Cornell and Yale, the Ivy League teams with the best NCAA tournament resumes, both lost on Friday night in the conference tournament semifinals, setting up a harrowing 48 hours for teams on the NCAA tournament bubble.
For the second time in a row, Princeton picked up a key victory over Yale to keep its NCAA tournament hopes alive, while Penn shut down Cornell’s high-octane offense in a 13-9 victory on the Big Red’s home field.
Princeton scored the final three goals of the game on Friday to pull away from a one-goal lead in its 14-10 win over Yale.
Yale has been decimated by injuries all season, most recently with faceoff specialist Machado Rodriguez. Rodriguez was leading the NCAA in faceoff winning percentage at the time of his injury and had not played since an April 13 win over Dartmouth.
Rodriguez gave it a go against Princeton, but was limited by his hamstring injury and Princeton’s Andrew McMeekin stayed red-hot, winning 20 of 28 in the game while scoring his eighth goal of the season, a key tally in Princeton’s three-goal run to close the game.
Sophmore Chad Palumbo had a career-high five goals for Princeon and freshman Nate Kabiri had four assists. Michael Gianforcaro made 16 saves.
Yale’s Matt Brandau had a team-high four points on one goal and three assists, pushing his nation-leading total to 101 points this year. Yale goalie Jared Paquette made 16 saves, 13 of them coming in the first half to keep Yale in the game.
Penn held Cornell six goals below its season-scoring average to continue the chaos on Friday night in the second game. Quaker goalie Emmet Carroll continued his monster season with 19 saves and Penn’s ride forced two critical failed clears in the fourth quarter. Penn also killed off a two-minute unreleasable penalty in the fourth quarter.
Ben Smith paced Penn’s offense with three goals and Leo Hoffman, Conell Kumar, Davis Provost and James Shipley each scored twice.
Luke Gilmartin and Ryan Goldstein each scored twice, but Penn defenseman Brendan Lavelle limited Cornell star C.J. Kirst to just one assist.
Boston U, Lehigh Last Ones Standing in Patriot League
Of course they did.
Is anyone surprised that Boston University gave us a game to remember? The Terriers played their fifth straight one-goal game, knocking off top-seeded Army West Point 11-10 in overtime in the semifinal round of the Patriot League Men’s Lacrosse Championship.
BU has won the last three of those one-goal affairs, rallying to beat Colgate 13-12 in the regular season finale to earn a home game in the Patriot League quarterfinals. They used that advantage to edge Colgate 18-17 in triple overtime on Tuesday in the quarterfinals and then pulled out Friday’s game against Army despite playing from behind most of the day.
Boston U didn’t take its first lead until defensive whiz Roy Meyer scored from his wing position on the faceoff with 1:06 left in regulation, moments after Louis Perfetto had tied the game. Meyer, a veteran of many Patriot League battles, gestured for his team to calm down knowing it wasn’t over.
It wasn’t.
Army star faceoff specialist Will Coletti won the next faceoff and scored just three seconds later to tie the game at 10.
BU won the ensuing faceoff on a violation and then Army got flagged for an interference call with 10 seconds remaining in regulation. The Terriers burned out the clock and held the ball, negating the need for a faceoff to start overtime.
Just as the penalty was expiring in overtime, Jake Cates buried the game-winner from the left wing off a Perfetto feed.
Cates and Vince D’Alto each scored three times for Boston U and Perfetto had a goal and three assists. Will Barnes made 15 saves and Matthew Fritz won 14 of 23 faceoffs.
Jackson Eicher (2g, 2a) and Reese Burek (1g, 3a) each had four points for Army and Sean Byrne made 16 saves.
Boston U ended Army’s unbeaten start to the season back on March 22 and likely outright ended their season on Friday night. The Black Knights have an 11-3 record and a signature win over Syracuse, but will have a tough task to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
Boston U will meet a streaking Lehigh team in Sunday’s Patriot League championship game. The Mountain Hawks controlled Navy 12-8 in Friday’s second semifinal to secure their fifth straight victory.
Lehigh went on a six-goal run beginning late in the third quarter to break open a 5-5 tie and move into the championship game under first-year head coach Will Scudder.
Scott Cole led the Mountain Hawks with a hat trick, including two goals during the six-goal run and Richard Checo was a menace on defense with a career-high eight caused turnovers and eight ground balls.
Lehigh edged Boston U 13-12 in overtime during the regular season meeting between the two schools. Lehigh scored two goals in the final 90 seconds to force overtime before pulling out the victory.
