Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM AUGUST 2024 17 conference semifinal, then crushed Duke 16-6 in the ACC title game. The Blue Dev- ils were the No. 2 team in the country, and the Irish blasted them by double digits. "That was when I think I, at least per- sonally, started to realize that this is re- ally ours to lose," Entenmann said. "We realized that if we just play together and play unselfish, with the talent and char- acter of the guys we have on our team … we're not going to lose a game." The Irish felt that weekend was the first time they played complete, team lacrosse from start to finish. Everything they did on offense worked; every gap on defense was covered and Entenmann made a combined 30 saves when the ball reached his crease. "It was like poetry in motion, hon- estly," Entenmann said. "That's the best way to describe it." Notre Dame won its six postseason ( two AC C , fo u r NCAA) games by a combined score of 92-46. Corrigan's team also avenged its lone loss of the season with a 16-11 thrashing of the Hoyas in the NCAA quar- terfinal round. The Irish were at their best late in the season in large part due to their depth, especially in the midfield. In every playoff game, Notre Dame rolled three midfield lines relatively evenly. That's not normal. Entenmann doesn't know whether the Irish were the best team of all time, but he firmly believes they were the deepest. Because the Irish midfielders were always fresh, they didn't have to force decisions out of fatigue. They didn't get caught out of position and, as Corrigan put it, have to "save themselves." Corrigan discovered he could play nine midfielders in practice, when the first-team defense was having problems with the second-team offense. "That's when we started to say, 'We need to utilize this depth and really push these guys onto the field,'" Corrigan said. "They did a great job." The Kavanaghs, as the team's top goal scorers, could feel the difference when they went on the attack. They smelled blood in the water down the stretch. "You can see it in their posture going into late in the third and fourth quar- ter," Chris Kavanagh said. "You can see that their short-stick middies and poles were just wearing down, and I thought we were very fresh." 'WE WEREN'T LOSING' Chris Kavanagh cried the entire bus ride from Notre Dame's team hotel to Lincoln Financial Field on Memorial Day, May 27, in Philadelphia. He didn't stop until the Irish reached the locker room. He shed tears as he looked at photos of him and Pat Kavanagh, who decided long ago that they would follow in their older brother Matt's footsteps and play lacrosse at Notre Dame. As they prepared to face Maryland in pursuit of their sec- ond straight national championship, they knew it would also be the final time they suited up together for the Irish. The Kavanaghs got dressed with their lockers next to each other, as they did on every road trip during their three years as teammates. A two-hour weather de- lay only prolonged the inevitable. "I knew in the back of my head that we weren't losing," Chris Kavanagh said. Pat Kavanagh, who won the Tewaara- ton Award as the top player in men's college lacrosse, set the program record for assists in an NCAA Tournament game with 6. Chris Kavanagh tied his own goals mark with 5. Entenmann's final game in blue and gold was a mas- terpiece, saving 16 shots and allowing only 5 goals. The Terrapins had no chance, and the Irish completed arguably the most dominant postseason in the history of the sport with a 15-5 win. Late in the afternoon, their mom, Mary Kavanagh, looked as happy as any person has ever been as Notre Dame fans gave her the "touchdown push- up" treatment during the third quarter. It's hard to blame her. Her sons were making history. "[Pat] made me a better player, better teammate and especially a better person coming out of Notre Dame," Chris Ka- vanagh said. "I can't thank him enough for everything he did for me." It wasn't just the Kavanaghs and En- tenmann, though, and they would be the first to tell you that. Seven different players — Chris Ka- vanagh, junior midfielder Will Angrick, sophomore midfielder Max Busenkell, graduate student attackman Jake Tay- lor, graduate student midfielder Devon McLane, junior midfielder Jalen Sey- mour and senior midfielder Eric Dob- son — scored Notre Dame's first seven goals. Dobson is an All-American who Corrigan said could have scored 3-4 goals each game, but didn't because it wouldn't have been best for the team. "Eric Dobson deserves a ton of credit, because his point production wasn't as high in years past, but he never forced anything," Entenmann said. "He never tried to get his own and put the team's success at risk." Defensively, senior midfielder Carter Parlette, graduate student defense- man Marco Napoli- tano and sophomore l o n g - s t i c k m i d - fielder Will Donovan led the way with 2 caused turnovers each. Even two freshmen in two-sport star midfielder Jordan Faison and defenseman Shawn Lyght came up huge as starters all season. This team's strength, Corrigan and the players believe, was its unselfish- ness. Stars like Entenmann and the Ka- vanaghs didn't care who got the credit. "That whole group of guys was so committed, that whole group of guys was so selfless and their whole approach to everything. It started with Liam and Pat, but it certainly didn't end there," Corrigan said. Such was the players' mindset during the week leading up to the Final Four, when the seniors and graduate students prac- ticed at Arlotta Stadium for the last time. Pat Kavanagh and most of the oth- ers didn't leave until an hour or two after practice each day. Even senior Mick Lee, Kavanagh recalls, the fourth-string goalie, was taking shots and running sprints well after most teams would have gone home. "I was just trying to soak in every sin- gle second of it," Pat Kavanagh said. "It was special." They didn't want their college la- crosse careers to end. But their final game was one to remember. ✦ "We realized that if we just play together and play unselfish, with the talent and character of the guys we have on our team … we're not going to lose a game [in the postseason]." ALL-AMERICAN GOALTENDER LIAM ENTENMANN