Notre Dame Lacrosse: Midfielder Sergio Perkovic Becomes Irish’s Highest Draft Pick

Former Notre Dame midfielder Sergio Perkovic will continue his lacrosse career in Boston, after the Bloomington Hills, Mich. native became the 2nd overall pick in the Major League Lacrosse’s annual draft.

Perkovic, dubbed the “Motor City Hitman,” is the Irish’s most decorated player, having been a three-time first team All-American, a team captain, a five-time ACC Offensive Player of the Week and the most prolific goal scorer among Irish midfielders ever.

The Boston Cannons, his new team, are currently in sixth place in the MLL standings, at 2-3. They’ll host the Denver Outlaws on Saturday, and Perkovic is eligible to play immediately.

The Atlanta Blaze, the league’s newest francise — and worst this year — picked former Irish defenseman Garrett Epple with the No. 18 pick overall in the draft’s second round. Epple was himself a first-team All-American following his senior season.

The professional lacrosse league has played games since 2001, but is still fledgling. Most players earn between $10,000 and $25,000 per season and hold other jobs to make ends meet.

More on the draft here.

TWO IRISH WOMEN PICKED IN PRO LACROSSE DRAFT

The Long Island Sound, champions of the United Women’s Lacrosse League’s inaugural season, selected former Notre Dame attack Cortney Fortunato and midfielder Casey Pearsall in the professional league’s draft last month.

On Saturday, the pair were helping the Sound open its season with a 14-6 win over the Baltimore Ride. Fortunato had two goals (perhaps more — it’s hard to get exact stats) and Pearsall started.

Long Island will next play the Philadelphia Force, which lost its first game, at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at New Canaan High School in New Canaan, Connecticut.

NEW IRISH GAME ON YOUTUBE

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish were 4-5 heading into a Nov. 15, 1997 matchup in Death Valley against the 11th-ranked LSU Tigers.

What transpired was a near perfect game: no penalties, no turnovers and a defense that held All-American Kevin Faulk to 109 yards on 26 carries.

The Irish would lose a rematch to the Tigers in the Independence Bowl. So if you’re to watch one Notre Dame-LSU game from 1997, be sure to make it this one.

REPORT: ZAIRE CHOOSES FLORIDA

This sort of report is entering “man bites dog” territory, since the Florida Gators have been former Irish quarterback Malik Zaire’s preference for months. The only reason he would have put himself at a competitive disadvantage by skipping spring football is because he needed to wait and see if the SEC would relax its transfer rule and allow the Gators to add him.

The SEC spring meetings start soon, so I guess we’ll know for certain soon. As Alex Kirshner notes, the Gators will need some of its rivals to vote for relaxing the rule. Will they do that when they know Zaire could disrupt the SEC East race?