On the biggest stage of the year the Fighting Irish hope to be the first unseeded team to reach the Finals since the Delaware Blue Hens did it back in 2007. Coming into the game Notre Dame is 9-6 during the regular season and have beat both Princeton and Maryland in route to there 2nd ever NCAA semi-final appearance. The Notre Dame defense has been a bog key along with Sr. goalie Scott Rodgers holding both teams to five goals. So. Sean Rodgers had three goals to help lead the Fighting Irish offense.

Cornell comes into the game with a 12-5 record and having made the last three of four final fours losing to Syracuse last year in the NCAA finals. The Big Red lead by head coach Jeff Tambroni look to make their second straight finals appearance and move to (6-0) overall against Notre Dame. The last time these two schools met in 2007 with Cornell winning the game 13-8.  The Big Red are led by So. Attackman Rob Panell who has 29 goals and 49 assists on the season. Pannell comes into the game having earned the Division I attackman of the year award for 2010. He becomes the fourth player from Cornell to win the Turnball Award. Cornell had to beat both Loyola and Army to get to the Semi-Finals no easy task for any team.

It took less than two minutes into the game for Cornell to get on the board. So. Midfielder Roy Lang scores his first goal in the game with an assist from Jr. Midfielder David Lau. It wasn’t till three minutes left in the first that So. Attackman Sean Rogers got the fighting Irish on the board tying the game at 1-1.   Sean Rogers continuing his tear in the playoffs now has four goals in his last two games. Notre Dame would finish the quarter going on a 3-0 run with the two other goals scored by Neal Hicks and Adam Felicett with six seconds remaining in the 1st quarter. At the end of the first quarter Notre Dame would hold a 3-1 lead.

Notre Dame Jr. Midfielder Zach Brenneman gets his first goal in the game beating 3 Cornell players in the middle of the field on a nice swim dodge. With a little less than thirteen minutes left in the second Fr. Attackman Steve Moch with an assist from Rob Pannell would end a fifteen minute scoreless streak, ending a four goal run by Notre Dame. Moch’s goal would pull the Big Red within two goals of the Fighting Irish at 4-2. Zach Brenneman with the extra-man goal his second of the game and his second in the quarter would give the Irish a three goal lead at 5-2. Brenneman has been fairly quiet in the tournament is having a breakout game. The last time he was here at M&T Stadium early in the season against Loyola, Brenneman had three goals in the win.  Cornell’s Steve Moch would grab his second goal of the game to pull the Big Red back within 2 goals. Notre Dame would end the half with a goal scored by Neal Hicks his second on the game to put the Irish up 6-3 going into the half.

At the start of the third quarter Notre Dame’s Zach Brenneman would pick things up scoring his third goal of the game. With that goal he would record his fifth hat-trick on the season and put the Irish up 7-3. Cornell and Steve Moch would quickly respond with his third goal in the game pulling the Big Red back to within three goals. This is Moch’s fourth game with three or more goals scored this season. The deficit would be cut to two the closest the Big Red would get on this day with a goal scored by Ross Gillum his first on the game. Notre Dame would build the lead back up to three goals taking a 8-5 lead into the fourth quarter on a goal scored by Neal Hicks his third on the game. The three goals would tie a season high.

The fourth quarter would be all Notre Dame. Neal Hicks would get his fourth goal of the game representing a career high he set against Penn State in 2009.  The Irish would take a 11-6 lead with a little over four minutes to go in the game. Cornell’s Ryan Hurley would add his second goal of the game, but Notre Dame’s Scott Rodgers and his defense would be too much for the Big Red this afternoon as Notre Dame advances to their first ever  NCAA Championship. This loss would is the worst loss in the NCAA tournament for the Big Red since the 2006 loss to OSU 15-7.  Scott Rodgers ended the game with 16 saves and is name the Maryland Sports Insider player of the game. Notre Dame will go on to face the winner of the Duke vs. Virginia game. The Championship game will be held Monday at M&T Bank Stadium.

Story by Bryan Bartram