Notre Dame overpowers Denver, advances to NCAA men’s lacrosse championship at the Linc

The Fighting Irish will play the winner of Saturday’s second semifinal between Maryland and Virginia, with an opportunity to defend their 2023 title.

Notre Dame attackman Chris Kavanagh (left) celebrates with midfielder Will Angrick (center) and attackman Pat Kavanagh (51), his older brother.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Lochlahn March

Published May 25, 2024, 4:26 p.m. ET

The Kavanagh brothers like playing at the Linc.

Lincoln Financial Field was where Chris and Pat Kavanagh, both attackmen for Notre Dame lacrosse, won the program’s first NCAA championship a year ago. They returned to Philadelphia with the Fighting Irish for this year’s Final Four, and it’s where they again prevailed with a 13-6 win over Denver in Saturday’s semifinal round.

Both brothers scored hat tricks to help send Notre Dame (15-1) to the championship game against Maryland on Monday (1 p.m., ESPN).

“We have a tight group in the locker room,” Chris Kavanagh said. “We’re best friends off the field, so it kind of resonates on the field. ... No one really cares who scores, as long as we got a W at the end of the day.”

Denver midfielder Richie Connell got the scoring started, but the Kavanagh brothers didn’t allow the Pioneers to build much momentum. Chris, a junior, and Pat, a graduate student, combined for three goals in the first quarter to give Notre Dame the lead.

The brothers added a clip to their joint highlight reel at the end of the opening frame, when Pat found Chris with a pass near Denver’s net. Chris cut in with the ball, and, while airborne, flipped it over his back and past Denver goalie Malcolm Kleban.

The Kavanaghs connected again in the fourth quarter, this time with Chris assisting on Pat’s third goal of the game. It marked the 42nd time in their careers that one Kavanagh has picked up the assist on the other’s goal.

“They both are committed to excellence in the sense that they want to be great players, and they put in the work to be great players, they don’t just hope it comes to them,” Notre Dame coach Kevin Corrigan said of the brothers. “They never put themselves apart in any way ... they’re as happy for any guy on the team as they are for their brother, and vice versa.”

Denver (13-4) didn’t go away quietly. The Pioneers scored two goals in quick succession to tie things up in the second quarter, but they were ultimately overwhelmed by the Fighting Irish, who boast the top-scoring offense in the nation.

“They’ve got some great individual players. They do move off the ball extremely well,” Denver coach Matt Brown said. “I thought we did a pretty good job in a lot of possessions of handling them. But if you have a slip where you have a fall or you fan off on the ground ball, they pick it up in those scramble situations. That’s when they’re deadly.”

The Fighting Irish also dominated the faceoff battle, with Will Lynch winning 18 out of 23 faceoffs. Lynch also picked up eight ground balls.

Notre Dame created more separation in the final frame, scoring three goals in 62 seconds to bring their advantage to six. The Irish spread the wealth around, with seven players finding the back of the net at least once on Saturday. Graduate midfielder Devon McLane had a hat trick, joining Chris and Pat Kavanagh with three goals.

Garnet Valley’s Max Busenkell, seeing action on the field at the Linc for the first time, finished with two shots for the Irish.