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Maryland was the lone undefeated team in Big Ten play entering play this weekend. It controlled its own destiny toward earning the top seed in the conference tournament.

That changed on Saturday, when the Terps were dealt their first conference loss at the hands of Ohio State in Columbus. Johnny Pearson’s game-winning goal in overtime gave the Buckeyes a big 11-10 win.

Tim Rotanz had a hat trick for Maryland by the middle of the second quarter, allowing his team to take an early 6-1 lead. Eric Fannell answered with a couple goals to help Ohio State cut the deficit to 7-4 at halftime. 

Fannell added two more goals out of halftime and the Buckeyes took the 8-7 lead as the game entered the fourth quarter. It was a back-and-forth fourth quarter, and Jared Bernhardt scored with 2:58 left to send the game to overtime.

Pearson’s goal came with 2:57 left in overtime to give Ohio State the win. Maryland, Ohio State and Johns Hopkins sit in a three-way tie for first place in the Big Ten.

Syracuse Wins By a Goal….Again

It’s no surprise at this point when Syracuse comes away with a one-goal win — it has done it eight times so far this season. However, the team that tested the No. 1 Orangemen might jump off the page.

Aided by a three-goal run in the second half, Syracuse just got by a Binghamton team by a score of 9-8. Jordan Evans had three goals to help Syracuse narrowly avoid an upset at the hands of its state rival.

Syracuse jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first quarter, but Binghamton scored four straight to start the second quarter and take the lead.

The Orange led 6-5 at half, but Moore and T.J. Tiernan scored to start the second half and give the Bearcats the 7-6 lead. That’s when Evans, Jamie Trimboli and Ryan Simmons put together a three-goal rally to give the Orange the 9-7 lead with 9:43 left.

Binghamton cut the deficit to one goal with less than three minutes left, but couldn’t find the tying goal as time expired. 

Albany Scores Final Five to Beat Yale

Albany freshman Mitch Laffin had a potential game-tying goal waved off in the fourth quarter for a crease violation, but he did it one better. Laffin ripped home a pass from Bennett Drake with just 34 seconds to play to give the No. 7 Danes a 13-12 come-from-behind victory over No. 6 Yale, snapping the Bulldogs seven-game winning streak. Albany (11-2) scored the final five goals of the game to post the victory.

Back-to-back goals by Yale's Jason Alessi capped a six-goal run that gave the Bulldogs a 9-5 lead in the third quarter, but Albany scored the final three goals of the third quarter to cut it to 9-8 entering the fourth quarter.

Yale (8-4) responded with three straight goals to go up by four goals again, but the Bulldogs were blanked for the final 12 minutes as Albany rallied. Connor Fields started the game-closing five-goal run with 10:57 to play and Drake and Kyle McClancy followed with goals. Albany appeared to tie it on a Laffin goal, but the freshman leapt towards the goal, landing in the crease and the goal was waved off with about four minutes to play. Albany shook it off with Drake burying an extra-man goal with 2:59 to play, and then Drake found Laffin for the game-winner.

Drake led all scorers with four goals and an assist and Fields had three goals and two assists. Joseph Sessa and Alessi each had three goals for Yale. Yale's Conor Mackie had the edge in the faceoff battle with Albany freshman TD Ierlan, winning 16-of-29 draws, but Ierlan won 4-of-6 six down the stretch and one of Yale's wins quickly turned into a turnover to Albany.

Notre Dame Prevails

Heading into Saturday’s matchup, both Notre Dame and North Carolina had losing records in the ACC. One team would move into the third spot in the standings, and the other into the fourth seed for the conference tournament.

Notre Dame got the best of North Carolina in a wild, back-and-forth battle that included six ties and three lead changes. Bryan Costabile scored the game-winning goal with 2:44 remaining gave the Irish the 14-13 victory.

For the Tar Heels, it’s the second consecutive loss and one that puts them at 6-7 on the season. The defending champions will have to win the two-game ACC tournament to be eligible for the NCAA tournament.

Mikey Wynne — who led Notre Dame with five goals — scored twice in the first half, helping his team take a 7-5 lead into halftime. 

North Carolina fought back from multiple second-half deficit with the help of Chris Cloutier, who scored four goals overall. It also led for a portion of the fourth quarter, before Notre Dame scored four of the last five goals to seal the win.

Sowers Makes History in Win

Michael Sowers scored two goals and added three assists in Princeton’s 12-9 win over Harvard, helping him pass Rob Pannell for the most points in a freshman season in Ivy League history. Gavin McBride had seven goals and an assists to lead the way for the Tigers.

McBride had two goals in the first half, allowing Princeton to take a 4-2 lead at the break. Princeton scored three of four goals to start the second half, giving it a 7-3 lead.

McBride and Sowers continued to pour it on the Crimson defense. eventually taking a 12-7 lead before the Tigers allowed two late goals.

Duke Keeps Cruising

Justin Guterding had a hat trick and added an assists to lead Duke past a stingy Marquette team by a score of 11-7. It’s the ninth win in the last 10 games for the Blue Devils, who will be the second seed in the ACC tournament. 

The Blue Devils led 3-1 early and eventually took a 5-3 lead into halftime. Marquette, though, scored three straight goals to take a 6-5 lead in the middle of the third quarter.

Duke responded with a four-goal rally of their own to grab hold of an insurmountable 9-6 lead with 11:31 left. Guterding scored all three of his goals in the second half to help Duke pull away.

NIKE/US LACROSSE DIVISION I TOP 20 SCOREBOARD

No. 1 Syracuse 9, Binghamton 8
No. 5 Ohio State 11, No. 2 Maryland 10 (OT)
No. 3 Denver 12, No. 19 Providence 2
No. 4 Duke, 11, Marquette 7
No. 7 Albany 13, No. 6 Yale 12
No. 9 Notre Dame 14, No. 17 North Carolina 13
No. 10 Hofstra 15, UMass 8
Fairfield 9, No. 11 Towson 8
No. 12 Johns Hopkins 19, Michigan 9
No. 14 Princeton 12, Harvard 9
Air Force 9, No. 16 Richmond 7
No. 18 Villanova 18, St. John’s 3

NIKE/US LACROSSE DIVISION II TOP 20 SCOREBOARD

No. 8 Adelphi 9, No. 2 LeMoyne 5
No. 3 Lenoir-Rhyne 14, Catawba 13
Walsh 10, No. 6 Lindenwood 9
No. 7 Pace 9, Assumption 7
No. 9 NYIT 13, Chestnut Hill 9
No. 10 Belmont Abbey 20, Chowan 3
No. 11 Tampa 15, Saint Leo 11
Queens 11, No. 12 Mount Olive 10
No. 15 Seton Hill 11, Indianapolis 9
No. 16 Wingate 10, No. 19 Tusculum 9
No. 17 Southern New Hampshire 22, Post 11
No. 19 Saint Anselm 14, Bentley 13 (2 OT)
Florida Tech 12, No. 20 Rollins 8

NIKE/US LACROSSE DIVISION III TOP 20 SCOREBOARD

No. 1 Bates 16, Connecticut College 14
No. 2 Salisbury 21, Mary Washington 7
No. 10 Wesleyan 17, No. 3 Tufts 16
No. 4 Denison 25, Wabash 1
No. 5 York 19, Christopher Newport 9
No. 6 RIT 21, Vassar 8
No. 7 Cortland 24, Potsdam 9
No. 8 Cabrini 26, Immaculata 8
No. 9 St. Lawrence 16, Renssalaer 4
No. 11 Amherst 13, Williams 10
No. 12 Ithaca, 20, Alfred 9
No. 13 Dickinson 17, Muhlenberg 3
No. 15 Franklin & Marshall 12, Washington College 9
No. 17 Stevens 20, Elmira 1
Haverford 9, No. 18 Ursinus 8
No. 19 Roanoke 15, Washington and Lee 14
No. 20 Ohio Wesleyan 18, Wooster 8