PHILADELPHIA — Liam Entenmann made a season-high 18 saves and Brian Tevlin scored a go-ahead goal with 27 seconds left in the third quarter to help Notre Dame claim its first men’s lacrosse national title with a 13-9 victory over Duke on Monday.
Third-seeded Notre Dame (14-2) had lost in its previous two championship game appearances in 2010 and 2014 — both to Duke. The top-seeded Blue Devils (16-3) were playing in their seventh national championship game in program history.
Entenmann made eight saves on nine shots on goal in the first half as Notre Dame cruised to a 6-1 lead after scoring six unanswered goals — from six different players. After scoring 35 seconds into the game, Duke was held scoreless for the final 29:25 of the first half.
Duke was 1-for-24 shooting in the first half but opened the second going 4-for-6 to get within 6-5. Charles Balsamo knotted it at 7-all 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 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.”
Notre Dame held Duke to its lowest-scoring game of the season. Leading scorers Brennan O’Neill and Dyson Williams had one goal apiece. Williams became the fifth Duke player with 60-plus goals in a season.
Tevlin and Garrett Leadmon, of Duke, each scored game-winning goals in the semifinals before scoring the opening goals for their teams in the title game in front of an announced crowd of 30,462 at Lincoln Financial Field.
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