Who’s No. 1?
Denver, Maryland and Johns Hopkins — the top three teams in the Nike/US Lacrosse Division I Men’s Top 20 — all went down this weekend. It paves the way for a new king come Monday.
No. 4 Notre Dame seems most likely to ascend, even if its 5-4 win over Maryland in South Bend did not inspire much confidence in either team.
No. 5 Penn State, meanwhile, continued its torrid start to the season with a 14-13 victory over No. 7 Penn.
And then you have defending NCAA champion North Carolina. The No. 6 Tar Heels, blunted last week by Johns Hopkins, responded with a resounding win over the top-ranked Pioneers in Denver.
Hold onto your hats.
Notre Dame Wins Defensive Duel
They’re not all pretty.
Notre Dame attackman Mikey Wynne swooped from behind to check the ball out of Maryland faceoff specialist Austin Henningsen’s stick in the final seconds to preserve the No. 4 Fighting Irish’s 5-4 victory Saturday over the No. 2 Terrapins in South Bend.
The last gaffe was Maryland’s 20th turnover of the game, a defensive struggle that also saw Notre Dame cough up the ball 17 times. Goalie Dan Morris (13 saves) kept the Terps in the game. Neither Notre Dame’s Sergio Perkovic (0-for-8 shooting) nor Maryland’s Matt Rambo (0-for-3, four turnovers) could muster much of anything
against defenses that were quick to slide to them and even quicker to recover.
Garrett Epple caused four turnovers and scooped six ground balls to lead the unbeaten Irish (3-0). Notre Dame attackman Brendan Gleason and Terps midfielder Conor Kelly scored two goals apiece. Maryland fell to 4-1.
Down Goes Denver
North Carolina unveiled a new look and breathed new life into its NCAA championship defense.
Rocking new navy helmets featuring a split decal of the school mascot Rameses, the No. 6 Tar Heels upset No. 1 Denver 13-9 on the road Saturday.
North Carolina’s offense, which looked listless in a 13-5 loss to Johns Hopkins last week, sprung for 13 goals against a Pioneers defense that came in surrendering just 5.25 per game (third-best in Division I) and recently shut out Canisius. Luke Goldstock scored four goals and added an assist in the victory.
The Tar Heels (4-1) led by as many as five goals and never trailed in the game, as goalie Brian Balkam made a career-high 17 saves.
#WeAre 5-0
Sophomore midfielder Nick Spillane equaled his previous career total with five goals Saturday, leading No. 5 Penn State to a 14-13 comeback win over No. 7 Penn at Holuba Hall in University Park, Pa.
The Nittany Lions (5-0) came in averaging 18.25 goals per game, ranking second in Division I. The Quakers (2-1) came in with the nation’s eighth-ranked defense allowing just 7.5 goals per game. Something had to give.
And for 30 minutes, it looked like Penn, coming off an eye-opening upset of Virginia, might have its way. The Quakers held Penn State’s prolific offense scoreless for more than 20 minutes while building a 6-2 lead. It was 7-4 at halftime.
“I don’t know if it could have gotten any worse than it was in the first half,” Nittany Lions coach Jeff Tambroni said afterward.
Coach Tambroni comments on second half improvement and Nick Spillane's big day. #WeAre pic.twitter.com/wMHfhabEJJ
— Penn State Lacrosse (@PennStateMLAX) March 4, 2017
The tables turned in the second half, with freshman faceoff man Gerard Arceri (24-for-31) providing Penn State the momentum. The Nittany Lions scored seven goals in the third quarter to go ahead 11-10 and then held off Penn late, thanks to two fourth-quarter goals from Spillane, whose breakout performance came on a day when Penn State’s vaunted attackmen were relegated to being feeders.
Mac O’Keefe, the nation’s top scorer with 25 goals, managed just one Saturday. Line mates Grant Ament and Nick Aponte combined for five assists. Spillane scored his five goals on just six shots.
“He played with a lot of confidence,” Tambroni said. “He was smiling the whole game, which was nice, to see him just enjoying the competition. … He works like this every day in practice. We see this all the time. His effort certainly paid off today.”
BU Banks on Carson-Banister
Senior goalkeeper Christian Carson-Banister made 17 saves, including seven in the fourth quarter, to lead No. 20 Boston University to an 8-6 win Saturday over visiting Air Force. The Terriers are 6-0.
Spencer Sets Patriot League Record
Pat Spencer broke the Patriot League single-game record with nine assists Saturday in Loyola’s 16-9 win over visiting Holy Cross. Spencer added a goal to tie his career high with 10 points.
Strong Island
No. 13 Stony Brook is 4-0 for the first time in school history after defeating Fairfield 9-6 in its home opener Saturday. The Seawolves’ hot start includes a big win last week over 2016 NCAA semifinalist Brown in a 25-17 slugfest.
Long Island’s other team, Hofstra, also is 4-0 after downing Georgetown on the road 11-9. The Pride’s 10-8 win over Princeton should carry additional weight after the Tigers shellacked Johns Hopkins on Friday. Freshman Ryan Tierney, the son of Hofstra coach Seth Tierney, has proven to be the perfect complement to first-team All-CAA scorer Josh Byrne on the Pride attack. He had four goals and an assist in Saturday’s win over the Hoyas.
Nike/US Lacrosse Top 20 Scoreboard
No. 6 North Carolina 13, No. 1 Denver 9
No. 4 Notre Dame 5, No. 2 Maryland 4
No. 5 Penn State 14, No. 7 Penn 13
No. 11 Loyola 16, Holy Cross 9
No. 12 Towson 8, UMBC 6
No. 13 Stony Brook 9, Fairfield 6
No. 14 Rutgers 13, No. 19 Brown 11
No. 15 Army 14, Lafayette 4
No. 20 Boston University 8, Air Force 6
Division II
Mount Olive Foils Mercyhurst Again
Jacob Ball’s shot from the left wing with 33 seconds left in overtime gave No. 8 Mount Olive an 8-7 come-from-behind victory over No. 4 Mercyhurst at Tierney Field at US Lacrosse headquarters. It was the third straight season that the Trojans (4-0) beat the Lakers (2-1).
Mount Olive trailed 5-1 in the first half and 6-3 late in the third quarter before rallying behind Ball, Thatcher Clark and goalie Will Urban. Clark scored with five seconds left in the third quarter to cut Mercyhurst’s lead to 6-4 and then had two assists in the fourth quarter, including one on Jesse Mitchell’s goal with 10 seconds to play to force overtime.
Urban finished the game with 15 saves, including seven in the fourth quarter and one in overtime. Clark had two goals and two assists for the Trojans and Ball had two tallies. James Crowe led Mercyhurst with two goals and one assist and Keyan McQueen also had a pair of goals.
Scoreboard
No. 8 Mount Olive 8, No. 4 Mercyhurst 7 (OT)
No. 2 Limestone 17, No. 15 Saint Leo 10
Division III
Lyncnburg Outlasts No. 6 York
Evan Lombardo's double-overtime goal gave Lynchburg a 9-8 upset win over No. 6 York on Saturday afternoon. Andrew Thomas scored four goals to lead the way for the Hornets, who trailed by two goals on multiple occasions.
Down 4-2 in the second quarter, Thomas scored twice on a three-goal rally to give Lynchburg the 5-4 led at halftime. York scored four of five goals out of the break to take an 8-6 lead with 6:26 left, but Lynchburg answered with the final two goals to send the game to overtime.
Dickinson Dispatches Cabrini
No. 11 Dicksinson used balanced scoring, with three players tallying mutliple goals, to pull the upset of No. 7 Carbrini by a score of 11-9. Brodie Phillips, Dylan Maher and Tucker Carney scored two goals each to fuel the win for the 3-0 Red Devils.
The game was tied at 9-9 with less than 10 minutes remaining, but Dickinson finished with the final two goals. Carney and Tyler Strods tallied the goals that put Cabrini away for good.
Stevenson Cruises Past No. 7 Gettysburg
Stevenson used an eight-goal second half to break open a tight game with No. 8 Gettysburg and cruise to the 11-6 win. The No. 17 Mustangs scored six of seven goals over the third and fourth quarters to turn a 3-3 game into a five-goal lead.
Wade Korvin had two of his three goals in the second-half run run that put the game out of reach for the Bullets. Stevenson won 15 of 21 faceoffs and outshot Gettysburg 49-32 on the day.
Mollihan's Big Game Fuels F&M
Kevin Mollihan scored six goals and added an assist to lead unranked Franklin & Marshall past No. 16 Washington & Lee 16-14. Washington & Lee won the ground ball battle 40-29 and at the faceoff x 18-15, but couldn't overcome a four-goal deficit in the fourth quarter.
Franklin & Marshall led 15-11 with 9:58 left in the game, but Washington & Lee mounted a comeback. The Generals scored three straight goals over the course of the next six minutes, but Mike Rama's goal with 55 seconds left sealed the win for the Diplomats.
Scoreboard
Lynchburg 9, No. 6 York 8 (OT)
No. 11 Dickinson 11, No. 7 Cabrini 9
No. 17 Stevenson 11, No. 8 Gettysburg 6
Franklin & Marshall 16, Washington and Lee 14