BEARS LAX TRAX 020522 by John Nichols

These freezing temperatures and mounds of snow on the sidelines will be long forgotten by Memorial Day Weekend.

D-I

THIS WEEK’S GAMES

BUCKNELL (Drew Wellington) 16

Mercer 14

Bucknell opened their 2022 season on a winning note, but this was not a comfortable win as the game was tied on eight separate occasions.  A four-goal run by the Bison in the final period provided enough of a cushion to withstand Mercer’s attempt at a rally in the closing minutes of the game.

Drew contributed to the win with a ground ball and a caused turnover.

DENVER (Ryan Giles) 14

Utah 13

Denver had a similarly close opening contest this weekend and the Pioneers also used a four-goal run to forge their winning margin.  That run flipped a two-goal deficit into a two-goal lead.  After that, the teams traded goals as Denver held on for the win.

Ryan saw playing time for Denver.

JOHNS HOPKINS (Joey Epstein) 11

Jacksonville 8

After a closely contested first half, John Hopkins answered each second half goal for Jacksonville with two of their own.  

Joey took six shots for the Jays, three of which were on goal, and scooped up one ground ball.

MARYLAND (John Geppert, Matt Kopp) 21

High Point 13

The Terrapins scored the first four goals of the game and ably kept High Point at bay for the rest of the contest to get their first win of this new season.  John and Matt contributed to the win with their efforts on ground balls, collecting three and one, respectively.

MICHIGAN (Zach Johnson, Graham Hertzberg) 22

Bellarmine 13

The Wolverines iced their season opener with a run of nine goals to close out the second quarter and kick off the third.  Bellarmine made the score more respectable by closing out the game with a run of five scores over a four minutes span in the final quarter.

Zach started for the Wolverines, scooping up three ground balls and causing a turnover.  Graham saw playing time in his for D-I lacrosse game..

NAVY (JT Thomas) 9

Mount St. Mary’s 11

Navy ran into a brick wall of a goalie and made a couple of fateful errors in this opening season loss.  The Midshipmen outshot the Mount, with resect to both shots and shots on goal, however three-fourths of those Navy shots that were put on the cage ended up in the Mounts goalie’s crosse.  Navy actively contributed to their down fall surrendering two own-goals plus giving up a score while up two men.

PENN STATE (Nate Buller) 20

Lafayette 15

Penn state trailed Lafayette by one at halftime after a back-and-forth first half. The tide turned in their favor after halftime as the Nittany Lions got runs of three goals in the third period and four straight in the fourth period to get their first win of 2022.

D-I USILA POLL

1. Virginia

2. Duke

3. Maryland

4t. Georgetown

4t. North Carolina

4t. Notre Dame

7. Yale

8. Penn

9. Rutgers

10. Loyola

11. Army

12. Denver

13. Syracuse

14. Cornell

15. Lehigh

16. Johns Hopkins

17. Drexel

18. Princeton

19. Delaware

20. Michigan

THIS COMING WEEK

The first Bears vs. Bears games of 2022 are also Free State rumbles: Johns Hopkins (Joey Epstein) faces Towson (Mo Sillah) and Maryland (Matthew Kopp, John Geppert) hosts Loyola (Cam James).

D-III

THIS COMING WEEK

Colorado College (Max Becker) has back-to-back games to start their season—Illinois Wesleyan on Saturday and Grove City on Sunday.  The Washington & Lee Generals(Will Bou) will host Catholic in their season opener on Saturday.