Men's lacrosse

Notre Dame goalie Shane Doss makes variety of stops in 12-save performance against Syracuse

Logan Reidsma | Asst. Photo Editor

Notre Dame goalie Shane Doss makes a stop to his left to deny a Syracuse shot during UND's 13-12 thrilling win.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Shane Doss saved shots standing straight up. He stopped them from his knees. And he even saved a goal between his legs, while sitting flat on the ground.

“He was terrific today,” Syracuse head coach John Desko said.

For the first 37 minutes and 58 seconds, Notre Dame’s sophomore goalie was the primary reason the Orange offense was uncharacteristically unproductive.

His variety of saves left SU with few alternatives to find the back of the net early on and until Syracuse rattled off five goals in the second half of the third quarter, the Orange only had three goals to show for 20-plus shots on net. Doss made 12 saves in total, half of the highlight-reel variety, and did just enough to help hold off No. 1 SU (7-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast) in the No. 2 Fighting Irish’s (6-1, 2-0) 13-12, double-overtime win on Saturday.

“He made the saves when he needed to,” Desko said. “They could’ve just as easily gone in.”



With Syracuse trailing 3-2 in the first quarter, Nicky Galasso ripped a low shot toward goal. Doss fell to his right knee and calmly deflected the ball to the dirt before clamping it with the back of his goalie stick.

And when Hakeem Lecky threatened to cut into a UND two-goal lead in the second quarter, it was Doss who stonewalled the SU midfielder at the near post, this time from his left knee.

“He made some good one-on-one saves,” Desko said. “We thought that he was very good low early.”

Since the Orange couldn’t find an opening below knee height on the sophomore, it changed its approach.

Tim Barber shot higher on Doss from the doorstep, but the ball landed comfortably in Doss’ stick. Dylan Donahue shot high, but the sophomore was right there to prevent the SU junior from scoring more than the seven goals he ended up having.

Desko said it was his team’s intention to change up the level of its shots, but that it didn’t work because Doss was simply able to save those, too.

“You never know what to do sometimes,” Donahue said. “Goalies can be standing on their heads and he played a hell of a game.”

And after saving Barber’s grounder from his rear end, Doss clapped to himself as he ran off the field for a timeout, and was met by a handful of teammates before he was even close to making it to the sideline.

While Doss wasn’t as effective in the latter part of the second half, it didn’t matter. Notre Dame provided just enough offense and Syracuse was unable to put the dagger in the Fighting Irish to cap off the comeback.

In the waning seconds of the first overtime, Donahue shot from just outside the crease. It would’ve been the game-winner, but after being torched by the junior for a quarter and a half until then, Doss came up with his biggest save of the day, halting the last real chance SU had before Notre Dame won the game just minutes later.

Said Desko: “Their goalie came up big and as a result, Notre Dame made a quick play to win the game.”





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