It didn’t take long to require a new No. 1 team.

While the second (mostly) full weekend of the season didn’t have as many surprises as the first, it did deliver a jolt at the top. Defending national champion Yale opened with an 11-10 overtime loss to Villanova.

This, of course, is hardly a disqualifying showing for the Bulldogs. Their 2018 season began with an overtime loss to Villanova, and things turned out all right for Andy Shay’s team.

As for who replaces Yale at No. 1, there was some temptation to go with Penn State, which has demolished its first three opponents — including Villanova. The nod for now goes to Loyola (2-0), which has blasted Virginia and Johns Hopkins out of the chute behind Pat Spencer’s eight goals and six assists.

The Greyhounds seemed like a good bet to rely on their offense early this season. With 35 goals in two games against traditional powers, it’s worked out that way. But things don’t slow down, not with trips to Rutgers and Towson before the end of the month.

Nike/US Lacrosse
Division I Men’s Top 20

Also considered (alphabetical order): Albany, Brown, Hofstra, Michigan,Navy, Penn, Syracuse

HOT

Penn State (+3)

Three games does not a juggernaut make, but it’s hard to poke holes in anything the Nittany Lions have done so far. After pummeling Stony Brook 17-4, they’ve outscored their first three opponents 61-21.

Penn State scored the first 15 goals on Saturday, and attackmen Mac O’Keefe (seven goals, one assist) and Grant Ament (one goal, four assists) enjoyed fabulous performances. Things escalate quite a bit Saturday, when the Nittany Lions visit Yale. That will provide a good sense of how much better Penn State has become since last season.

NOT

Denver (-7)

On the surface, the Pioneers don’t really deserve this severe a tumble. They fell 10-9 at Duke on Joey Manown’s goal with 7 seconds to go. There were some less-than-ideal elements to the performance; Denver had only two saves and Duke shot 50 percent for the game. But it isn’t a crushing loss.

The problem here is trying to find some sort of logical consistency. Denver doesn’t belong ahead of a Duke team it lost to, at least for now. Duke doesn’t belong ahead a High Point team it lost to, at least for now. And High Point barely survived in overtime Saturday against an unheralded but capable Drexel team, so it wasn’t due for a big leap. And that’s how High Point, Duke and Denver wound up at the top of the second 10 this week.

Rutgers (-5)

It’s not hard to figure out one of the root causes for the Scarlet Knights’ 10-9 loss to Army. They had 20 turnovers. Army had 11. And that was enough for the Black Knights to overcome Rutgers goalie Max Edelmann’s 17 saves.

The Scarlet Knights rightfully fell a couple spots below Army for this week, but a one-goal loss to a good team generally isn’t going to lead to this significant a drop unless it’s tied to early-season gyrations.

Yale (-5)

This is an exception being made to the logic of placing a team ahead of one it lost to this early in the season. Villanova rightfully pops up in this week’s top 20, but it also lost by 10 goals to Penn State two weeks earlier.

For its part, one overtime loss won’t sway many folks into thinking the preseason No. 1 team isn’t, say, worthy of a top-10 placement. So the Bulldogs take a step back, but they have a chance to move forward next week with Penn State coming to town.

IN

Army

If there was an obvious exclusion from last week’s rankings, it was the Black Knights. After handling defending CAA champion Massachusetts on the road to open the year, Joe Alberici’s bunch slipped past Rutgers 10-9. Brendan Nichtern’s third goal of the day with 3:54 was the difference.

Army has one more high-profile nonconference game: Sunday at Syracuse. Already, though, the Black Knights have shown they’ve moved past last year’s 5-8 mark that was punctuated by a six-game losing streak to close it out.

Villanova

Needless to say, the Wildcats played much better in their second game than in their first. After getting blitzed by Penn State on Feb. 2, Villanova had two weeks to prepare for Yale. It withstood an early flurry from the Bulldogs, turning a three-goal hole into a 9-6 lead before Yale rallied to force overtime.

Connor Kirst delivered the winner 75 seconds into extra time, earning coach Michael Corrado his 100th career victory. Now, the Wildcats settle in for a three-game homestand against Hofstra, Delaware and Penn — all teams plenty capable of creating headaches for anyone.

OUT

Albany (was No. 16)

The Dane Train was derailed at the Dome. And Syracuse had something to do with that, pouncing early in a 13-5 defeat of Albany in the Great Danes’ season opener. Albany scored twice in the first three minutes before its offense was bottled up the rest of the way. It was the Great Danes’ lowest-scoring performance since getting blanked 15-0 at Stony Brook in 2010.

Albany had 17 turnovers and lost the ground ball edge 44-24, all while collecting 11 of 21 faceoffs in its first game post-TD Ierlan. It will probably take some time for the Great Danes to figure things out while facing Drexel, Cornell, Massachusetts and Maryland in the next three weeks.

Johns Hopkins (was No. 20)

A couple sobering statistics for the Blue Jays: They’re 0-2 for the first time since 1971, and they’ve lost to Charles Street rivals Loyola and Towson in the same season for the first time ever.

Things aren’t going to get any easier for a team giving up 17.5 goals per game. Trips to North Carolina, Princeton and Syracuse are up next.