NOTRE DAME, Ind. – A Peter Christman (Simsbury, Conn./Westminster School) goal with 1:28 left in the first overtime period gave No. 5 Notre Dame an 8-7 victory over No. 10 Colgate in NCAA Tournament first-round play at a rainy Alumni Field on Sunday afternoon. The sixth-seeded Fighting Irish will now play in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals for the fourth time in program history.

Notre Dame (14-2) will take on either Syracuse or Canisius next Sunday (May 18) in the NCAA quarterfinals in Ithaca, N.Y. The Orange and Griffins will play their first-round contest this evening at 7:30 p.m. (ET) in Syracuse, N.Y.

“Anytime you win in the tournament it means you've survived to play another day,” said Notre Dame head coach Kevin Corrigan. “The goal is to survive. You'd love to play well and play brilliantly and beautifully and all that. I don't think we did any of that today. I thought we played very gutsy and I thought we battled. I don't think we played that well, but it doesn't matter. The important thing in the tournament is to win.”

The Fighting Irish, who used eight different goalscorers, never led in the game until Christman's goal found the back of the net to give Notre Dame its first victory in the NCAA Tournament since the 2001 quarterfinals. The victory also brings the program-record home win streak to 19 games for the Irish. Notre Dame has now won a season-best seven straight games overall.

Colgate (11-6) jumped out on top with a goal from Matt Lalli with just under two minutes gone by in the contest. The Irish responded on a goal from Ryan Hoff (Baldwin, Md./Dulaney), with the assist going to Alex Wharton (Baltimore, Md./Gilman), with four-and-a-half minutes to go in the opening period. The Raiders went ahead 3-1 by the end of the quarter on scores from Kevin Colleluori and Brandon Corp.

Notre Dame, who was hosting an NCAA Tournament game for the first time, sliced the lead to one (3-2) as Dan Gibson (Germantown, Tenn./Memphis University School) assisted on a Zach Brenneman (East Hampton, N.Y./East Hampton) goal. However, Colgate struck back with tallies from Ian Murphy and Zack Craumer to take a 5-2 lead into halftime.

The Irish began the second-half scoring with unassisted goals from Grant Krebs (Annapolis, Md./St. Mary's) and Adam Felicetti (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks East) to make it a 5-4 contest in favor of the Raiders with 4:57 remaining in the third quarter. Colgate got its advantage back up to two (6-4) on a man-up score from Joshua Back.

The Raiders led 6-4 after three periods of play, yet Notre Dame would score four of the game's next five goals to take the victory.

Wharton began the final surge for the Irish with a man-up tally with 11:21 left in regulation. It would be nearly seven minutes until the next goal was scored and that came from Colgate's Colleluori to give the Raiders a 7-5 lead.

Notre Dame upped the defensive pressure and Neal Hicks (Atlanta, Ga./Lovett School) scooped up a ground ball off a failed Raider clear and scored with 3:45 showing on the clock. Michael Podgajny (Ridley Park, Pa./Ridley) would net the equalizer with 1:29 left in regulation.

Colgate gained possession first in overtime and it looked as though the Raiders were going to pull the upset as Craumer had a good look from close range, yet Irish goaltender Joey Kemp (Potomac, Md./Georgetown Prep) made a huge save to keep the Notre Dame season alive.

“We have a ton of faith in our goalie Joey (Kemp) and our defense because they've been unbelievable all season long,” added Christman, a midfielder. “We're confident in our offense and I don't think we ever feel like we're out of a game even when it may have appeared the wind had been taken out of our sails when we were down 7-5. You have to have faith and I think we had that until the final whistle.”

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2008-05-11