the fourth quarter.
Dartmouth's last shot came with 6:20 remaining in the final period, as Brian Koch '09 fired a high shot to the off-side shoulder of Fighting Irish goalkeeper Joey Kemp. Kemp was excellent on high shots throughout the game, and extinguished the Big Green's last offensive challenge without a problem.
On the other side of the field, Pat Marshall '09 made 15 saves for Dartmouth to keep the game close. Marshall's defense encouraged the Notre Dame shooters to take savable shots, and Marshall came through on four point blank tries, overcoming the defensive lapses.
"I think the defense really came up big in this game. They limited the number of looks that they got," Marshall said. "A lot of the ones they did let through I managed to stop, but the defense really limited their opportunities. They did a fantastic job on a really talented offensive team."
The Big Green's offensive production was well-dispersed. Heritage scored two goals and Bonacci scored a goal and had two assists. Four other Dartmouth players scored one goal apiece.
Heritage voiced disappointment surrounding the loss. "It was a tough loss because our effort was there," the co-captain said. "That's something about our team that's gone on all year. It was a 110 percent effort from everyone on the field at all times. Towards the end we had a lot of jumpy turnovers that kept us from pulling it out."
The Big Green's out of conference schedule is mostly complete, as six out of seven remaining games will be against Ivy League opponents. Keeping the NCAA tournament in sight, the team will likely need to win the Ivy League to earn a berth.
"Our number one focus now is our Ivy schedule," Heritage said. "Opening up the season 4-4 doesn't put us in great shape for an at-large bid. We're going to have to win the Ivy League to make the tournament. We're going to have to take it one game at a time, because it's a tough league -- a lot of parity."
Dartmouth will look to bounce back against the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Hanover. The Quakers are coming off an 8-6 upset of then-No. 2 Cornell and are currently ranked No. 16 in the nation.
