BearsLaxTraxFax by John Nichols 03.03.2020

BLTF 030220

D-I

Patriot League teams (we follow Loyola, Navy, Army, Bucknell and Colgate) got their conference play going this week and it looks like being ranked in the top ten has become perilous.

BEARS VS. BEARS

Loyola (Cam James) 15

Towson (Mo Sillah) 6

Loyola won the Charm City round robin this year, taking the crown from last year’s winner, Towson.  Loyola jumped out to an early lead by scoring the first three goals and they stayed up.  Midway through the third period Towson used back-to-back scores to pull within one.  Loyola owned the rest of the game, scoring nine straight goals before the Tigers closed out the scoring with just thirty four seconds left in the contest.

Mo had two ground balls and a caused turnover and Camsaw playing time for Loyola.

OTHER GAMES

Army (Drennan Green) 12

Holy Cross 5

Army got off to a 1-0 start in Patriot League play.  The Black Knights scored the games first four goals but Holy Cross closed out the first period with three straight to trail by one at the first break.  Holy Cross didn’t score again until there were just under eleven minutes left in the game.  Although Army didn’t shred the goal during Holy Cross’ draught, their six goals during that time span proved to be more than enough to cement the win.

Bucknell (Colin O’Brien) 16

Binghamton 4

This contest got off to a bit of a slow start with the teams tied at 3-3 midway through the second period.  Then the Bison went on a ten goal run that lasted the equivalent of two full quarters.  Binghamton broke the string, but at that point there were just three minutes left in the game.  The Bison closed out the game with three scores to up their record to 4-1.

Bucknell’s dominance is reflected in shots (53 versus 17), shots on goal (35 versus 8), and faceoff wins (17 versus 7).  Without a yeoman’s effort from the Binghamton goalie (20 saves) this game could have been a monumental blowout.

Colin saw playing time for Bucknell.

Bucknell (Colin O’Brien) 20

Marist 11

Bucknell’s offense got off to a hot start, scoring twelve goals in the first half and allowing Marist only three scores.  Marist put up a bit of a fight to start the second half by scoring the first four goals of the second half, but the Bison closed out the third period with a five goal run that stretched their lead to ten.  Bucknell had a ferocious ride, causing 18 turnovers and keeping Marist’s clearing rate near 50%.

Colgate (Griffin Brown) 12

Boston U. 13

In a closely contested game, Colgate was on the cusp of getting their first win of the season when they went by one with six minutes remaining in the game.  Unfortunately, BU scored twice while not allowing another shot by Colgate.

Griffin led all scores in the game with seven points off five goals (also a game high) and two assists.  He put eleven of this thirteen shots on goal and collected two ground balls.

Dartmouth (Brendon Gallagher, Brett Gallagher) 14

UMass-Lowell 5

Big Green is off to their best start since 2006, boosting a 3-0 record to start the season.  It didn’t look like that would be the case the way the game started.  Dartmouth found themselves in a 3-0 hole ten minutes into the game.  Four quick make-it-take-it scores by Dartmouth righted the ship.  Big Green scored another eight in a row before UMass Lowell got back on the board.  By then, there were less than six minutes left in the game.  Each team scored a pair of goals to wrap up play.

Brett had on ground ball for Dartmouth

Furman (Michael Abizaid) 6

Duke 19

Duke was up 7-0 before Furman got their first score.  The Blue Devils answered that Furman goal with a run of five straight scores before the Paladins got goal number two for the game.

Jacksonville (Hunter Sells, Andrew Mitchell) 11

Utah 15

Utah jumped used a six goal run from the end of the first period into the second to get an early lead on the Dolphins.  Jacksonville worked their way back into a tie with two minutes left in the first half, but Utah put up two quick scores before the half to retake the lead.  Two more goals for Utah to start the second half spotted them the lead for good.

Hunterhad twelve saves for Jacksonville and Andrewsaw playing time.

Johns Hopkins (Joey Epstein) 11

Princeton 18

Johns Hopkins limited Princeton’s Michael Sowers to two goals, but he found Tiger teammates seven times to more than make up for it.  The Blue Jays’ big faceoff advantage (21 wins versus 12 for Princeton) did not translate into a scoring advantage and a mere eight clearing opportunities, of which only five were successful, meant that Hopkins could rarely press an advantage.

Joey, back in the starting lineup at attack, had two goals and two assists as well as two ground balls and a forced turnover. He reached 50 goals at the Hop in record time.

Loyola (Cam James) 14

Lafayette 4

Lafayette scored a pair of goals early in the second period to pull within two of the Greyhounds.  That was as close as the game would get as Loyola put up nine unanswered goals, not allowing a Lafayette score until there were three minutes left in the game.

Camthree ground balls and a caused turnover.

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

Notre Dame 9

The Terrapins leveraged advantages in faceoffs and ground balls into creating a shooting gallery at the Notre Dame goal.  Maryland took 64 shots in the game, thirty of them on-goal.  Notre Dame scored the first two goals of the second half to tie the game up early in the third quarter.  Maryland answered with a run of three to take the lead, then, after a single score by Notre Dame, the Terrapins tallied four more to ensure the win.

Justinled the way for Maryland winning 18 of 26 faceoffs and scooping up eleven ground balls.  Johnhad one ground ball.

Michigan (Zach Johnson) 16

St. John’s 11

The Wolverines led by seven at the halftime break having put together mini runs of two or three goals while limiting St. John’s to single scores.  The Red Storm found a bit more offense in the second half, but could not stop Michigan.

Navy (Thomas Evans, Shane Corcoran) 6

Lehigh 14

Lehigh’s advantage in faceoffs led to more offensive possession which eventually wore down Navy’s defenders.  Over the final three quarters, the Midshipmen won just one face off.  Despite suffering a field tilted against them, Navy still had the game tied at the half and were down by two heading into the fourth quarter.  The pressure finally caught up with them (plus possibly a bit of a hangover from last week’s norovirus outbreak) and Lehigh got seven goals while Navy scored just once.

Thomas had a ground ball and three caused turnovers.

Penn State (Nate Buller) 18 OT

Penn 17

Penn owned most of the stat sheet, but Penn State ending up owning the scoreboard.  Penn was able to get to a tie with the Nittany Lions with eight minutes left in regulation.  Up to that point, both teams had held and squandered leads.  The balance of regulation was a goal-a-minute affair.  Penn State took a two goal lead with goals at 7:14 and 6:49 remaining.  The teams traded goals after that with Penn State going back up by two with two minutes left.

One of the durable rules of life is that its always the second guy who gets caught.  Penn State held the ball and the clock was wasting away when a Penn defender pushed over a Penn State attack.  The attack picked himself up and gave the Penn defender a quick jab with the butt end of his stick.  Out comes the flag and away goes the attack—locked in for a minute for unsportsmanlike conduct—seems like it’s always he who retaliates who gets caught.  The Quakers took full advantage of the man-up opportunity and netted goals at the 1:00 mark and again with a mere 16 seconds left, tying the game at 17 all.  On to overtime.

Penn State won the final faceoff and got off the first shot of overtime but Penn’s goalie made the save.  Unfortunately for the Quakers his bad clearing pass gave the ball back to Penn State which quickly converted the game winner.

Nate put one shot on goal and had one ground ball. The ESPN commentators commented how hard this Landon alumnus had worked to contribute.

Richmond (Will Bou) 15 OT

Duke 16

Richmond used a run of three goals to close out the first period and take and early lead over the Blue Devils.  Richmond extended their lead to four goals midway through the second period, then Dyson Williams took over the game for Duke.  Over a six minute span of game time he was a one-man run, scoring five times to get the lead for Duke.  The Blue Devils were able to extend that lead out to four goals with a short run of three scores at the end of the third period.  The Spiders mounted a comeback by putting together four successive scores to tie the game at fourteen all with less than four minutes remaining.  Duke took the lead back only to have Richmond tie the game up again.

Both teams had scoring opportunities the final minutes of regulation but both goalies rose to the occasion.  Duke won the faceoff and, on their second shot attempt, scored the winning goal.

Will was the Spiders’ most effective FOGO for the day, winning five of seven faceoffs.

St. Joseph’s (Thomas Halm) 10

Monmouth 3

This game was another case of faceoff and ground ball dominance leading to a victory.  Over the first three quarters, St. Joseph’s 10-2 advantage in faceoffs did not translate into much of an advantage on the scoresheet.  Down the stretch, the Mountain Hawks were able to leverage their faceoff advantage with a huge ground ball advantage to score the last five goals of the game.

Virginia (Ryan Pride) 18

High Point 15

High Point was one of the surprise teams of early 2019 with wins over Duke and UVA, but this year teams are a bit more prepared.  Still, the outcome was very much in the balance until the final minutes of the game.  After High Point jumped out to an early 4-1 lead, UVA put together a run of seven goals to go up 8-4 midway through the second period. While UVA was able to hold off Panthers during a three minute non-releasable penalty in the third period, High Point closed out the third period with a three goal run forging a tie as the teams headed into the final period.

The teams twice traded scores in the early minutes of the fourth period, then traded possessions, but did not score over a six minute span, one of the longest draughts of the game. Virginia closed out the game by ringing up three scores in final three minutes of the game.

Virginia (Ryan Pride) 15

Air Force 5

Virginia grounded Air Force’s offense for over 30 minutes of game time and scored nine goals during that period.  By the time Air Force found the back of the net again there were just over three minutes left in regulation.

POLLS

Army (Drennan Green) got sent back down to the second ten after a tough week but Bucknell (Colin O’Brien) came back into the rankings after a one-week hiatus.

(WAY TOO EARLY) NCAA BRACKET PREDICTION, 2^ND EDITION

A wild forecast based on the way teams ranked at the end of February.  Could the Ivies pick up three at-large bids?  Will Duke and Denver miss out?  Two more months of regular season lacrosse and many, many games yet to be played.

THIS COMING WEEK

Navy (Thomas Evans, Shane Corcoran) and Colgate (Griffin Brown) have the lone Bears vs. Bears contest in D-I this week.

D-III

With the start of the season for NESCAC teams, all of the D-III teams that we follow have gotten their 2020 campaigns started.

BEARS VS. BEARS

Tufts (Kyle Amitay, Garrett Kurtz) 24

Colby (Miles Tonkel) 10

NESCAC play got underway this weekend and the start of the season featured a Bears vs. Bears match.  Tufts was a bit more ready to go, scoring the first three goals of the game, but the Mules came back with three of their own to even things up.  Then the Jumbos went on a bit of run, scoring three quick goals to close out the first period and three more to open scoring in the second.  Tufts offense looked to be in mid-season form, taking 80 shots for the game with more than half of those on goal.  On the other hand, both teams showed some early season rust with Tufts suffering five faceoff violations and Colby six.

Miles and Garretteach took one shot, Miles getting there first with a shot early in the third quarter while Garrett’s shot was later in the fourth period.  Congratulations to these two freshmen for seeing action in the first D-III contest.

OTHER GAMES

Gettysburg (Mitch Laughlin, Billy Banfield) 10

Stevenson 5

Gettysburg did not take a lot of shots in this game (24) but they took accurate ones and made them count.  Stevenson had a healthy amount of shots, but Gettysburg’s goalie negated that effort with 18 saves.

Oberlin (Farley Price) 12

Albion 11

Oberlin trailed for much of the game and was down three scores as time ticked down in the third period.  The Yeomen scored just before the periods final buzzer and that goal turned out to be the first of a three goal run that gave Oberlin the lead.  Albion tied the score with two minutes left.  Albion won the faceoff, but after two of their shots were wide of the goal, Oberlin got the ball back and got the winning goal with sixteen seconds left in the game.

Farley had playing time.

Ohio Wesleyan (Guy King) 14

Elmhurst 10

The Battling Bishops picked up their first win of the season.  Ohio Wesleyan scored the game’s first three goals and held on to their lead throughout the contest.  Two late second period goals by Elmhurst ate into OWU’s lead, but the Bishop opened the second half with three consecutive scores to fortify their lead.

Salisbury (Brian Menendez, Jace Menendez) 22

Coast Guard 8

The Gulls answered Coast Guard’s early goal with a run of five in a row and then effectively iced the game with eight straight scores from the end of the first period to early in the third.

Jace saw playing time in the game.

Washington College (Will Oliver) 11

Widener 18

Washington’s frequent turnovers negated their faceoff advantage.  Widener put together several runs of four or five goals and the Shoremen could only counter with pairs of goals to stop those runs.

Colorado College   (Max Becker) 17

Aurora 5

The Tigers opened their home season with their 4th win in a row. They showed depth in both the offensive and defensive ends of the field.

Max  (#29) was one of the freshmen who contributed to the victory as the 4th D and picked up a CT.

POLLS

USILA Coaches’ Poll: Salisbury #1, Tufts #6, Gettysburg #12

Nike/US Lacrosse Poll: No update yet…

THIS COMING WEEK

D-III Bears vs. Bears #3: Ohio Wesleyan (Guy King) vs. Salisbury (Brian Menendez, Jace Menendez) in Sparks, Maryland