The Post-Week Tailgate: March 12, 2023

The Ivy League sent six teams to the NCAA tournament last season, but Saturday was not a banner day for the league. The losses included three head-to-head showdowns against Big Ten teams (Cornell to Penn State, Harvard to Michigan and Princeton to Rutgers), a depleted Brown roster getting blown out at North Carolina and Penn surrendering a late lead in a one-goal loss to rival Villanova at home.

Of the six Ivy League teams in action on Saturday, only Yale was victorious. The Bulldogs got three goals and two assists from Matt Brandau in an important 11-9 victory over Denver.

Conversely, the ACC, which placed only one team in the tournament last year, almost went perfect this weekend. Duke and Notre Dame had dominant top 10 wins over Loyola and Ohio State, respectively; North Carolina had the 19-6 win over Brown and top-ranked Virginia overcame a slow start to beat Towson 19-12.

The ACC’s only loss came from Syracuse, which had a one-goal lead in the fourth quarter, but ended up falling to Johns Hopkins 11-9, its fourth straight loss.

Here’s a look at the week in college men’s lacrosse.

Random Observations

How much is Brennan O’Neill’s eye-black budget? My sympathies to whomever has to wash Duke’s uniforms.

Johns Hopkins and Virginia on a Tuesday afternoon just doesn’t feel right. The historic nature of the rivalry just screams for a bigger stage.

Penn State’s run to the 2019 NCAA semifinals was fueled by an explosive offense. On Saturday, the Nittany Lions showed they can beat an elite team with defense.

Sophomore goalie Jack Fracyon made 16 saves, 10 of them in the first half, and Penn State eventually broke through Cornell goalie Chayse Ierlan (21 saves) to beat the unbeaten and third-ranked Big Red 10-6 on the road.

Penn State has now won four straight, three of them against nationally-ranked Ivy League teams, to improve to 5-1.

Pretty cool that two-time Tewaaraton winner and USA gold medalist Charlotte North was in the booth for the ACC Network’s telecast of the Notre Dame-Ohio State game.

North won an NCAA championship at Boston College in 2021 and as Paul Carcaterra noted, Notre Dame has the look of a national championship-type team. Notre Dame thoroughly dominated Ohio State, winning 16-3. The Irish defense looks a vintage Notre Dame unit and the offense has a little extra zip to it.

Notre Dame is riding an 11-game winning streak, the longest current streak in Division I, and averages 16.6 goals per game.

Interesting comments during the Princeton – Rutgers broadcast about Matt Madalon and Brian Brecht making an effort to make sure their rivalry game is always on a weekend to help showcase New Jersey lacrosse.

The Garden State rivals put on a worthy performance Saturday, with Rutgers winning 14-13 in overtime before 2,837 fans at SHI Stadium.

USA U21 alum Shane Knobloch carried the ball to the left side and then found Dante Kulas on the right doorstep for the game-winner with the shot clock winding down on the opening possession of overtime.

WHAT A WIN@DanteKulas with the OT game-winner for @RUmlax to take down No. 13 Princeton.  pic.twitter.com/oJofOkpBLQ

— Rutgers On BTN (@RutgersOnBTN) March 11, 2023

It was the 100^th meeting in the series between the two schools, which has been played annually since 1922, with exceptions in 1944 and 1945 during World War II and 2021 when Big Ten teams played only conference games due to the COVID pandemic.

Penn State, Villanova and Yale are becoming an interesting trio. Penn State beat Yale, Yale beat Villanova and Villanova beat Penn State. Those three losses are the only losses they’ve suffered in 2023. The three schools are a combined 10-0 against everyone else.

Virginia has looked like the clear No. 1 team in the nation for much of the season. Quint Kessenich called their early knockout wins “Mike Tyson-like”, but, oh man, what a gauntlet they have coming up in the next five games: Maryland, at Notre Dame, Duke, at North Carolina and at Duke.

Do college lacrosse players realize how much work their parents do for their postgame tailgates? Kudos to the moms and dads that leave the game early to pick up the food and set up for the party. You’re the inspiration for this weekly column’s title.

By the Numbers

2003 • The last time Dartmouth started a season 4-0 before Tuesday’s 20-16 victory over Hobart gave the Big Green a 4-0 start this year. That’s also the only year Dartmouth made the NCAA tournament.

18 • Number of games Hobart has lost since 2019. An amazing stat shared by the WHWS broadcasters is that they’ve had a lead in 15 of those losses, including a 7-1 lead against Dartmouth on Tuesday. Hobart is 31-18 since the start of 2019 – just imagine if they could have held on to a few more of those leads.

3 • Saves by LIU goalie Sean Gillman in the final 3:19 of the game, including one with four seconds left, as the Sharks beat VMI 14-13 in their first-ever MAAC game.

19 • Saves by Richmond goalie Zach Vigue in a losing effort to Georgetown. The Hoyas Nicky Solomon scored the final two goals of the game to help the Hoyas win 13-12 and avoid the upset.

7 • Consecutive goals scored by Harvard to take a 9-3 lead on Michigan midway through the second quarter. The Wolverines answered with six straight and outscored Harvard 16-4 after the Crimson’s run to win 19-13.

3 • Goals scored by NJIT in the final 1:43 of the game to beat Lindenwood 14-13, including Keegan Ford’s as time expired. The Highlanders have now two straight games for the first time in program history, dating back to 2015.

WHAT A SEQUENCE. @NJITMLAX downs Lindenwood on one of the most unlikely game-winners you’ll ever see. pic.twitter.com/ssZWjHGYQB

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

8 • Number of games that High Point (6-2) has played in the first 33 days of the season. The Panthers topped Robert Morris 16-14 on Saturday as Jack VanOverbeke had a career-high 10 points (4g, 6a).

21 • Career-high saves for Colgate goalie Matt LaCombe as the Raiders picked up their first win of 2023, beating Navy 17-8.

5 • Consecutive wins for Bellarmine since dropping its season-opener to Duke. The Knights held off Marquette 11-10 on Saturday in Milwaukee.

100 • Career wins for Boston University head coach Ryan Polley after the Terriers beat Bucknell 14-12 on Saturday. Louis Perfetto had seven assists in the win.

10 • Saves by Towson goalie Evan Long in the first quarter against top-ranked Virginia. He finished the game with 19.

21 • Career-high saves for Johns Hopkins goalie Tim Marcille in the Blue Jays 11-9 victory at Syracuse. He has 102 saves in seven games this year, recording double-digit saves in every game.