The Post-Week Tailgate: March 24, 2024

Previously unbeaten Army’s loss to Boston University on Friday night means there will be a new No. 1 this in a couple of the polls this week – Notre Dame is likely to remain in the top spot in the USA Lacrosse Magazine rankings – but the biggest story of the week didn’t change over the weekend.

People are still talking about Syracuse’s complete shutdown of Duke’s vaunted offense from Wednesday night. Duke never got anything going in a 10-4 loss, the Blue Devil’s worst offensive output since a 7-3 loss to Notre Dame in 2012.

Duke’s starting attack of Brennan O’Neill, Dyson Williams and Josh Zawada entered that game with 739 points combined in their college lacrosse careers. O’Neill was held to a goal and an assist on 11 shots, Zawada had one goal and Williams was held without a point. The midfield was unable to pick up the slack.

“Is Syracuse back” has been a meme for what feels like a decade at this point, but it doesn’t feel like there’s any question anymore. Syracuse is indeed back.

Will Mark has been solid in goal all season and outstanding in the last three games (41 saves, 17 goals allowed). Other coaches were raving about the team defense they played against Duke and they showed they can win with a variety of offensive weapons after Joey Spallina was limited to just two assists in the win over Duke.

The Orange suffered no hangover effect from the Duke win, beating longtime rival Hobart, 13-7, on Saturday to improve to 9-2 this season.

Syracuse won’t be our No. 1 team this week, but it’s playing like one. The two losses have both come in overtime – to Maryland and Army – and the Orange will get a chance to further its stock this weekend when it plays at Notre Dame on Saturday.

Random Observations 

Duke got a bounce-back victory with an 11-7 win over Denver earlier today at Archbishop Spalding in Severn, Md. Duke scored the first four goals of the game, but Denver came back and the Blue Devils led just 7-6 midway through the fourth quarter after back-to-back goals by the Pioneers. The attack answered the call with O’Neill, Zawada and Williams ripping off three straight goals to seal the win. 

It was a much-needed win for Duke in many ways, including for its NCAA tournament resume. Duke’s schedule has a slew of good opponents, but not great ones besides its ACC slate. After being left out of the dance in 2022, Duke knows full-well nothing is guaranteed despite its runner-up finish a year ago.

Boston University continues to be a thorn in Army’s side. The Terriers’ 14-9 win on Friday night was the third straight time it has beaten the Black Knights in the series, including the 2022 Patriot League championship game. BU scored the first four goals of the game and never trailed in beating the highest-ranked opponent in school history – it previously beat No. 2 Loyola in 2019.

Will Coletti won 17 of 26 faceoffs to give Army plenty of chances, but it was a cold-shooting night with just over half of its shots (24 of 46) on cage and BU goalie Will Barnes made 15 saves.

The Patriot League in general now seems poised to bring its usual brand of chaos in league play. Colgate leads the league at 3-0 and is followed by Boston University and Army just a half-game back at 3-1. The league has also picked up some truly big nonconference wins: Colgate over Penn State, Army over Syracuse and Rutgers, Loyola over Georgetown and Navy over Johns Hopkins. Is this a year we’ll see multiple Patriot League teams in the tournament?

Speaking of nemeses, who would’ve thought that Michigan would fill that role for Maryland? The Wolverines, led by former Maryland assistant Kevin Conry, coming off of back-to-back losses to Harvard and Notre Dame, righted the ship with a 12-11 win over Maryland. It was Michigan's third straight win over the Terps, including last year’s Big Ten championship game.

Lehigh grad transfer Justin Tiernan continued his monster season for Michigan by scoring the game-tying and winning goals against Maryland. Tiernan had five goals – the fourth time he’s accomplished that feat this year – and now has 37 goals in just nine games for the Wolverines.

Albany started off the season losing its first four games, but let’s not bury the longtime America East power just yet. The Great Danes have since won three of the their last four games, with only a 16-10 loss at Virginia in a game that was tied at the half. Albany followed that up with a 13-11 win over conference rival Vermont, its first win over the Catamounts in the regular season since 2018.

Vermont’s Jake Pisano, who jumped into the spotlight after being named the outstanding defender at last summer’s world championship playing for the Haudenosaunee, was a terror against Virginia. He had three caused turnovers, four groundballs and two goals. Just how much does Scott Marr value Pisano? At one point against Virginia he had him on offense … coming out of a timeout.

In the arguments about who is best and headed to the tournament, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight that once the first whistle blows, for the players on that field it’s the only game that matters. It was really cool to see the pure joy from Brown and Mount St. Mary’s after each picked up their first wins of the season.

Friday dub#EverTrue pic.twitter.com/bK9T3P4JWG

— Brown Men's Lacrosse (@BrownU_MLAX) March 22, 2024

Congratulations to our Commander in Chief, Coach Ryan on his first win at the Mount!#GoMount #MountUp pic.twitter.com/x83s1b0m7D

— Mount St. Mary's Men's Lacrosse (@Mount_MLAX) March 23, 2024

By the Numbers

1 • Number of unbeaten NCAA Division I teams. Quinnipiac improved to 7-0 with a 13-10 win over last year’s MAAC champion, Marist. Marist ended Quinnipiac’s season in 2023 with a 29-19 setback in the MAAC tournament. Quinnipiac fell behind early on Saturday, but scored five straight goals in the second quarter and then shut out Marist in the third quarter.

2,570 • Record crowd at the University of Michigan Lacrosse Stadium to see the Wolverines beat Maryland 12-11.

212 • Career points for Michigan’s Michael Boehm, just one away from tying Josh Zawada’s school record of 213 at the varsity level. Boehm’s brother-in-law, Trevor Yealy, played on Michigan’s first varsity team, but before that scored 298 points, including an MCLA record 283 goals, for Michigan’s club team.

7 • Consecutive goals by High Point to close the game to beat North Carolina, 12-11, for the first time in program history. The game-winner came with 22 seconds left on this amazing BTB pass from Brayden Mayea to Jack Sawyer.

THAT PASS 😳

THAT SHOT 😱@HPUMensLax just took down UNC for the first time ever on this Mayea ➡️ Sawyer beauty pic.twitter.com/Ut5EX3CJyN

— USA Lacrosse Magazine (@USALacrosseMag) March 23, 2024

25 • Consecutive minutes Ohio State went without a goal on Sunday in a 12-9 loss to Penn State. After taking a 7-4 lead late in the second quarter, Ohio State did not score again until Ed Shean tied the game 8-8 with 6:31 to play. PSU's Jake Morin answered 25 seconds later to ignite a four-goal run and the Nittany Lions won their seventh straight game since opening the season with a one-goal loss to Colgate.

14 • Career-high saves for Georgetown freshman goalie Anderson Moore in the Hoyas 14-8 win over Richmond. Georgetown has won six straight games.

0 • Blades of green turf visible, or at least very few, in Penn’s 11-8 victory at Dartmouth. Dartmouth coach Sean Kirwan clearly learned a thing or two about optimism from his old mentor, Virginia coach Lars Tiffany. “When you grow up as a kid, playing snow lacrosse is something that is always a blast," Kirwan said. "As college athletes, to get that opportunity was awesome.”

❄️🥍 SNOW CROSSE 2024 ❄️🥍 pic.twitter.com/pw2ron14kE

— USA Lacrosse Magazine (@USALacrosseMag) March 23, 2024

5 • Career-high goals for Princeton star freshman Nate Kabiri in a 14-11 win at Harvard.