BearLaxTraxFax by John Nichols 03.11.2020

BLTF 030920

D-I

Two Ivy League teams, Brown and Cornell, got revenge on their former coaches with wins over Virginia and Penn State, respectively.  St. Joe’s split their games in the Philly 4 (as did the other three teams) this weekend and were tied with Drexel for fewest goals allowed.  Virus concerns caused another game to be postponed.

BEARS VS. BEARS

Navy (Thomas Evans, Shane Corcoran) 16

Colgate (Griffin Brown) 14

Navy evened their record in Patriot League play while Colgate fell to 0-2 in conference play.  Colgate used a run for four straight goals to take a 5-2 lead early in the second period but the Midshipmen strung together runs of three and four goals in the second period and were up by one at the half.  Navy scored the first goal of the second half and after that Colgate could get to within one goal of Navy, but the Middies always found the answer.  Although Colgate outshot Navy, the Navy goalie’s fifteen saves kept the Raiders at bay.

Griffin had four goals on sixteen shots (Keep Shooting!) and scooped up two ground balls.  Thomas corralled three ground balls for Navy.  Griffin is Colgate’s leader in goals and points.

OTHER GAMES

Army (Drennan Greene) 15

Binghamton 10

The Black Knights closed out first period scoring with a pair of goals then opened the second with three straight scores—all in a five goal run that gave them the lead that would hold up.  They augmented that run with one of four goals in the second half.  Things tightened a bit when Binghamton answered with four of their own, but Army closed out the win the game’s final two scores.

Army (Drennan Greene) 16

Lafayette 8

Army improved their Patriot League record to 2-0 by burying Lafayette with an onslaught of goals—twelve goals in a bit over twenty minutes.  Lafayette had a small run in them, but nowhere near enough to challenge Army’s lead.

Bucknell (Colin O’Brien) ppd

Boston U.

Illness among several Boston U. players led to this game being postponed.  A new date for the contest has not yet been announced.

Cleveland State 9 (Justin Connor)

Bellarmine 8

The Vikings picked up their second win of the season after withstanding a late game rally from Bellarmine.  Cleveland State got the lead in the second period and held it to the end, turning away two Bellarmine scoring opportunities in the closing minutes of the game.

Dartmouth (Brendon Gallagher, Brett Gallagher) 8

Vermont 9

It seems that my note last week about Dartmouth’s 3-0 start being their best start since 2006 may have been a bit of a jinx.  Most of the offense in this game occurred in the first half with the teams locked up at six all at the half.  The Catamounts scored three times before Big Green got their first goal of the second half but Dartmouth pulled within one of Vermont with three minutes left in regulation.  After Dartmouth missed on a pair of shots in the closing minutes, Vermont was able to run out the clock, aided by a pair of penalties against Big Green.

Furman (Michael Abizaid) 11

North Carolina 18

This game got off to a bit of a plodding start with North Carolina leading 9-6 after three quarters.  Things came alive in the final period, with nearly half of the game’s goals being scored in the final frame.  The Paladins closed out the scoring with a quick set of four goals scored in two minutes and six seconds of playing time.

Jacksonville (Hunter Sells, Andrew Mitchell) 18

Hampton 1

Hampton, an HBCU located in Hampton, Virginia is in their fifth year of D-I men’s lacrosse. The team plays a schedule that is a mix of D-I, D-II, and D-III opponents and has been progressive upping their exposure to other D-I programs.  With respect to wins and losses, it has been a struggle, but they persevere in the face of the challenge.  In this game, Jacksonville was up 3-0 after the first quarter but Hampton opened the second quarter with a score.  From there on out is was all Jacksonville.

Hunter played the first three quarters of the gaming, giving up one goal while making three saves.  Andrew had one ground ball and one caused turn over.

Hunter corralling the ball

 Andrew tracking down a ground ball

Johns Hopkins (Joey Epstein) 9

Syracuse 15

Syracuse went on a goal-a-minute tear in the first quarter, scoring seven times in eight minutes and fourteen seconds.  Another run of four straight by the Orange (the last two of the second quarter and first two of the third) put the game out of reach.

Joey had one assist and put three of his four shots on goal.

Loyola (Cam James) 10

Duke 13

The Greyhounds saw their four game win streak snapped by the Blue Devils.  Duke took control of the game early—racing out to an 8-0 lead in the first half.  In the second half, Loyola put together a four goal run that shrunk Duke’s lead down to three, but Duke quickly ran their lead back out to six with their set of scores.  Loyola again got to within three of the Blue Devils, but time expired before they could complete the comeback.

Cam saw playing time in this game.

Maryland (Justin Shockey, John Geppert, Matthew Kopp) 14

Albany 13.

Justin gave Maryland a steep advantage by winning twenty-three of the game’s thirty faceoffs. Still, the Danes stayed close and pressed the Terrapins with a fourth quarter rally.  The last of Albany’s five fourth-quarter goals came with a bit over two minutes left in regulation.  As was the case for much of the day, Justin won the ensuing faceoff and Maryland was able to run off most, but not all, of the remaining time in the fourth quarter.  Albany got the ball back with a minute showing on the clock, but failed to get off a shot before turning the ball over.

In addition to providing faceoff dominance, Justin had a game high nine ground balls.  Although not in the starting lineup this week, John took two shots, contributed one assist and had one caused turnover.

Michigan (Zach Johnson) 11

Yale 17

After Michigan got the first goal of the game, Yale went on a tear of six consecutive scores in just over seven minutes of game time.  Undaunted, the Wolverines strung together five scores in a row to tie the game up at six all midway through the second quarter.  In the second half the teams traded small runs and Yale led by two in the middle of the fourth quarter.  The Eli’s got the game’s last run, scoring the final four goals of regulation.

Penn State (Nate Buller) 17

Cornell 18

Cornell won the first half, Penn State won the second half (well, almost all of the second half) but Big Red won the final 20 seconds by scoring a pair of goals to flip the scoreboard in their favor.  Both teams had big scoring runs—ten straight for Cornell in the first half, eight straight for the Nittany Lions in the second. Each team’s period of scoring dominance was reflected in faceoff wins, ground balls and shooting.

Nate took one shot for Penn State and got to three ground balls.

Richmond (Will Bou) 14

Mount St. Mary’s 7

The Spiders broke away from Mount St. Mary’s in the game’s final period.  The teams had swapped leads and been tied twice, but when Richmond scored with just five seconds left in the third period, the game turned in their favor.  That goal extended their lead to two at the end of three quarters.  Over the balanced of regulation, Richmond converted six goals and only allowed one for the Mount.

Will was 0-2 on his faceoffs.

Richmond (Will Bou) 17

VMI 4

Richmond easily handled the VMI Keydets in their first Southern Conference game.  VMI tied the score at one all a bit over four minutes into the game and then the Spiders shut them out for 34 minutes while scoring twelve times during that span.

Will won one of his seven faceoffs.

St. Joseph’s (Thomas Halm) 10

Drexel 9

St. Joe’s, along with Penn, Drexel and Villanova, played in the second Philly Four Lacrosse Classic.  St. Joe’s led by one at the half, but that lead was wiped out when Drexel put up two scores to start the third period.  The Mountain Hawk’s three goal run that followed put them back in the lead for good.  In the fourth quarter, the teams traded scores, with Drexel pulling within one with three and a half minutes left in the game.  Drexel had three possession in the closing minutes, but couldn’t get anything past the St. Joe’s goalie.

St. Joseph’s (Thomas Halm) 12

Penn 13

St. Joseph’s and Penn traded goals in pairs for most of the first half, but a late scoring surge by the Quakers gave them a three goal lead at the half.  The Hawks tied the game up midway through the third period only to see Penn go up by two, again.  A run of three St. Joe’s goals in the fourth quarter put them in the lead for the first time.  However, Penn scored off the faceoff to tie things up then got the lead for good with a follow up score with just 48 seconds left in the game.  Penn was hit with a delay of game penalty on the last faceoff, but the best St. Joe’s could do was hit a post.

Towson (Mo Sillah) 5

UMBC 10

The Tigers, winless this year, had a chance to end their streak when they had a 5-3 lead with ten minutes left in the third quarter.  Unfortunately, the Retrievers did all of the scoring after that with seven consecutive goals, the first six scored in five minutes of playing time.

Mohad three ground balls and one caused turnover.

Towson (Mo Sillah) 4

Georgetown 16

Georgetown scored the game’s first six goals and the last four goals.  That was a problem for the Tigers who managed to score just one goal in each quarter.

Mohad two ground balls and four caused turnovers.

Virginia (Ryan Pride) 13

Brown 14

Last year in Charlottesville, UVA had to rally late to force overtime and win against the Brown Bears.  This year in Providence, the score remained the same (at least with respect to home team and visitors’ scores), but it was Brown that rallied to take the win after Virginia jumped out to an early lead.  Up by one with less than a minute to go Brown was running down the clock when the Bear carrying the ball broke through a double team and dumped the ball into an empty goal.  That put Brown up by two, but also gave UVA a chance to get the ball back, which they did and quickly cut their deficit back down to one.  The ‘Hoos won the next faceoff but turned the ball over and that was the game.

POLLS

THIS COMING WEEK

We are back to a heavy slate of Bears vs. Bearsgames as:

Furman (Michael Abizaid) takes on Penn State (Nate Buller)

Bucknell (Colin O’Brien) travels to Loyola (Cam James) for a Patriot League game

Johns Hopkins (Joey Epstein) plays Navy (Thomas Evans, Shane Corcoran)

Virginia (Ryan Pride) and Maryland (Justin Shockey, John Geppert, Matthew Kopp) meet in College Park

DIII

NESCAC has cancelled their spring sports

Tufts jumps up in the polls and Colorado College is getting some recognition from their lopsided wins.

BEARS VS. BEARS

Salisbury (Brian Menendez, Jace Menendez) 22

Ohio Wesleyan (Guy King) 4

If you don’t let the other team have the ball, then they can’t shoot, and if they can’t shoot, then they can’t score.  That was pretty much Salisbury’s approach to this game.  The Gulls won 27 of the game’s 29 faceoffs and allowed Ohio Wesleyan so few shots that even if the Bishops had converted on every shot, they still would have lost by three goals.

Both Brian and Jace played in this game with Jace scoring two goals and getting to two ground balls.

OTHER GAMES

Colby (Miles Tonkel) 27

Husson 3

The Mules owned the middle of this game, scoring seventeen straight goals in thirty minutes of playing time, all of the powered by faceoff and ground ball dominance.

Miles took six shots, all on goal, and put two of them past the goalie.

Colby (Miles Tonkel) 5

Williams 19

Back in NESCAC play, things were a bit tougher for the White Mules.  Single goals by Colby were sandwiched in between Williams runs of five, seven, and four goals.

Miles put one shot on goal.

Colorado College (Max Becker) 17

Otterbein 6

Early on Otterbein could stop short runs of two or three goals by Colorado College, but they weren’t able to slow the Tigers down in the early minutes of the second period when Colorado College scored six in a row.

Maxhad one ground ball

Colorado College (Max Becker) 20

Haverford 3

After Haverford went up 2-1 early in the contest, Colorado College shut them down.  For the next 47 minutes (the equivalent of three full quarters plus) the Tigers closed the door on Haverford while picking up sixteen goals.  By the time Haverford scored again there were less than ten minutes remaining in the game.  The Tigers got the last three goals of the game to complete the rout.  Jack Murdock accounted for one of the final three scores.

Maxplayed in this game.

Gettysburg (Mitch Laughlin, Billy Banfield) 7  OT

York 6

The Bullet’s goalie decided this game, saving 23 of the 29 shots that York put on goal.  A series of fortunate events ultimately led to Gettysburg winning the game.  With the scored tied at six-all and time ticking down a shot by York hit a pipe (#1), which resulted in a ground ball that Gettysburg got to first (#2), which eventually led to pushing foul against York with ten seconds left in regulation (#3) which meant that Gettysburg started overtime with the ball—no faceoff risk (#4).  The Bullets converted that good fortune into the winning goal as the possession clock approaching zero.

Gettysburg (Mitch Laughlin, Billy Banfield) 12

Widener 10

This game was tied five times, the last tie coming with ten minutes left in the game.  Again, it was Gettysburg’s late game heroics that captured the win.  The Bullets got a pair of scores in the last minute and a half and held off Widener’s man-up opportunity over the game’s last thirty seconds.

Oberlin (Farley Price) 12

Hope College 17

Oberlin took a 3-1 lead late in the first period, but Hope hit the gas in the second period, scoring six goals in three and a half minutes to get back the lead.  Hope was able to hold off Oberlin over the balance of the game as the Yeomen coming no closer than within two after that run.

Ohio Wesleyan (Guy King) 18

Westminster 3

The Battlin’ Bishops held Westminster scoreless until there were just shy of six minutes left in the game.  Ohio Wesleyan benefited from 2:1 advantages in faceoff wins and ground balls and a 3:1 advantage in shots on goal.

Guygot the first goal of his NCAA career on a man-up opportunity in the fourth quarter.

Salisbury (Brian Menendez, Jace Menendez) 14

Stevens 8

Stevens closed out the first half with three straight scores to take a 6-3 lead into the locker room.  Stevens extended their lead to four goals in the first five minutes of the third quarter, but after that it was all Seagulls who closed out the game with a string of three unanswered goals.

Tufts (Kyle Amitay, Garrett Kurtz) 25

Springfield 6

Tufts had put the ball into the cage twenty times before Springfield recorded their first goal of the game.

Garrett had one assist for the Jumbos.

Tufts (Kyle Amitay, Garrett Kurtz) 25

Amherst 15

The pachyderm showdown: Jumbos versus Mammoths, 2020 edition.  Amherst entered the game ranked #2 in country and Tufts #5, but it was the Tufts Jumbos that proved to be the better team.  Very much in the tradition of Tufts lacrosse, the Jumbos buried Amherst under a barrage of shots—77 shots in all, 51 of which were on goal (more shots on goal for Tufts than Amherst had shots!).  Amazingly, Amherst’s goalies had a better than 50% save rate for the day.

On Wednesday, Amherst announces they would suspend all Spring sports due to concerns about the Corona virus.  Seasons may be resumed based on changes in the scope of the pandemic.

Washington College (Will Oliver) 13  2OT

St. Mary’s 14

This was a back-and-forth contest with each team getting occasional two-goal lead, but far more often the game was tied or the team with the lead was up by just one goal.  Washington College had one of those rare two-goal leads late in the fourth quarter, but St. Mary’s was able to force a tie by the end of regulation time.

In the first overtime period, Saint Mary’s had the scoring opportunities, one shot going wide of the mark and the other saved by Washington’s goalie.  In the second overtime, it appeared that St. Mary’s had gotten the winning goal, but the St. Mary’s player was called for contact with the goalie inside the crease, wiping out the goal.  However, a push call against Washington on the play put the ball back into St. Mary’s stick and this time they got a clean goal.

Washington College (Will Oliver) 11

Stockton 14

Two four-goal runs by Stockton in each of the first two quarters put Washington College in a three-goal hole at halftime.  Play in the second half was more even, but the Shoremen could not closer than three goals down.

Willhad one ground ball for the Shoremen.

POLLS

USILA Coaches’ Poll: Salisbury #1, Tufts #2, Gettysburg #9

Nike/US Lacrosse Poll: Salisbury #1, Tufts #3, Gettysburg #8 (Colorado College received votes for the top 20)