Very Few Things In Life Are Nastier Than This Jake Taylor Shot To Help Send Notre Dame To The National Championship
Larry French. Getty Images.Virginia is a team that has won 2 out of the previous 3 National Championships in college lacrosse. When they scored with just under a minute to go in regulation, it looked like they were well on their way to playing for their 3rd title in 4 seasons. The celebration was on and it seemed like they were about to wrap up their 3rd straight win over Notre Dame this season.
But it's hard to beat a team 3 times in the same year. And when Notre Dame won the ensuing faceoff and called timeout with just over 40 seconds to go in the game, Virginia would learn how hard it would be. Because that's when the ball ended up in Jake Taylor's stick, and that's when we saw one of the nastiest twisters there ever was.
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Holy shit what a rip.
I really hope this is a shot that the general public can appreciate its nastiness. I honestly don't know if it's one of those things where you have to have played lacrosse before to really appreciate how insane that was. I mean we see crosshand finishes all the time in tight right around the crease. But to pull up from close to 10 yards out and get THAT much velocity on a crosshand shot from that range? It's insanity.
Hell, it's insanity to even think about doing it. And in all actuality, I'd imagine Jake Taylor didn't even think about it. The shot is all instinct and all feel for the game. Jake Taylor wasn't even supposed to get this ball when the Irish came out of that timeout. He realized at the last second that he had the other short-stick defender on him to go set that pick for Tevlin at the top of the box. He slips the pick, opens up, soaks some contact, rolls out of it and unleashes a twister for the ages. All with the season on the line. That's a bad, bad man right there.
But obviously that goal means nothing if Notre Dame doesn't get the job done in overtime. It was a sick goal for sure, but we'd hardly remember it if Virginia went on to win in overtime and have a chance to play on Memorial Day for the 3rd time in 4 years. Luckily for the Irish, they don't have to worry about that. Because on the first possession of overtime, Brian Tevlin delivered this dagger to send Notre Dame to the National Championship game for the first time since 2014 (when they lost to Duke).
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2014 was the first time Notre Dame had played in the National Championship since 2010, when they lost to Duke. And in 2023, Notre Dame is now off to play in the National Championship for the 3rd time in program history. Where once again, they'll be playing Duke (thanks to the botch job of the century on the overtime winning no-call)
We recapped the Taylor Twister, the controversial ending in Duke vs Penn State, and everything else you might have missed on this episode of The Crease Dive. So go ahead and give it a listen before Monday afternoon's championship game.