BEARLAXTRAXFAX by John Nichols

BLTF 052018   by John Nichols                                                                                                                                                                                   

D-I

 

For the first time since 2005, the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship went chalk with the top four seeds winning their quarterfinal matches.  More often than not, an unseeded team has made it to the final weekend, but losses by Cornell and Denver precluded that outcome.  Since the tournament expanded to sixteen teams in 2003, the final four has consisted of seeded teams eight times, but the top four seeds just twice.  Sunday’s quarterfinal games in Annapolis trimmed the number of “Bear” teams to one—Maryland.

 

Maryland and Duke have not played each other since Maryland’s last year in the ACC—2014—but Albany and Yale met earlier this year with Yale winning 14-6.

 

NCAA D-I MEN’S LACROSSE TOURNAMENT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#1 Maryland (Justin Shockey)  13

Cornell (Jack Bolen, Colton Rupp, Andrew Fowler) 8

 

Maryland dominated possession time due in large part to Justin Shockey’s outstanding play, winning 68% of his faceoffs (13 of 19).  Maryland scored the only goal of the first frame then both offenses came alive in the second with Maryland sporting a 6-4 advantage at halftime.  The Terrapins asserted themselves in third quarter, outscoring Cornell 5-0.  Big Red had six possessions in the period, but those possessions averaged less than a minute, resulted in just five shots—only one of which was on goal.  Maryland started to scoring in the fourth quarter to extend their lead to eight goals.  Four straight by Cornell halved that lead, but that was as close as Cornell would get.  Both teams closely guarded the other team’s leading offensive threats—Connor Kelly at Maryland and Jeff Teat at Cornell.  Maryland’s greater depth and skill at both ends of the field allowed them to execute this strategy more effectively.

Justin supplemented his strong play on faceoffs with six ground balls and an assist.  For Cornell, Jack played extensively on defense and Colton took a pair of shots.

 

#5 Johns Hopkins (Sam Lynch) 9

Duke 14

 

Duke’s faceoff dominance staked the Blue Devils to an early three-goal lead.  The Blue Devils incrementally added on to that advantage, establishing four-goal leads at the end of the second and third quarters while never letting the Blue Jays come closer than two.  Hopkin’s three-goal run to start the final period narrowed the game to a one goal difference at 9-8 in favor of Duke and the Jays, who have engineered several important second-half rallies this season, seemed to have momentum on their side.  Duke cut that rally short by scoring three goals over the next minute of game time, effectively putting the game out of reach.  Hopkins would get one more goal, but Duke scored the final two of the game while running out the clock.  Sam saw playing time on defense for Hopkins.

 

D-III

 

NCAA D-III MEN’S LACROSSE TOURNAMENT

 

Quarterfinal games played on Wednesday took a toll on the teams we follow.  Only Salisbury moved on to the semi-finals on Sunday while Ohio Wesleyan and Tufts saw their seasons end.  With their win over Gettysburg on Sunday, Salisbury has the opportunity to three-peat as the D-III champion when the play Wesleyan for the title on this coming Sunday.

 

Ohio Wesleyan (Tyler McTague):

 

Quarterfinal Game:  

Ohio Wesleyan (Tyler McTague)  5

Gettysburg 8

 

Gettysburg got on the board first just 30 seconds into the game, converting on a Bishop turnover after the opening faceoff.  That fast-paced start gave way to a low-scoring, tightly fought contest.  After that first quick goal, the teams traded goals over the balance of the first period, but at slower pace with seven to eight-minute intervals between scores.  The Bullets got the halftime lead (3-2) by scoring with just nine seconds left in the second quarter.

 

In the second half, the pace of scoring picked up a bit and was more one-sided.  Gettysburg scored three straight goals in the first seven minutes of the second half to take a 6-2 lead.  Neither team scored over the next 14 minutes as Ohio Wesleyan had about as many turnovers as shots while their goalie made a couple of saves to keep them in the game.  Gettysburg broke the drought with a man-up goal to go up five with eight and a half minutes left.

 

Then the Bishops offense got clicking.  Ohio Wesleyan scored off the faceoff and put up two more to narrow the gap to two goals with three minutes left in the contest, the last of those coming in the midst of a two-minute non-releasable penalty on Gettysburg.  The Bishops were unable to get another shot off and then suffered their own locked-in two minute penalty.  The Bullets got one last goal—an empty netter—as they ran out the clock.

 

Ohio Wesleyan’s 2018 season wrapped up with an undefeated record in NCAC regular season play and their best finish in the NCAA since 2015 when a loss to Gettysburg in the NCAA quarterfinals, the Bishops’ only loss that season, ended their season.  Tommy Minkler (Landon 2011) captained that 2015 squad.

 

Salisbury (Brian Menendez):

 

Quarterfinal Game:

Salisbury (Brian Menendez) 9

Dickinson 7

 

Salisbury jumped out to a 4-0 lead, keeping Dickinson off the scoreboard until there were just under two minutes remaining in the first half.  The Gulls responded with one more first-half goal to take a 5-1 lead into the locker room.  The Devils got the first two goals of the second half to cut Salisbury’s lead to two.  The teams traded goals and then Salisbury put up three straight to stretch their lead to five with eleven minutes left in the game.  Dickinson rallied as the clock ticked down, pulling within two with just under three minutes left in regulation.  Dickinson had scoring opportunities in the game’s closing moments, but Salisbury was able to hang of for the win.

 

With the win, Salisbury’s defense of their NCAA title continues and they advance to the D-III semifinals where they face Gettysburg.

 

Semifinal Game:

Salisbury (Brian Menendez)  8

Gettysburg 7

 

In this tightly contested semi-final, Salisbury’s shooting efficiency won out over Gettysburg’s shooting volume.  The Seagulls put two-thirds of their shots on goal and Gettysburg got half of their shots on the cage.  The score was tied six times and the one time Gettysburg opened up two-goal lead, Salisbury came right back with a pair to knot things up at 3-3.  The Seagulls scored the first two goals of the final period to get their first lead of the game, but Gettysburg tied the game up at seven just a minute after that.  Salisbury’s game winning goal came with just over four minutes left in the game.  The Gulls won the final face off but gave Gettysburg a chance by turning the ball over.  The Bullets had multiple scoring opportunities, most of which were wide of the goal.  Gettysburg’s hopes and season ended in the Salisbury goalie’s stick with 21 seconds left on the clock.

 

Next up for Salisbury is the NCAA D-III championship game on the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend and a chance for their third consecutive NCAA title.  The Seagulls will face Wesleyan which upset previously unbeaten RIT in the other D-III semi-final game on Sunday.  This is Wesleyan’s first trip to the championship game.

 

Tufts (Luke Kurtz):

 

Quarterfinal Game:

Tufts (Luke Kurtz) 11

Wesleyan 12

 

In Tufts’ prior two wins over Wesleyan this season, the Jumbos never allowed Wesleyan to have a lead of more than one goal.  The Cardinals broke out of that pattern with a three-goal run in the second quarter.  Their lead toggled between two and three goals as the teams traded single scores into the later moments of the third period.  Tufts took the lead back with four goals in four minutes across the end of the third and start of the fourth periods.  Wesleyan got the lead back, scoring two man-up goals during a two-minute, locked-in penalty against Tufts.  The Jumbos rallied back to tie and it looked like the game was headed to overtime when Wesleyan got the winner with just 20 seconds left in the game.

 

Luke had one ground ball for Tufts in their final game of the 2018 season.  Luke played in 17 of the team’s 20 games this year, forcing 6 turnovers and scooping up 9 ground balls.  For the Jumbos, this is the second straight year of losing to NESCAC foe Wesleyan in the NCAA tournament.  In the three years prior to that, Tufts had played in the NCAA D-III championship game, winning twice.

 

Seniors

Sean O’Brien—Bucknell

Lacrosse is not over for Sean.  He was drafted by the Dallas Rattlers of Major League Lacrosse and has been signed to the team’s 25 man roster.  He saw his first professional action this weekend and scored the first goal of his professional career.

 

Sean wrapped up his collegiate career at Bucknell with 99 career points on 87 goals and 12 assists over his four years for the Bison.  With is fellow seniors Connor O’Hara (85 goals, 13 assists) and Will Sands (102 goals, 141 assists), Sean part of a potent three-man offense surge which propelled Bucknell into the national polls.

 

Jack Bolen—Cornell

 

Jack’s collegiate lacrosse career ended with Cornell’s loss to Maryland.  Over the past three seasons, Jack has played in all but two of Cornell’s games.  Over his four years of play for Big Red, Jack has scored eight goals and contributed one assist with the lion’s share of that production coming during his sophomore season.  Jack was a three-year letterman for a Cornell program that has won two Ivy League championships and played in two NCAA tournaments over the course of his career.

 

Jack will be graduating from the College of Arts and Sciences with a major in government and a minor in business and then Jack’s next stop is New York City where he will be working at Credit Suisse.

 

Riley McTague—Hobart

 

Shoulder injuries and surgeries have caused Riley to have limited playing time over the course of his career at Hobart.  However, he has excelled in the classroom as a Northeast Conference Honor Roll honoree each of the last two years (2018 Spring has not yet been released) as an International Relations major.  Riley graduated cum laude and is looking forward to starting a career in marketing.

 

Sam Lynch—Johns Hopkins

 

Sam appeared in 25 games for the Blue Jays a short stick defensive middie, over half of those appearances coming this season.  In his senior season, Sam has become a key member of the Jay’s man-down defense, effecting clears and helping to run out penalties.

 

 

 

New Coverage Next Season: Rising Freshmen and Changes

2014

Jack Falk—Duke*  Jack played three years at Virginia and is in the Masters of Management Science program at the Fuqua School of Business

2017

Michael Abizaid—Utah*

Shane Corcoran—Navy

Cam James—Loyola*

Nate Buller—Penn State*

2018

Joey Epstein-Johns Hopkins

Brendan Gallagher—Dartmouth

Brett Gallagher—Dartmouth

John Geppert—Maryland

Alexander Hagerup—Fairfield*

Zach Johnson—Michigan*

Jace Menendez—Salisbury

Gilbert Sentimore—Utah*

Mo Sillah—Towson*

Drew Wellington—Bucknell

*: new school coverage