Taylor's Take: A Complete Analysis of Notre Dame vs. Boston College

There were many conference battles last week that not only entertained fans across the country, but also impacted the landscape of their future tournaments drastically.

Seeding, byes, and hosting rights for the first-round games are all up for grabs — depending on the conference’s tournament structure, of course — making every in-conference match a downright battle.

The level of play and overall intensity has picked up now that conference play has begun, and fans are reaping all of the rewards.

In this week alone:

• Syracuse gave North Carolina its worst-ever ACC loss
• Stony Brook edged out Towson in CAA action
• A-10 rivals UMass and Saint Joseph’s battled it out, with UMass winning a close one
• Cal secured a crucial victory over Oregon in Pac-12 play
• Loyola squeaked out a win against Patriot League foe Army
• Bryant handed UMBC another loss in a key America East game

With a little over a month left of the regular season, it’s really anyone’s game in each conference as well as across the national landscape. There’s so much parity among teams, and the phrase “On any given day” holds more meaning than ever before.

I truly hope that young lacrosse players across the country are tuning in and taking mental (or physical) notes of the various strategies and skills that have been on display because there have been so many learning opportunities this season, both with on-field skill and the intangible key attributes a team embodies.

In this edition of Taylor’s Takes, I’ll be breaking down the top-10 battle between Notre Dame and Boston College in hopes to help guide young players as they learn to watch film on their own. This is a game that players can watch on repeat, as they learn the tricks of some of their favorite players.

Personally, I hope we get a second rendition come ACC tournament time because the first one was as entertaining and educational as it gets!

Boston College’s offense vs. Notre Dame’s defense:

• Notre Dame’s high-pressure zone has given opponents fits. The Irish utilize heavy on-ball pressure to allow their elbow and crease players to shift quickly and prevent skip passes and inside feeds. The Irish defense plays big, meaning their sticks are always out and away from their bodies and into passing lanes — often with only one hand on their sticks. They were able to disrupt BC’s offense many times with the chaos they created. 
• Boston College was able to expose the gaps in this zone by focusing on two key aspects — cutting in layers and getting their hips to cage with “C” cuts. When teams cut in layers, the first cutter drags the defender away from their place within the zone and a second cutter fills that space to expose the hole created. The Eagles utilized that concept, particularly on the crease and at the top of the eight-meter arc, which caused major shifts in the zone and opened up shooting lanes. Their attackers (particularly Emma LoPinto and Kayla Martello) did a fantastic job of using “C” cuts to get their hips towards the cage instead of facing up field or towards the sidelines. This type of cut is crucial to helping offensive players get top-notch shooting angles.

Notre Dame’s offense vs. Boston College’s defense

• Boston College’s man-to-man scheme is incredibly versatile and has many different nuances. Some games, the Eagles will slide early. In others, they will trust their 1-v-1s on an island. Sometimes they pressure far beyond the critical scoring area, while in others they pack it in on the eight-meter arc. The Eagles are also unafraid to utilize face guards and backers when certain attackers have the ball, making it difficult to prepare for them during a game. In their game against the Irish, they chose to faceguard attacker Jackie Wolak, for the most part pack it in close to the eight-meter and send early slides to clog up space. This made it difficult for the Notre Dame offense to penetrate the inside of the arc with dodges and cuts.
• Despite the clogged middle, the Irish offense was able to find success with hard alley dodges and quick ball movement on the back side after an early slide from the Eagles. Notre Dame noticed that the middle of the scoring area was chaotic, so the Irish instead chose to attack the outside alleys (the areas from the second hash out towards the elbows) with hard dodges from the top. When BC sent an early slide, the Eagles were able to cycle the ball through X and attack the opposite elbow, which resulted in goals and shooting space calls. These quick two passes to the backside exposed the holes that result from early slides.

Boston College’s draw team vs. Notre Dame’s draw team

• This game started as a draw battle between Boston College’s Ryan Smith and Notre Dame’s Kelly Denes, both of whom are incredibly talented in the center circle. Depending on where the ball was set, they each found success with self draws and circle placement. However, after an injury to Denes in the first half, the chess match turned into one between the Eagles’ Abbey Herod and the Irish’s Arden Tierney. Herod and Smith were able to give Boston College the edge between the 30s, winning 19 of the 34 draws, but it was a truly even battle throughout. All four centers had the ability to place the ball to different locations from the same exact stance, which made them each incredibly difficult to scout prior to the game and adjust to during it.

Notre Dame’s goalie vs. Boston College’s goalie

• This game was heavily influenced by the play of the goalies. BC’s Shea Dolce came into the game as the more highly touted of the two keepers, but it was Notre Dame’s Lilly Callahan who came out victorious — both with her individual play and team’s end result. Callahan doubled up Dolce’s save count (10-5), making some huge stops in critical moments. She overall played more consistently than her counterpart. She read the Eagles’ outside shots and played her angles well with their inside “C” cuts. Dolce had a fine game overall but had a few unlucky shots slip past her after having gotten her stick, body and even helmet to deflect them. Dolce takes a lot of risks in and out of the cage, and while they usually pay off, they didn’t always in this matchup.