The Post-Week Tailgate: February 12, 2023

It’s February, so a Duke loss doesn’t raise many eyebrows. Jacksonville’s 13-12 win over Duke was, in fact, the second straight year the Blue Devils lost to the Dolphins in February.

But Maryland losing to Loyola? Definitely didn’t see that one coming. My colleague Matt DaSilva wrote that Maryland “should not sweat its first visit to Evergreen since 2013” in our Weekend One-Liners preview.

Sweat they did. Loyola dominated the fourth quarter in a 12-7 victory over the defending champs, handing the No. 2 Terps their first loss since the 2021 NCAA championship game.

A few miles up the road, Loyola’s rival, Johns Hopkins, was busy pulling off its own upset with some fourth quarter magic. The Blue Jays scored five straight goals to open the fourth quarter, stunning No. 3 Georgetown, ultimately winning the game 13-12 for what’s easily the signature win of the Peter Milliman era.

Wrapping up the day, Air Force upset No. 12 Denver, 12-10, its first win over the Pioneers since 2009 – the year before Bill Tierney took over as Denver’s head coach.

Welcome to February.

Random Observations

It's hard to picture a better coach to keep Joey Spallina calm than Gary Gait. Gait always seems unflappable and Spallina calmly answered the social media keyboard warriors who blistered him following a 1-for-15 shooting performance in his collegiate debut last weekend. Spallina scored five goals, on just seven shots, as Syracuse beat Albany 20-8 on Friday night. He followed that up with another five-goal game (again on seven shots) and two assists in Sunday’s 15-6 win over Holy Cross.

I found it ironic that the lead-in to the first linear broadcast of the season – Michigan at Virginia on the ACC Network – was a show chronicling the history of the ACC men’s basketball tournament. Naturally, the ACC will once again not have a men’s lacrosse tournament this season.

I remember talking with then Michigan coach John Paul at the USA Lacrosse Convention one year, imagining star college football players picking up a lacrosse stick. This was during the Reggie Bush era at USC. Can you imagine?

We’re getting a taste of that this year with three FBS football players from the fall of 2022 playing lacrosse in 2023 — Navy’s Xavier Arline, Virginia’s Ricky Miezan (football at Stanford) and Maryland’s Dante Trader. You’ll get more on their stories in the next print edition of USA Lacrosse Magazine.

Miezan made his debut for Virginia on Saturday, his first regular season lacrosse game since his senior year of high school at Episcopal (Va.) in 2018. He didn’t get a lot of runs, but showed he will be a factor this year. He scored on a downhill dodge up the right alley on his first collegiate shot and showed good vision on a pass that sailed high on a back cut to Payton Cormier.

FROM @StanfordFball TO @UVAMensLax

Ricky Miezan has arrived in the first quarter with a goal. pic.twitter.com/NITh7h4LBR

— USA Lacrosse Magazine (@USALacrosseMag) February 11, 2023

Michigan guarded him with a shortstick, something many teams are likely to try due to the abundance of talented players for Virginia’s offense, but the 6-foot-2, 235-pound midfielder might prove to be too difficult of a matchup for most shorties.

The Boston accents and small-town nostalgia in a Massachusetts State Lottery commercial shown during the UMass-Army game really made me want to drive there to buy a lottery ticket.

The prevalence of ESPN in the college lacrosse landscape really makes it hard for schools on other platforms to get exposure. It’s just too easy to bounce from one ESPN+ game to another versus opening up a new app.

How many times has Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train been played at college lacrosse games over the years?

Mustang Sally is the best name in the sport. His given name is August, but the Loyola shortstick midfielder was given the nickname by his father as a child and it stuck. Sally had a key momentum goal in the Greyhounds win over Maryland.

MAJOR #UPSETALERT IN BALTIMORE.

Mustang Sally rips this one home and @LoyolaMLAX now leads @TerpsMLax 11-6.

The defending champs are on the ropes. pic.twitter.com/bqYOU1pH9C

— USA Lacrosse Magazine (@USALacrosseMag) February 11, 2023

Welcome home Russell Melendez. The Maryland native had 21 points in limited action in two years at Marquette, missing almost all of the 2022 season with an injury. He transferred to Johns Hopkins and had a game-high four goals, including the game-tying goal in the fourth quarter of the Blue Jays 13-12 upset over Georgetown.

What’s in the water in Portland? On a day when Vermont’s leading scorer from 2022, Thomas McConvey, scored six points in his Virginia debut, the Catamounts got a career-high five goals from Portland, Oregon native Jonas Hunter in a 14-12 win over No. 17 Boston University. The Portland area, where USA Lacrosse is headed for a big weekend of events later this month, had five players named to the USA Lacrosse Magazine preseason All-America team.

By the Numbers

2 • Announcers on a game is definitely more entertaining than solo commentary. Or zero in the case of Michigan-Virginia when audio difficulties silenced Anish Shroff and Paul Carcaterra for the entire first half. BTW, thanks to Air Force announcers Jeffrey Orman and Danny Bellissimo for some entertaining commentary on YouTube on Saturday afternoon. Awesome to feel the excitement.

16 • Players that scored goals for North Carolina in its 25-3 season-opening win over Mercer. The Tar Heels lost a “generational talent” in Chris Gray, but head coach Joe Breschi thinks Carolina might be able to spread the wealth better this year.

56.3 • Virginia’s shooting percentage (9 of 16) in the first half against Michigan. The Cavaliers cooled off some in the second half of its 17-13 win, but a Virginia offense that efficient is scary.

7 • Consecutive wins for Army over UMass until the Minutemen ended the streak with a 10-8 win on Saturday. UMass goalie Matt Knote made 19 saves in the victory in front of the Gorilla faithful.

8:44 • Amount of time needed by Jacksonville for a six-goal run that flipped the game in its 13-12 upset victory over No. 7 Duke, the second straight year the Dolphins have beaten the Blue Devils.

0 • Number of current Loyola players that have won a Patriot League championship. You wouldn’t have guessed that lack of championship pedigree based on their composure in the win over Maryland.

7 • Career-high points for Navy’s Xavier Arline (3g, 4a) in the Mids’ 13-12 (a lot of games with that score) win at Hofstra. Navy is off to a 3-0 start.

6.0 • Goals allowed per game by Syracuse in its 3-0 start. Safe to say defensive coordinator Dave Pietramala is having an impact for the Orange.

Brian Logue is the senior director of communications for USA Lacrosse. He’s worked for the organization since 2000.