Notre Dame must contain assist wizard Crotty in final
BALTIMORE - It's been a feeding frenzy in the NCAA Tournament for Duke senior attack Ned Crotty.
The nation's top feeder with 62 assists has been sizzling during May Madness, with 11 assists in three tournament games. But never did Crotty serve a more appetizing dish than Saturday night in the final seconds of the Duke-Virginia prime-time semifinal shootout.
The score was tied at 13 and a crowd of 44,389 at M&T Bank Stadium roared in anticipation as Crotty circled behind the goal. Which ACC power would face upstart Notre Dame in today's championship game? Would it be Duke, which like the Irish has never won a national title in men's lacrosse? Or would Virginia's emotion-wracked journey continue?
Crotty supplied the answer. He couldn't deceive cagey goalie Adam Ghitelman of Cold Spring Harbor with a dodge, so Crotty's eyes began darting. Not surprisingly, he found his favorite target, Max Quinzani, the nation's top goal-scorer.
"I like throwing to Max and saw him make a cut," Crotty said. "I locked eyes with Max, threw it behind the guy's head and Max was there just in time and stuck it."
Quinzani's fourth goal of the game, and 68th of the season, with 12 seconds left put Duke in the final against the Fighting Irish, who beat the Blue Devils, 11-7, back on Feb. 20.
"We've been saying that Duke is so good, they got themselves in the tournament and they got us in the tournament," joked Notre Dame coach Kevin Corrigan, whose team was only 7-6 in the regular season and needed that quality winter win to earn an at-large berth.
The Crotty factor was definitely on the mind of Notre Dame goalie Scott Rodgers of MacArthur. Rodgers was spectacular in the Irish's 12-7 victory over Cornell on Saturday, making 10 of his 16 saves in a frantic first half. Rodgers got to know Crotty when they played together as high school seniors in the Under Armour All-American Classic.
"The toughest part about playing against Ned is that he's a nice guy," Rodgers said. "You don't get any bad vibes off of him. He doesn't make you angry out there. He makes all the feeds in the world."
Rodgers has made all the saves in the world in this tournament, and coupled with Notre Dame's slow-it-down defensive style, presents a serious tactical problem for the run-and-gun Blue Devils.
"It's going to be a tough matchup because their defense is firing on all cylinders right now," said Duke's Zach Howell of Huntington, the third member of the nation's No. 1 attack unit. "They want to play us in the box; they want to pack it in and try to put it on their goalie to see our shots. Other teams have tried but haven't been able to accomplish that."
If Crotty feasts Monday, the Irish famine will likely continue.
