BearLaxTraxFax by John Nichols 04/10/2018

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D-I

Sean O’Brien of Bucknell was the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week:

Offensive Player of the WeekSean O’Brien, Bucknell, Sr., M, Bethesda, Md./Landon O’Brien recorded 12 points (10 goals, 2 assists) in Bucknell’s wins over No. 3 Yale (9-8 OT) and Mount St. Mary’s (14-9) last week. The senior finished the game against Yale with four goals and one assist before scoring six goals and tallying one assist against Mount St. Mary’s. In the two games, he also collected four groundballs.

BEARS vs. BEARS

#18 Navy (Tom Evans) 12

Colgate (Griffin Brown) 10

Navy’s five goal run in the middle of the second period provided the Midshipmen with a cushion that they would maintain until the closing seconds of the game.   Two late goals by Colgate, including the last which was scored as the final horn went off, only served to narrow the margin.  Shooting efficiency and accuracy tipped the scales in Navy’s favor, particularly in the second period when Navy put eight of their ten shots on goal, converting on six.

Griffin scored twice on six shots and collected two ground balls for the Raiders.

Navy is one of the three teams leading the race for the honor of hosting the Patriot League tournament.  They’ll need to win against Army this coming weekend and hope that BU or Army can hang a loss on Loyola.  Navy has the tie breaker advantage over Bucknell.  Colgate is one of the three 2-4 teams that are in the best position to get one of the two remaining seeds available and in the best position of those three to get one considering that their two remaining PLL opponents have but one league win between them.

OTHER GAMES

Army (Drennan Greene) 7

Boston U. 8

The Terriers scored the last four goals of the game with the winning goal coming with just thirty seconds left in regulation.  That eighth goal was BU’s only lead of the game.  Army’s loss puts them in a predicament with respect to their chances to make the six team Patriot League tournament.  Army, BU and Colgate are all 2-4 in league play and vying for the last two available slots in the PLL tournament.  Of those three teams, Army faces the toughest opposition in their last two games and both Colgate and BU have the tie break advantage of head-to-head wins over Army.

#12 Bucknell (Sean O’Brien-Team Captain, Jarett Witzal, Colin O’Brien) 9  OT

#8 Yale 8

Sean O’Brien put home the game winner with a few ticks over a minute left in overtime to give Bucknell one of its biggest wins of the season.  Bucknell has now beaten four teams that were ranked when the teams played and Yale, ranked third in last week’s USILA Coaches’ Poll, was the highest ranked of those opponents.  Bucknell rarely plays Ivy League teams, but their last game against an Ivy League opponent was in 2013 and was another 9-8 win, this time over a Cornell team that went 14-4 on the season and eventually lost to Duke in the NCAA semis.  You can see him shake the defender and fire the difference maker here: https://twitter.com/Bucknell_MLAX/status/981699048749989888 (click on the image to get the video to play).

Sean scored four goals on the day and contributed an assist.  His 15 shots (keep shooting!) led the team and accounted for almost half of Bucknell’s shots.  Jarett won six of 19 faceoffs and had two ground balls.  The game changed at the start of the third quarter whenJarett provided instant offense for the Bison who were down 4-3 at the half.  The Bison scored four goals in less than four minutes to start the second half with that run being propelled by four of Jarett’s faceoff wins.

 {Editor note: the GP lax twitter account posted a congratulatory tweet for the Hoyas/Bisons and the tweet’s picture was Sean O’Brien]

#12 Bucknell (Sean O’Brien-Team Captain, Jarett Witzal, Colin O’Brien) 14

Mount St. Mary’s 9

Sean O’Brien                         Colin O’Brien

Neither Sean nor his Bison teammates suffered a hangover from their huge midweek win over Yale.  Bucknell scored the game’s first ten goals, keeping the Mount of the scoreboard for the first 33 minutes of the game.  Sean had six goals and an assist off of nine shots.  Jarett won four of twelve faceoffs with two ground balls and Colin saw playing time as well.

Cleveland State (Justin Conner) 19

Hampton 6

The Vikings scored five in each of the first three quarters and four in the final frame to set a team scoring record against D-I foes.  Justin had on caused turnover in the game with that turnover leading to Cleveland State’s sixteenth goal.

#11 Cornell (Jack Bolen, Colton Rupp, Andrew Fowler) 15

Harvard 11

Cornell shook things up in the Ivy League by beating Harvard which had previously been undefeated in league play.  Cornell used a five goal run which spanned the end of the second quarter, through the third, and into the early minutes of the fourth to build a six goal lead.  Over the balance of the game every time the Crimson cut into the lead Big Red answered with a goal of their own to preserve their advantage.  Harvard finished out with two straight, but the last came with just 15 seconds left.

Colton, continuing to start at attack for Cornell, took one shot in the game and Jack played as well.

Dartmouth (Landon McKenzie) 7

#8 Yale 17

Yale remained undefeated in Ivy League play, blitzing the Big Green on the strength of runs of six goals in the first half and eight in the second.

Hobart (Riley McTague, Koko Avedisian) 4

#6 Syracuse 11

The Statesmen scored first in this tradition laden, spirited, up-state New York rivalry then didn’t score again until ten minutes were left in the third period.  Meanwhile, Syracuse netted eight goals.  The teams closed out the game by trading three goal runs.

Hobart (Riley McTague, Koko Avedisian) 9  OT

#19 Robert Morris 10

Robert Morris jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first quarter but the Statesmen got back in the game incrementally and had a one goal lead after three.  Robert Morris scored twice in the first and Hobart answered with the last goal of regulation with just over four minutes remaining.  Hobart won the final faceoff of regulation and both teams had scoring opportunities but all shots were either wide or saved.  On to overtime.  Although Hobart held a 17-5 faceoff advantage going into overtime, Robert Morris won the faceoff and the Statesmen never possessed the ball again.

Jacksonville (Hunter Sells, Andrew Mitchell) 13

Air Force 12

With a five goal run from the closing moments of the third quarter into the middle of the fourth, Jacksonville flipped the scoreboard in their favor.  The Dolphins were up by three with four minutes left in the game when a lighting delay temporarily halted play.  Air Force came out ready to play and scored twice to pull within one with just over two minutes remaining.  Air Force won the game’s final faceoff but turned the ball over and Jacksonville was able to run out the clock.  Hunterplayed the second half in goal for Jacksonville, letting in five while stopping three, gathering in two ground balls, and forcing a turnover.

Jacksonville is one of four teams with 3-1 records in Southern Conference.  The Conference’s tournament includes the top four teams in the league.  With road games against fellow 3-1 teams Richmond and Furman, the Dolphins have their work cut out for them, but also have the opportunity to control their own fate.

#5 Johns Hopkins (Sam Lynch) 13

Ohio State 10

The Blue Jays built several one- and two-goal leads only to have the Buckeyes battle back.  That trend broke with Hopkin’s three goal run which spanned the end of the third and the start of the fourth.  Samsaw playing time for the Jays.

#1 Maryland (Justin Shockey)

#15 Penn State

Maryland either trailed or was tied with Penn State throughout this contest.  Midway through the fourth period, the Terrapins got the run they needed to take the lead.  Goals in quick succession turned the game’s last tie into a two goal lead for Maryland and Penn State could not answer back.  Justin, and the rest of the Maryland FOGOs were frustrated by Penn State’s FOGO, as Justin won just 6 of 16 faceoffs and, all-in, Maryland won just 9 of 28.

St. Joseph’s (Thomas Halm)

Sacred Heart

St. Joseph’s put together a four goal run in the latter half of the third quarter to retake the lead after Sacred Heart had taken a two goal lead midway through the third.  Sacred Heart managed to tie the game up twice after that, but two Hawks goals a minute apart with less than five minutes left in the game proved to be enough to pick up the win.

#10 Virginia (Ryan Pride) 15

North Carolina 12

UVA persevered in the rain in Chapel Hill to pick up their first ACC regular season win of the season which was also their first regular season ACC in over four years.  The Wahoos built a five goal lead in the first half and when a three goal run by the Tar Heels in the third quarter cut into that lead they answered with their own three goal run.  Virginia’s advantages on ground balls and shooting accuracy contributed to the win.

Polls

Maryland (Justin Shockey) replaced Albany as the #1 team in three of four polls.  Albany had taken over the #1 slot earlier this season after the Great Danes downed the Terrapins.  When the other University of Maryland team beat Albany this week, the College Park team got the top slot back (for the most part).  Bucknell’s (Sean O’Brien-Team Captain, Jarett Witzal, Colin O’Brien) win over Yale propelled them to the cusp of the top 10.

This Coming Week

Navy (Tom Evans) travels to Army (Drennan Greene) for this service academy/Patriot League rivalry game.  Navy needs the win to stay in the hunt for hosting honors for the PLL tournament and Army needs the win to help them make the tournament’s field of six

D-III

Catholic (Asst. Coach Tom Minkler, Sean Feldman) 6

Susquehanna 15

Susquehanna erupted for six straight goals in the second period to put this Landmark conference game out of reach.  Sean got some field time for the Cardinals.

Marymount (Asst. Coach Wes Lincoln)  3

St. Mary’s 11

St. Mary’s shutout Marymount for 34 minutes, from end of the first quarter to just short of two minutes into the fourth quarter.   The seven goals that St. Mary’s scored over the Saints’ dry spell were enough to get the win.

Marymount (Asst. Coach Wes Lincoln) 6   

#17 Christopher Newport 14

Fourth quarter scoring, 7-3 in favor of Christopher Newport, matched the scoring across the first three quarters.  The Cardinals have the unenviable task of playing against three Capital Athletic Conference opponents that are ranked in the top 20 nationally.  One down, two to go.

#12 Ohio Wesleyan (Tyler McTague) 23

Wittenberg 4

Ohio Wesleyan was already up 7-1 when they hung a twelve goal run on Wittenberg.  Tyler took two shots in the game.

Midway through their North Coast Conference games, the Battling Bishops are 4-0, setting up next week’s rivalry game with Denison which is also 4-0 and ranked eighth nationally.

#9 Salisbury (Brian Menendez) 6

#17 Christopher Newport 5

The Capital Athletic Conference is home to three nationally ranked teams.  Salisbury has come back to the field a bit this year and teams like #2 York and #17 Christopher Newport are giving the Seagulls a run for their money this year.  In this closely played game, both teams had fewer than 40 shots and 30 ground balls.

#9 Salisbury (Brian Menendez) 9

#8 Cabrini 8

The Seagulls took a break from playing in-conference nationally ranked teams to play yet another out-of-conference nationally ranked team.  Salisbury never trailed in the game, but three straight fourth quarter goals by Cabrini evened the score at eight with ten minutes left in the game then Salisbury took the lead back with seven minutes left.  Over the balance of the game the ball moved up and down the field has Cabrini had four possessions and Salisbury three, but no one scored.

Trinity (Spud Dunn) 4

Connecticut College 10

Spud saw his first field action of the season, contributing an assist and placing one shot on goal.

Trinity (Spud Dunn) 14

Hamilton 9

The Bantams picked up their first NESCAC win of the season and Spud was out there again.  Although he did not score, Spud was back in the flow of the offense taking eight shots, three of which were on goal.  Trinity spotted Hamilton a four goal lead in the first quarter then rallied back with five of their own.  That was the end of big runs for Hamilton while Trinity had two good runs left in them.

#3 Tufts (Luke Kurtz) 11   

Williams 8

Tufts ran into a good faceoff guy and a strong goalie which would spell a loss for most teams.  However, the Bantams were highly efficient in their shooting, keeping pressure on the Williams defense and goalie.Luke had one caused turnover which allowed Tufts to gain possession after losing a faceoff.

#3 Tufts (Luke Kurtz) 14

#5 Wesleyan 10

The NESCAC is one of the toughest conference in D-III men’s lacrosse.  This game featured two of the nation’s best teams—Tufts ranked at #3 coming into the game and Wesleyan at #4.  Tuft’s 4-0 advantage in the second quarter staked the Jumbos to four goal lead and Wesleyan never got closer than that.  Luke took one shot and had on ground ball.

Washington College’s (Will Oliver) game with Muhlenberg was postponed to April 17 due to weather issues.

Polls

USILA Coaches’ Poll:

#3 Tufts

#9 Salisbury

#12 Ohio Wesleyan

Nike/USL Poll:

#3 Tufts

#13 Ohio Wesleyan

#14 Salisbury