BearTraxLaxFax -NCAA Div. I and III report

BLTF 052024 by John Nichols P’09

Haudenosaunee BEAR SPIRIT

NCAA Tournament—D1 Quarterfinals

The Bears will be represented in Philly!  DENVER (Ryan Giles) plays on!

Bears

#5 DENVER (Ryan Giles) 10

#4 Syracuse 8

In a surprisingly low scoring first half, Denver took a 4-3 lead at halftime when they scored with just thirty seconds left in the half.  The third quarter was much more lively and favored the Pioneers.  Denver scored the first four goals of the second half to take an 8-3 lead midway through the third quarter.  The closing minutes of the third quarter saw a flurry of goals, two by the Orange to cut into Denver’s lead, then two in reply by Denver to take their lead back out to five. Syracuse dominated scoring in the fourth but could do no better than cut into, rather than erase, Denver’s lead.

Ryan took one shot for Denver and was mentioned by the ESPN broadcasters as one of the PIOs stud LSMs.

Not Bears

#1 Notre Dame 16

#8 Georgetown 11

Notre Dame avenged its only loss of the season.  The Irish defense did not surrender successive goals to Georgetown until late in the fourth quarter when the game was well in hand.

#2 Duke 11

#7 Maryland 14

Maryland got their first lead of the day early in the fourth quarter.  The Terrapins netted seven goals in the fourth period while allowing just two to the Blue Devils.

#3 Johns Hopkins 10 OT

#6 Virginia 11

Virginia fell behind early, rallied to tie the game twice then got the game winner in the second overtime period.

NCAA D-I TOURNAMENT SEMIFINALS & CHAMPIONSHIP

May 25–Semifinals

#5 DENVER (Ryan Giles) versus #1 Notre Dame at noon.

Denver is 3-0 against Notre Dame in the NCAA tournament and the teams last played each other in an early season contest in 2020 in South Bend with Denver winning 14-11

#7 Maryland Versus #6 Virginia at 2:30

 This game will be the 98^th meeting between these to long-time foes.  Maryland holds a 50-47 advantage in the series.  Virginia won earlier this season in Charlottesville 14-10.  The teams last played in the NCAA tournament in 2022 when Maryland was running through all the competition to an undefeated record.

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NCAA Tournament—DIII Quarterfinals and Semifinals

The 2024 season for Bears in D-III came to a close this weekend as our last two teams—Washington and Lee (Will Bou, Will Abramson) and Bowdoin (Nico Schermer)—both lost in the semifinals.

Quarterfinals, May 18

WASHINGTON & LEE (Will Bou, Will Abramson) 16 OT

Salisbury 15

The Generals knocked Salisbury from the ranks of the unbeaten in D-III and knocked them out of the tournament. 

Salisbury seemed to be running away with the game early having scored seven straight goals in the middle of the first half.  The Generals stopped the bleeding with a pair of goals then slowly worked their way back into the game.  The W&L defense kept the Gulls from putting together another run, while the attack for Washington and Lee took small successive bites out of Salisbury’s lead.  After Salisbury scored the first goal of the second half, the Generals began a rally which saw them score nine of the game’s next ten goals to catch and surpass the Gulls.  The pace of scoring slowed considerably in the fourth quarter as only Salisbury scored in the fourth.  Their three goals were sufficient to push the game into overtime.

The Generals won the overtime faceoff and scored the game winner on their first shot.

Will Bou took one faceoff in the game.

BOWDOIN (Nico Schermer) 12

Middlebury 7

Bowdoin had lost to Middlebury in the NESCAC tournament two weeks ago.

In a relatively low scoring contest (at least for NESCAC teams) Bowdoin and Middlebury swapped leads back and forth.  By the early moments of the fourth quarter, the game had been tied five times—at each integer two through six—and Middlebury’s early two goal lead was the only instance of either team being up by more than one.  The back-and-forth nature of the game ended in the fourth quarter when Bowdoin ran off six unanswered goals.  Middlebury scored to stop that run, but by then Bowdoin was up by six and there was just a minute remaining on the game clock.

Semifinals on Sunday, May 19

WASHINGTON & LEE (Will Bou, Will Abramson) 13

Tufts 19

This semifinal game was the first meeting between these D-III powerhouses.

The Generals wrapped up the first quarter with a six-goal run to jump out to a 7-4 advantage after the first fifteen minutes.  Tufts countered in the second quarter, outscoring W&L by five goals to lead by two at the break for halftime.  The teams split the third quarter scoring, each netting five goals, so the Jumbos still lead by two heading into the fourth quarter.  Tufts owned the fourth, scoring the final four goals of the game.

BOWDOIN (Nico Schermer) 11

RIT 19

This game was the second meeting between these two teams.  RIT won the first in 2022, also in the NCAA tournament.

This semi-final was characterized by competing scoring streaks.  RIT had more of them and there’s were a bit longer the Bowdoin’s runs.  RIT started the game with four straight scores then Bowdoin closed out the first quarter with three straight to trial by one.  RIT put up another set of four to start the scoring in the second quarter, but the Polar Bears scored just once before the horn sounded for halftime.  As they did in the first and second quarters, RIT went on a run, this time scoring five in row and extending their lead to nine goals.  Bowdoin stopped that run, surrendered a single goal to the Tigers, then the Polar Bears put together a string of five goals to cut their deficit to four early in the fourth quarter.  Undaunted, RIT answered with their own set of five in a row to up by nine again.  One last goal for Bowdoin set the final score.

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