Three teams entered Saturday with unblemished records (Albany, Georgetown, Vermont). We knew one would go down when No. 1 Albany hosted No. 19 Vermont. By the end of the day, there will be just one undefeated team left in Division I men’s lacrosse.
Matt Varian scored six goals to help Drexel break open a close game and upset No. 10 Georgetown 15-10. Marshal King and Reid Bowering chipped in a pair of goals to help pull off the upset.
Georgetown scored three of the first four goals and took a 3-2 lead into the second quarter. That’s where Drexel caught fire, dropping seven straight goals on the Hoyas defense and taking a 9-5 lead into halftime.
Varian scored three goals in the second quarter alone, and the Dragons didn’t look back. The Hoyas scored three of four out of halftime, but Drexel responded with a four-goal run to take a commanding 14-7 lead with 7:40 left in the game.
Georgetown’s Jake Carraway scored his team’s final three goals, but Drexel’s lead was too big to overcome. Drexel goalie Cre Teitelbaum had 12 saves on the day.
UNDEFEATED NO MORE: @DrexelMLax gets 6G from Matt Varian and cruises to the 15-10 win over @HoyasMLacrosse. pic.twitter.com/xkVMxbjmup
— US Lacrosse Magazine (@USLacrosseMag) March 17, 2018
Maryland Edges Villanova
Jared Bernhardt tallied four goals and an assist to help No. 2 Maryland get past No. 5 Villanova 13-11 on the road. The Terps jumped out to a 4-0 lead and extended it to as many as five goals in the second half before holding off the Wildcats late.
Bernhardt had a hat trick in the first half, helping Maryland take a 7-3 lead into the break. Connor Kelly took over in the second half, keeping the Terps in front.
Villanova scored three goals in the final minute of the game, but could not come all the way back. We’ll have more on this game later today.
Early Roundup: Drexel Hands Georgetown First Loss
Late Roundup: Albany Last of Unbeatens, Irish Outlast Cavs
Kelly Scores 100th Goal as Maryland Returns to Winning Ways
Spencer Ties Loyola Record
Pat Spencer raised more eyebrows on Saturday, tying the school record with four goals and eight assists in Loyola's 15-9 win over Navy. Spencer's big day helped the Greyhounds move to 3-0 in the Patriot League.
Spencer had a hand in his team's first five goals, all in the first half, but his team sat tied 5-5 with the Midshipmen. Loyola scored five straight goals out of halftime, including one from Spencer, to break open the back-and-forth game. The teams traded goals until Navy made it 12-9 with 9:21 left in the game.
It didn't take long for Spencer to get involved again. He assisted on Loyola's next goal, and then scored its final two goals to seal the Loyola win. Greyhounds goalie Jacob Stover had 12 saves in the win that saw Navy outshoot its opponent 44-33.
Reeves Seals Win over Cornell
Ben Reeves scored the final two goals to help Yale pull away from a tough Cornell team and win 13-11. After Cornell tied the game with 4:47 left, Reeves tallied his third goal just over a minute later and his fourth with 54 seconds left to seal a crucial Ivy League win.
Reeves and teammate Jackson Morrill combined for eight goals and two assists to lead the way for the Bulldogs, while Big Red star Jeff Teat dropped four goals and two assists.
Morrill and Teat highlighted a back-and-forth first half that saw the game tied 5-5 at the break. Teat continued his strong effort out of the break, fueling a run of three out of four goals to help Cornell take an 8-6 lead in the third quarter.
Four different scorers combined for a four-goal Yale rally that gave it a 10-8 lead at the end of the third quarter. Cornell came up with another answered and Teat tied the game at 10-10 with 8:38 left. The teams went back-and-forth until Reeves’ two goals became the difference.
Duke Survives Towson Rally
Duke picked up a big road win on Saturday afternoon, holding off a Towson rally and scoring the game’s last three goals to beat the Tigers 10-8 at Johnny Unitas Stadium. Justin Guterding had three goals — including the eventual game-winner with 4:43 remaining — and teammate Peter Conley matched him to lead the way.
.@DukeMLAX survives! Blue Devils score the final three goals to beat @Towson_MLAX 10-8 at Johnny Unitas Stadium. Conley and Guterding with hat tricks. pic.twitter.com/AcHcMInkWy
— US Lacrosse Magazine (@USLacrosseMag) March 17, 2018
Thanks to sloppy play early, the Blue Devils were able to take control of the game in the first quarter. Guterding had two goals in a run that fueled a 5-1 lead early in the game. Conley added two of his own in the second quarter to help Duke take a 7-2 lead at the break.
Towson came out of halftime with new life, winning faceoffs and challenging the Duke defense. As a result, the Tigers made it a 4-0 third quarter and pulled within a goal of the Blue Devils entering the fourth quarter.
Jean-Luc Chetner and Jon Mazza combined to complete a six-goal run that saw Towson take a brief 8-7 lead in the fourth quarter. Sean Lowie, Guterding and Joe Robertson scored the game’s final three goals to help Duke avoid the upset.
Duke finished 8-for-21 at the faceoff X, but Danny Fowler made 14 saves to keep the Blue Devils in front.
Hofstra Avoids Providence
Junior Jimmy Yanis tallied six points on three goals and three assists, while freshman Dylan McIntosh poured in a game-high four goals to help Hofstra overcome a halftime deficit and beat Providence 12-8.
Kyle Gallagher was huge for Hofstra, winning 16 of 23 faceoffs, including five of six in the pivotal third quarter. Jack Concannon posted seven saves to lead a strong defensive effort in the final 30 minutes.
The win was Hofstra's fourth straight and improves the Pride's record to 4-2 this season. Providence slipped to 3-5 with the loss.
O’Keefe, Arceri Shine in Penn State Win
Mac O’Keefe scored eight points on six goals and two assists, and Gerard Arceri won 20 of 25 faceoffs, to fuel Penn State’s 17-13 win over Fairfield. Dylan Foulds also chipped in four goals and three assists to help the Nittany Lions.
Penn State led 8-3 after two quarters thanks to O’Keefe’s big day, and Foulds scored twice out of the break to squander any chance Fairfield had of coming back. The Nittany Lions peppered Stags goalie Sean McKee with 41 shots and picked up 21 ground balls en route to the win, a bounce back from a loss to Cornell last weekend.
Straight from @PennStateMLAX attackman Mac O’Keefe in Nittany Lions’ 17-13 win over Fairfield pic.twitter.com/o8WtFFpzEM
— US Lacrosse Magazine (@USLacrosseMag) March 17, 2018
Army Stifles Holy Cross
Army used a four-goal first half and a stifling defense to get by Holy Cross 5-3 and tally its second Patriot League win of the season. Nate Jones led the way for the Black Knights with a goal and an assist — five different players picked up a goal in the victory.
David Symmes, Sean O’Brien and Jones combined to help Army jump out to a 3-0 lead. Connor DeWitt added a goal in the second quarter to fuel a 4-2 lead at halftime.
The Black Knights handled the Holy Cross offense throughout the second half, allowing just one goal the rest of the way. Goalie A.J. Barretto had 14 saves and the Army defense forced 21 turnovers en route to the win.
Lehigh Tops Lafayette
Lehigh responded from a midweek loss to blowout rival Lafayette 19-11 on Saturday afternoon. Tristan Rai had three goals and four assists to lead the Mountain Hawks, and teammate Lucas Spence dropped four goals and two assists in the win.
Up 7-5 in the second quarter, Lehigh got hot before the half. Spence had a hat trick in an eight-goal run that took under four minutes and gave the Mountain Hawks a 15-5 lead into the break.
Lehigh saw multiple goals from five different players in the win that moved it to 3-0 in the Patriot League.
Mountain Hawks #BeatLafayette 19-11 to improve to 6-2 on the season and 4-0 in @PL_MLAX play! #GoLehigh pic.twitter.com/ctBn5C5DZS
— Lehigh Lacrosse (@LehighLacrosse) March 17, 2018
Harvard Picks Up First Ivy League Win
Harvard led by two goals at halftime and held the Brown offense in check throughout the second half to close out a 10-8 win to open Ivy League play. Kyle Anderson had three goals and Morgan Cheek had three assists to help the Crimson open conference play with a victory.
Cheek picked up all three assists in the first half, and Harvard put together back-to-back 3-2 quarters to take a 6-4 lead into halftime. Anderson led a three-goal rally in the third quarter to move the lead to 9-5 and create some breathing room.
Brown cut the deficit to two goals on a Jackson Newsome goal with four seconds left in the third quarter and on a Michael Panepinto score with 2:24 left in regulation, but they’d get no closer.
Harvard goalie Robert Shaw had a season-high 17 saves to keep his team in the lead.
Robert Morris Overcomes Sacred Heart
The dream season for Robert Morris continues. The Colonials tallied nine second-half goals to get by a stingy Sacred Heart team and cruise to the 12-8 win. Max Schmidt had three goals in the second half to lead the comeback effort.
Five different players scored for Sacred Heart, allowing it to take a 5-3 lead into halftime. Schmidt scored twice within 20 seconds to tie the game at 5-5, and Robert Morris took a 9-6 lead with less than 10 minutes remaining.
Sacred Heart outshot Robert Morris 37-31, but goalie Alex Heger had 11 saves to shut the offense down.
Furman Gets First Win
A four-goal third quarter proved to be the difference, as Furman men’s lacrosse downed Richmond 10-9 for its first win of the year and first over Richmond in school history.
Down 10-6, Richmond mounted a three-goal rally to get within a goal of Furman. The Spiders got a look on the EMO in the final seconds, but Furman goalie Alec Van de Bovenkamp came up with his biggest stop of the day as time expired to secure the win.
Sage Reith won a season-high 16 faceoffs for Furman, Van de Bovenkamp made 16 saves on the day and seven different players scored for the Paladins.
Nike/US Lacrosse
Top 20 Scoreboard
No. 1 Albany 21, No. 19 Vermont 5
No. 2 Duke 10, Towson 8
No. 3 Maryland 13, No. 6 Villanova 11
No. 4 Notre Dame 9, No. 8 Virginia 7
No. 5 Denver 12, No. 20 Ohio State 7
No. 7 Yale 13, Cornell 11
No. 9 Loyola 15, Navy 9
Drexel 15, No. 10 Georgetown 10
No. 12 Johns Hopkins 14, Delaware 8
No. 14 Lehigh 19, Lafayette 11
No. 15 Army 5, Holy Cross 3
No. 16 Hofstra 12, Providence 8
Penn 14, No. 17 Princeton 7
OTHER SCORES
Air Force 11, VMI 6
Bryant 20, Mount St. Mary's 11
Bucknell 16, Boston University 9
Colgate 18, Canisius 5
Furman 10, Richmond 9
Harvard 10, Brown 8
High Point 15, Bellarmine 7
Hobart 11, Wagner 5
Jacksonville 16, Mercer 8
Michigan 12, Marquette 7
Monmouth 12, Manhattan 8
Penn State 17, Fairfield 13
Quinnipiac 12, Siena 11
Robert Morris 12, Sacred Heart 8
St. John's 12, Dartmouth 5
UMass 17, Hartford 13
UMass-Lowell 14, Binghamton 10