What a weekend of college lacrosse we got to enjoy on Saturday. Notre Dame needed 3OT’s to figure out if they were going to beat the Terps or drop one on the road. Lynchburg outplayed Salisbury for the majority of the game, but some bad bounces and rebounds resulted in OT in this DIII tilt as well. Denver didn’t need overtime vs North Carolina, but the game had that type of feel to it by the end. We’ll talk about those games as well as Tampa vs Frostburg in DII action, Ohio State and Cornell did battle in Columbus, Georgetown needed to finally wake up their offense against Princeton on the road, Hopkins’ Tyler Dunn saved the Jay’s butts winning a bunch of faceoffs against Zach Cole of Saint Joseph’s. You get the idea, we’re going to talk about a ton of college lacrosse in this episode.

#2 Notre Dame – 13 (3OT)
#4 Maryland – 12

The best game of the weekend was a game of runs that saw Notre Dame and Maryland go back and forth for four full quarters before needing three overtimes to crown a winner.

Notre Dame took a 10-9 lead with 11:49 left in the fourth quarter off a Quinn McCahon strike from Pat Kavanaugh. It looked like Kavanaugh was trying to hit his brother Chris, but it missed his stick and right to McCahon who stuck it in the top right corner.

Maryland would go on to score three unanswered goals, capped by a Daniel Maltz strike with 3:50 left in the game and at this point it looked like Maryland was going to win this game between having the momentum and Luke Wierman at the faceoff dot.

Wierman had won 8 of 11 over the course of the first half.  Will Lynch adjusted at the half and fared much better over the 3rd and 4th quarters winning 8 of 17 which allowed Notre Dame to keep pace.

Lynch would win the ensuing faceoff which resulted in a Reilly Gray goal with 3:14 left in the game.  Lynch would come up huge once again winning the next draw (thanks to his homies on the wing and on the defensive end of the field) and that allowed the Irish to score with 1:56 left in the game, Chris Kavanaugh, a filthy dirty, cross handed dive goal that required him to go full sail and put his body on the line.

Overtime happened and Wierman got back to winning draws forcing Notre Dame to get defensive stops in each of the three overtime periods in order to have a shot at winning the game.

It was Pat Kavanaugh dodging on Brett Makar with the game on the line, Kavanaugh dodged hard from the left wing to the middle of the field and Makar was trailing him a bit too much, almost as if he thought he might come back to his left hand.  Kavanaugh kept going hard to the middle, got his hands free and stuck the sudden death winner.

Credit to Notre Dame for being extremely efficient on offense, and just stingy enough on defense to overcome Luke Wierman merking them for 20 of 31 at the faceoff dot.  Lynch got smoked all day but won those two key draws late that allowed Notre Dame to even things up.  He got smoked overall, but gutted out some wins when it mattered most.

Liam Entenmann won the goalie battle on the day stopping 14 shots to 12 goals against.  Brian Rupple had a good day, but stopped 12 shots to 13 goals against and came up just short on that last shot by Kavanaugh.

Eric Dobson struggled on the day scoring just a goal off 9 shots.  That hurt Notre Dame a little bit considering they didn’t have the ball much in the first half.  Quinn McCAhon’s two goals from the midfield were big though and Jack Simmons and Brian Tevlin helped Notre Dame take advantage of that defensive midfield unit that so many wondered about for Maryland. Dante Trader played well with 2 caused turnovers and 4 gbs, but the rest of their rope unit struggled as Notre Dame continually attacked with midfielders and they delivered.

Thanks to Wierman’s efforts, Maryland held a 55-39 shot advantage, but only a 26-26 shots on goal advantage as the Terps missed the cage early and often.  Their first half shooting woes proved too much to overcome once Notre Dame started figuring things out at the faceoff dot.

For Notre Dame:  Chris Kavanaugh (3g), Pat Kavanaugh (1g, 2a), Eric Dobson (1g, 1a), Quinn McCahon, Jack Simmons & Brian Tevlin (2g), Liam Entenmann (14 saves vs 12 goals against)

For Maryland:  Daniel Maltz (2g, 2a), Owen Murphy (3g, 1a), Eric Spanos (3g), Braden Erksa & Kyle Long (3a), Luke Wierman (20 of 31 faceoffs, 8 gbs, 1 caused turnover), Brian Ruppel (12 saves vs 13 goals against)

Denver – 9
#12 North Carolina – 8

Denver was able to end the first quarter with a 4-3 lead, and that early lead proved to be pivotal as the game would come to a close.  Mic Kelly scored that 4th Denver goal, unassisted with 39 seconds left in the first quarter.

Denver would go on to score two more unanswered with Joshua Carlson giving the Pio’s a 6-3 lead with 6:14 left in the first half.

Credit to Alec Stathakis for smoking Carolina at the faceoff dot. He had a great day and that allowed Denver to keep pace with a bunch of extra possessions. He won 9 of 12 over the course of the first half and 14 of 20 overall.

Denver was up by 2 goals with a touch under 10 seconds left in the first half, a Pio’s shot went off the pipe and back up the other way for Carolina and ended up in long pole Matt Wright’s stick. He fed Sean Goldsmith on the crease and the Mercer transfer stuck it as time expired to get UNC back to within 6-5.

The story over the course of this game was Denver did a great job playing help defense.  Carolina drew slides often, especially in the first half and Denver was able to cover 2 or 3 slides deep making it very difficult for Carolina to get off clean shots, even when it looked like one was about to present itself.  The Denver defense never gave up and guys were keeping sticks in passing lanes and did a great job splitting the backside in situations that called for defenders to slide and shift.

Denver did a great job covering 2 or 3 slides deep. The Heels would force a slide, start moving the ball and even with Carolina making that extra pass, Denver was covering with both sticks in passing lanes and getting bodies on guys. 

Carolina may have been getting a little too fancy, trying to make that extra pass in situations they may have been better off getting off a shot. They passed up some decent looks to try and get a better one and Denver made them pay. 

Despite Denver controlling the bulk of this game, Antonio DeMarco gave the Heels an 8-7 lead with just 3:24 to play.  He received a feed from over the top, his defender’s approach was aggressive and he busted a hitch on him and buried it from 10 yards out.

Alec Stathakis would win the ensuing faceoff and Denver would tie things up, another unassisted goal by Mic Kelly with 2:29 to play.

Denver continued to play make it, take it lacrosse with Stathakis winning another possession and they’d capitalize yet again with JJ Sillstrop sticking a quick stick on the crease from Richie Connell.

Andrew Tyeryar would win a key faceoff for UNC when they needed it most to get the Heels one last chance to tie things up but a turnover with 10.9 seconds left on the clock sealed the deal for Denver.

For Denver:  Michael Lampert (1g, 1a), Mic Kelly (2g), Richie Connell (2a), Joshua Carlson (2g), Alec Stathakis (14 of 21 faceoffs, 8gbs), Malcolm Kleban (7 saves, 8 goals against)

For North Carolina:  Sean Goldsmith (4g), Lance Timllman (3a), Logan McGovern (2g), Collin Krieg (8 saves, 9 goals against)

#5 Salisbury – 16 (OT)
#9 Lynchburg – 15

Salisbury held a 2-1 lead at one point in the first quarter before Lynchburg took over and controlled through the bulk of the game until the very end.

Lynchburg took a 11-6 lead just under 2 minutes into the second half with Dylan Wolfe scoring his second straight goal off a Riley Mitchell feed.  Wolfe scored a goal for Lynchburg with 7 seconds left in the first half and got the scoring going in the second as well.

Salisbury would then mount a slow but steady comeback outsourcing the Hornets 4-2 over the 3rd quarter and 5-3 over the 4th.

It was broken plays and rebounds that cost Lynchburg this game.  With 38 seconds left in the game, a Salisbury feed from X to the crease missed its mark and ended up on the deck, but Isaac Thrasher picked it up and buried it for the Gulls knotting things up at 15’s and resulting in overtime.

Salisbury one the first draw of the overtime period and Lynchburg goalie Tyler Hadley made a nice save on a shot from about 11 to 12 yards out, but Jude Brown picked up the rebound and put it home giving the Gulls the W in sudden death.

Salisbury goalkeeper Z.J. Shahin was replaced with 20 minutes to play after only stopping 5 of the first 15 shots he faced.  Nicholas Ransom came in and made 3 saves vs 5 goals against, only a little bit better, but that proved to be enough.

Tyler Hadley had a big day in net for Lynchburg making 22 saves vs just 16 goals against. He had 11 saves over the course of the 3rd quarter as Salisbury mounted their comeback, but came up one short on the day.

Salisbury LSM John DeFazio had 5 caused turnovers and 5 groundballs in the win. All five of said turnovers came over the course of the second half with DeFazio forcing 3 in the 3rd quarter and 2 more in the 4th. Even better, both of his forced turnovers in the 4th quarter resulted in Salisbury goals on the ensuing possession.

For Salisubury:  Jude Brown (4g, 3a), Isaac Thrasher (4g), Brice Bromwell (2g, 1a), Cross Ferrara (2g), John DeFazio (5 caused turnovers, 5 gbs)

For Lynchburg: Dylan Wolfe (7g), Riley Hastings (2g, 3a), Riley Mitchell (2g, 2a), Michael Kraus (20 of 34 faceoffs, 14 gbs), Tyler Hadley (22 saves vs 16 goals against)

#1 Tampa – 12
#17 Frostburg – 14

Huge upset in Division II on Saturday with Frostburg state taking an early 4-2 lead off an Owen McCallum goal, dished by Chase Buckwalter. McCallum caught Tampa goalkeeper Blake Ulmer off the right pipe and scorched it past him stick side.

Frostburg would extend their lead to 7-3 thanks to Austin Sipes, another outside shot that beat Ulmer with 14:11 left in the 2nd quarter and even though Tampa would never fully go away, Frostburg would control the game throughout and held on for the monster win.

I’ve heard a lot of talk about great lacrosse names and Frostburg’s Bubba Love wins the name contest for me.  He goes for 3 goals and 2 helpers on the day.  Teammate Jake Bowman (4g) and Austin Sipes (2g, 2a) also factored heavily.

No single stat stood out in this one.  Both goalies had so-so days, the faceoffs were split pretty evenly.  Frostburg just outplayed Tampa all game long so credit to them for gutting out a huge win that saw the entire team do all they could to fight.

For Frostburg:  Bubba Love (3g, 2a), Jake Bowman (4g), Austin Sipes (2g, 2a), Mitch Meckley (11 saves vs 12 goals against)

For Tampa:  Harry Kilkowski (3g, 3a), Canyon Birch (3g, 1a), Blake Ulmer (9 saves vs 14 goals against)

#3 Cornell – 16
#8 Ohio State – 13

Big matchups on both sides in this one. Adler on Myers, Marcus Hudgins on Kirst.  Many thought we’d see Van Buren on Kirst but it was Hudgins who guarded him the bulk of the moments I as paying attention.

So how would Myers and Kirst get going with top poles guarding them? Early on they each got a point when they weren’t being guarded by said poles. Kirst scored his first on a shorty matchup, Myers got his first assist on man up. Keep things easy on yourself. In the end it was Kirst that got the better of his matchups outscoring Myers by putting up 4 goals and a dish to Myers’ 3 assists.

Hugh Kelleher, the big boy #27 scored what I’m coining the “fake hitch dookie spin lefty snipe” with 4:11 left in the first to give Cornell a 3-1 lead and Cornell while Ohio State never fully went away, Cornell controlled through the bulk of this game enroute to the 16-13 win.

The reality here is Cornell’s offense proved they are fully legit as they were able to pull out this 3 goal win despite losing 19 of 33 faceoffs and their goalkeeper Chayse Ierlan struggled stopped just 8 of the 21 shots he faced.

Cornell didn’t shoot the ball particularly well scoring on only 16 of the 60 shots they took on the day, just a .026 shooting percentage.

What Cornell did do though was never stopped never stopping when it came to attacking the Ohio State defense. And despite their high volume of shots with a low shooting percentage, they took much better care of the ball than Ohio State did overall and that helped them edge the Buckeyes out on the scoreboard.

For Cornell:  Billy Coyle (4g, 2a), CJ Kirst (4g, 1a), Brian Piatelli (3g), Hugh Kelleher (2g), Chris Davis (3 caused turnovers, 3gbs), Chayse Ierlan (8 saves, 13 goals against)

For Ohio State:  Ed Shean (4g), Jack Myers (3a), Scott White (2g, 1a), Skyler Wahlund (15 saves vs 16 goals against)

Georgetown – 13
#5 Princeton – 10

The Hoya’s were finally able to get their offense going against a Princeton squad that came into this game ranked #5 in IL’s media poll despite me having them at #12 in my own poll.  I’ve felt Princeton has been “overranked” so far this season and that showed today as they fell to unranked and battered Georgetown.

After Princeton was able to knot things up at 4’s late in the 1st quarter, Tucker Dordevic sniped a man up goal from deep with Jacob Kelly getting credit for the dish.

Just under two minutes later, a loose ball was scooped up by Kelly and he found Declan McDermott who stepped down and laced a low to low goal giving the Hoyas a 7-4 lead.

Princeton would get back to within a goal a bit later, but the Hoyas had an answer and slow rolled to as much as a 6 goal lead before allowing Princeton to claw back late and make the score look more respectable.

One thing to note, the Hoyas still didn’t shoot the ball incredibly well.  Dordevic scored 3 goals off 11 shots.  Graham Bundy Jr’s shooting woes continued with him scoring just a single goal off 10 shots. Bundy Jr. has a case of the yips so far this season scoring 8 goals off 36 shots for a .222 shooting percentage.  He’ll eventually figure that out, but his lack of production has hurt the Hoyas a bit in terms of offensive flow and chemistry.

For Georgetown:  Brian Minicus (3g, 2a), Declan McDermott & Tucker Dordevic (3g), Will Bowen (2 caused turnovers, 2 groundballs), Michael Scharfenberger (15 saves vs 10 goals against)

For Princeton:  Coulter Mackesy (5g, 1a), Jake Stevens (3g, 1a)

#12 Saint Joseph’s – 14
#15 Johns Hopkins – 15

While this game came right down to the wire, Hopkins was able to control the scoreboard for the bulk of the game and hold Saint Joe’s back just enough to pick up the 1 goal win.

It was Dylan Bauer that scored the dagger for Hopkins with 10:30 left in the 4th quarter giving the Jay’s a 15-12 lead.

Factoring huge in this victory for Hopkins was the Jay’s faceoff man Tyler Dunn.  Zach Cole is an absolute killer at the dot for Saint Joseph’s and Dunn had his work cut out for him in this one.  He won 18 of 32 with 10 groundballs and a goal and without that effort I don’t see how Hopkins could have won this game. Cole came into this game winning 77.2% of his draws and Dunn put him under 50% for the first time this season.

For Johns Hopkins:  Jacob Angelus (2g, 6a), Garrett Degnon (4g, 1a), Matt Collison (2g, 1a), Tyler Dunn (18 of 32 faceoffs, 10gbs, 1g), Brett Martin (3 caused turnovers, 1gb), Tim Marcille (11 saves vs 14 goals against)

For Saint Joseph’s:  Carter Page (4g), Levi Anderson (1g, 2a), Tucker Brown (3g), Zach Cole (15 of 33 faceoffs, 8gbs)

#10 Penn – 9
#17 Penn State – 15

Penn took a 9-8 lead with 2:33 left in the third quarter off an unassisted James Shipley goal, and from there things got rough as Penn State went on a 7-goal run to take the lead back and eventually win the game.

It was Matt Traynor scoring from Chris Jordan with 9:59 left, a man up opportunity, that ended up being the game winning goal.

Penn State ended up on the better side of just about every stat category other than clears.  They outshot, out groundballed and out faceoff’d the Quackers.  They also went 1 of 4 on extra man opportunities while holding Penn to 0 for 3.

The Penn State defense held Sam Handley to just 1 goal and 2 assists off 6 shots.  Kevin Wincoff went off for the Nittany Lions dropping 5 goals off just 7 shots.

Chase Mullins won 19 of 29 draws for Penn State giving them a hefty possession advantage that paid off over the course of the second half.  Mullins won 8 of 13 by halftime but played a bit better over the course of the second half winning 11 of 16.  That dominant second half proved key in the 7 goal Penn State run.

For Penn State:  Kevin Winkoff (5g), Mac Costin (3g), Matt Traynor (1g, 2a), Chase Mullins (19 of 29 faceoffs, 8gbs), Grant Haus (2 caused turnovers, 6 gbs), Jack Fracyon (9 saves vs 9 goals against)

For Penn:  James Shipley (3g), Sam Handley (1g, 2a), Emmet Carroll (16 saves vs 15 goals against)

Michigan – 16
#19 Delaware – 12

Delaware held a 9-5 lead with 2:43 left in the first half off a goal by Matt Acchione from who I presume is his brother Cam Acchione.

But the Wolverines would go on a monster 9-goal run that took over 15 minutes of game clock to play out, flipping the script on the Blue Hens and taking a 13-9 lead after Michael Boehm scored from Ryan Cohen with 1:03 left in the 3rd quarter.

Michigan made Matt Kilkeary’s day miserable in cage as the Blue Hens keeper only stopped 7 shots vs 16 goals against.

Delaware missing Mike Robinson is still hurting them, but if he’s going to continue to miss time they are going to need to figure it out before hitting conference play.

For Michigan:  Josh Zawada (3g, 3a), Ryan Cohen (2g, 4a), Michael Boehm (3g), Shane Carr (6 saves vs 3 goals against)

For Delaware:  Tye Kurtz (4g, 2a), Clay Miller (2g, 2a)

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