The Post-Week Tailgate: February 25, 2024

College lacrosse season has officially begun.

Yes, we’ve been playing for a month, had plenty of games, great plays, fantastic finishes and upsets, but now we’ve got a little bit of chaos.

Georgetown began the season 0-2 with road games at Penn and reigning national champion Notre Dame looming. The thought of a second straight 0-3 start … and even 0-4 start seemed very possible for the Hoyas.

Instead, Georgetown is the toast of college lacrosse after beating Penn last week and then stunning the Irish in front of a nationally-televised audience on Sunday afternoon.

The most improbable part of the game was Georgetown putting the lid on Notre Dame’s offense. The Irish had scored 46 goals in the first two games, but the Hoyas limited Notre Dame to just 10 goals – a number that didn’t seem likely to happen with all of the weapons and the fact that Notre Dame won 15 of 23 faceoffs.

Georgetown goalie Anderson Moore made 11 saves, including one on Devon McLane in overtime. Aidan Carroll’s overtime winner then set off a wild celebration for the Hoyas.

Better than the goal was Kevin Warne’s somersault after the winner. The always emotional Warne is must-watch TV, as is Quint Kessnich's laugh.

 

 

 

 

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Random Observations

Exhibit A as to why lacrosse is not yet ready for replay review. The announcer during the Towson game at Saint Joseph’s on Friday afternoon: “As the officials are looking at the iPad…”

That said, replay review properly disallowed a goal in Delaware’s game at Penn. After a quick restart just before halftime, two balls ended up in play – one from a Penn defender trying to save the ball from going out of bounds and one from a Delaware offensive player on the restart. A potential Delaware goal was waved off and the Blue Hens got the ball back with eight seconds left and did not score.

It loomed large – Penn rallied in the second half to beat Delaware 11-10. Penn’s Tynan Walsh had seven points (2g, 5a), Mac Eldridge won 15 of 19 faceoffs and Emmet Carroll made 16 saves.

Year one under Matt Brown continues to bring great results for Denver. The Pioneers outgunned Cornell 17-16, rallying in the fourth quarter to improve to 4-0 – its third victory by two goals or less. Matt Meyer was at Peter Barton Stadium in Denver on Saturday covering the game for us.

Johns Hopkins has bounced back from what could have been a crushing start by Denver to start the season. The Blue Jays led that game by four in the second half before losing in overtime. Since then, they’ve ripped off four straight wins, including an impressive 13-9 win at North Carolina on Saturday. Chayse Ierlan made 13 saves and midfielder Brendan Grimes had a season-high three goals.

By the Numbers

1.8 • Average margin of victory for NJIT in its five wins to the open the season. The Highlanders are the best story in the country this year – a program that had 10 wins in its first nine seasons combined – now has the best record in the country at 5-0. Saturday’s win over Manhattan was the first game that NJIT did not have to come from behind, but it had still had drama has Owen Corry scored the game-winner with 51 seconds left after Manhattan had scored four straight.

5 • Overtime games in men’s Division I lacrosse this weekend:

• Georgetown’s win over Notre Dame highlighted above.
• Jack Joyner was the hero for Drexel in a 13-12 win over Albany, the Dragons second overtime win of the season.
• Providence scored twice in the final 1:05 of regulation to force overtime and then beat city rival Brown 12-11 on Jack Horrigan’s goal.
• Air Force got its first win of the season on Aidan Tolen’s overtime winner in a 12-11 victory over Stony Brook. The game was tied seven times.
• Hunter Parucki scored the winner for Canisius in an 8-7 win at Robert Morris after the Golden Griffins trailed by two in the fourth quarter.

53 • Saves for Quinnipiac goalie Mason Oak in the first three games of the season, all victories for the Bobcats. He had 19 in a 13-10 win over Bryant on Saturday. The 3-0 start is the first for the school since 2013.

7 • Goals that Harvard trailed Bucknell by before rallying in the fourth quarter to win 13-12 in a neutral site game at Staples (Conn.) High School. Harvard was down 8-1 early and still down 10-6 entering the fourth quarter before erupting for seven goals in the fourth. Teddy Malone had a hat trick for Harvard with two goals in the fourth quarter.

2 • Goals for North Carolina SSDM Ty English in the Tar Heels 13-9 loss to Johns Hopkins. English seemed to be everywhere, picking up one-handed ground balls and causing turnovers.

15 • Saves for Penn State goalie Jack Fracyon as the Nittany Lions smothered Navy 13-3.