What a road it has been to the final day of the 2010 NCAA lacrosse tournament. It is the first time since 1973 that a brand new champion will be crowned. Neither school has won an NCAA championship in lacrosse. Duke has been here three times in their history and is the second time under Coach John Danowski. The Fighting Irish are making their first appearance in the title game. This game marks the eighth time these two schools have squared off including once all ready this season. Duke had won the first five games against Notre Dame. But in recent years the Notre Dame beat Duke in the last two meetings, including early in the 2010 season by a score of 11-7. The Fighting Irish have been an ACC giant killer beating both Maryland and Duke; no other team can claim that right.

Notre Dame’s Zach Brenneman got the game started with a goal less than a minute into the game giving the Irish the 1-0 lead early. Duke would then answer with 2 goals in less than forty seconds by Zach Howell and Steve Schoeffel. Howell’s first goal gives him 50 goals on the season marking the 9th time in school history that a player has scored fifty goals or more. It is also the 2nd time in school history that two or more players had fifty goals, the last time being in 2008 when Max Quinzani and Zach Greer did it. Notre Dame would answer the Duke pair of goals with a tying goal by Zach Brenneman giving him his second goal on the game and notching the score at two goals a piece going into the second quarter.

The second quarter would be dominated by both defenses with Notre Dame only giving up one goal to Duke’s Steve Schoeffel his second in the game giving the Blue Devils the 3-2 lead going into the half. The lone goal in the quarter marked the second lowest goals scored in a quarter since the 1980 Johns Hopkins versus Virginia championship game. The five goals in the first half also ties an NCAA record for fewest goals scored in a half since the 1982 North Carolina versus Johns Hopkins championship game.

Coming out of the half Notre Dame’ David Earl got his first goal of the game to tie it up at 3-3. Zach Howell of Duke would recapture the lead with his second goal of the game. With a little over one minute to go on the quarter Notre Dame’s Zach Brenneman would get his third goal of the game to help tie the score back up at 4-4. The eight combined goals by three quarters would be the lowest in NCAA history eclipsing the 10 scored by North Carolina and Johns Hopkins in the 1980 championship game.

Both defenses and goalies playing tremendous ball up to this point in the fourth, the question would be who would break first? Notre Dame’s Scott Rogers would grab his first goal on the game to give the Irish their first lead in the game since the opening minute. A few minutes later Justin Turri of Duke would find the five hole on Rodgers and score his first of the game tying the score at five goals a piece. It would only be fitting that this game goes into overtime, both teams deserving of their first ever NCAA championship. This would mark the 10th time in NCAA history that the title game would see overtime, the last coming last year in the Syracuse versus Cornell finally. Duke long pole defender CJ Costabile would score the game winner his first in the game and his second in the tournament. It would mark the fastest goal scored in overtime, only taking him five seconds to score off the face-off. The 6-5 score would also be the lowest ever scoring game in NCAA history beating out the twelve goals scored by Hopkins and Carolina in the 1982 championship game. With this Duke win it is the first NCAA title for the Duke Lacrosse program and the 12th overall title in school history in all sports. The last time we had a brand new champion crowned was in 1992 when Princeton won its first in school history. A great game played by both teams, Notre Dame should go home with their heads held high since no one including me thought they would make it this far. Notre Dame’s goalie Scott Rodgers is named the 2010 Tournament MVP. Rodgers is the first player since 1996 to win this award from the losing team.  He was magnificent with the cat like reflexes; we will see him and a few others from this game in a week when the 2010 MLL draft takes place.

2010 NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse All-Tournament Team:

LSM-CJ Costabile Duke
A-Zach Howell Duke
A-Max Quinzanni Duke
A-Chris Bocklet Virginia
A-Steele Stanwick Virginia
A-Steve Mock Cornell
M-Mike Manley Duke
M-Zach Brenneman Notre Dame
D-Kevin Ridgway Notre Dame
G-Scott Rodger (MVP of Tournamanet)

Story by Bryan Bartram