Notre Dame lacrosse rolls late in quarterfinal win over Johns Hopkins

SOUTH BEND — For the third time in four years, Notre Dame lacrosse is headed back to Championship Weekend.

Josh Yago had seven points on four goals and three assists and Matt Jeffery added three assists for the Irish in a 15-9 quarterfinal win over unseeded Johns Hopkins on Saturday May 16 in Hempstead, N.Y.

The second-seeded Irish (12-2) will face the Syracuse-North Carolina winner on Saturday May 23 in the national semifinals in Charlottesville, Va. Notre Dame, seeking its third NCAA Tournament title in four years, owns regular-season wins over both teams this year.

Knotted at six after 30 minutes with both teams slipping often on the slick playing surface, Notre Dame took command in the third period. Three goals in the opening 4:35 after the break knocked the upstart Blue Jays (10-6) onto their heels.

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Losing sophomore midfielder Reese DiCicco to a right wrist injury early in the second seemed to take an immediate effect on the Hopkins defense.

Yago, the Air Force graduate transfer, got the rally started. He used a Will Angrick pick and blasted in a left-handed shot on the move with 12:33 left in the third.

Brock Behrman gave the Irish their first two-goal lead of the day, using a Yago assist a little over one minute later, and Jeffery pushed the lead to three with a lefty blast of his own.

Overcoming the quarterfinal hurdle

The NCAA quarterfinal round had been Notre Dame’s relative bugaboo over the past decade and a half.

Since 2011, the Irish entered Saturday just 5-7 in the quarterfinal round, including last year’s second-half collapse against Penn State. The Nittany Lions wiped out a six-goal deficit with eight unanswered scores down the stretch to end the Irish’s lengthy reign.