The 2020 NCAA men’s lacrosse season has hit Week 3 and was another exciting week in college lacrosse. Read on for some of the top storylines and highlights.
2020 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse: Week 3 Top Moments
Note: Take a look at this week’s Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. All references to team rankings are based on that poll for the different week’s rankings.
Top Matchups
Yale – Penn State
This is obviously the game everyone has been talking about from this past weekend. Last week’s No. 3 Yale walked on to Penn State’s turf and walked out victorious with the 12-10 win in what was a physical, grinder of a game. Yale is the only team to have beaten Penn State dating back to its April 2018 overtime loss to Michigan, which it has now done three times during that time span. A non-official Yale Lacrosse Twitter account posted a pretty funny tweet today that you can see below.
— Lacrosse All Stars (@LaxAllStars) February 24, 2020
Yale jumped to the No. 1 spot in this week’s rankings while Penn State dropped to No. 2.
Yale faceoff midfielder TD Ierlan won roughly 61 percent of his faceoffs while nabbing 15 groundballs, while another Tewaaraton finalist from last year, Grant Ament, broke the Big Ten points record on a goal he scored with 3:04 left in the third quarter (see the play below under our top plays). That record was formerly held by Terry Riorden (Hopkins, 1992-1995), who also still holds the record for most goals in a career from teams in the conference, which Mac O-Keefe is now three goals away from breaking (note: Big Ten conference records are based on historic performances from teams in the conference since men’s lacrosse was first introduced in 2015). Ament finished the game with one goal and five assists, good for six points on the day while O’ Keefe had two goals.
Colby Kneese had 16 saves on the 28 shots on goal he faced.
Princeton – Virginia
Princeton took down then-No. 2 Virginia on Saturday at Klockner Stadium by a score of 16-12.
Erik Peters registered 16-saves in the win for the Tigers, while Michael Sowers had four goals and four assists for eight points. Sowers is currently averaging a ridiculous 11 points per game, aided by a 14-point explosion against Colgate and an 11-point performance against Monmouth.
Take a look at some ridiculous highlights from Sowers against Colgate.
Want to see what 14 points in one game look like? Here are all 14 of Michael Sowers’ points against Colgate. pic.twitter.com/Q1XAVB9j8u
— Princeton Lacrosse (@TigerLacrosse) February 19, 2020
Ian Laviano had three goals and an assist, Michael Kraus had two goals and two assists and Matt Moore mirrored Kraus’ performance to lead all Virginia scorers.
Chris Brown had four goals and an assist for the Tigers while Phillip Robertson had four goals to complement Sowers.
Syracuse – Army
Syracuse climbed to No. 3 in this week’s poll from the No. 5 spot after beating then-No. 9 Army in the Carrier Dome on Sunday.
Notable performances for the Orange included a career-high 18 saves from Drake Porter and Jakub Phap going 16-for-19 at the faceoff X worked as advantages for Syracuse, while Army lost its second-straight game in six days after losing to Marist last Tuesday in what was a major upset. The Black Knights fell to No. 16 in this week’s poll, down seven spots from the prior week.
Ryan Conwell was at the game, and you can see his photos in a gallery coming soon.
Penn – Duke
Sean Lulley took over for the injured Sam Handley, taking control with six goals and an assist for Penn as the Quakers purged the No. 10 Blue Devils by a score of 14-11 over the weekend. The game was close throughout, with Penn breaking away in the closing minutes to seal the win. No. 8 Penn actually dropped one spot to No. 9 while Duke fell to No. 13.
Quick Mentions
- Shoutout to Cleveland State for achieving its first-ever win over a ranked opponent on Saturday as the Vikings took down No. 16 Air Force in overtime.
- Merrimack picked up its first-ever NCAA Division I win over Michigan as Merrimack scored seven of the last 10 goals in the game to pick-up the 14-12 win.
This facial expression is February madness in a nutshell. Congrats to @merrimackmlax on their first Division 1 Men’s Lacrosse win. #GrowTheGame
📸 @merrimackmlax pic.twitter.com/RCZz60QlF3— Lacrosse All Stars (@LaxAllStars) February 24, 2020
Top Plays From Week 3 of the 2020 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Season
No. 1 – Loyola Was In It To Win It
That game-winning moment >>>>#NCAALAX | @LoyolaMLAX
pic.twitter.com/1WKc6MKsJw— NCAA Lacrosse (@NCAALAX) February 22, 2020
Joey Kamish scored the go-ahead goal with 1:53 to play. Kamish took it down half the length of the field and let a shot loose that found the back of the net to give Loyola the 11-10 win. Cam Wyers was somehow given the assist and based on what I read from the NCAA rule book under Assists (Section 3) that is probably a pretty generous interpretation of the process. In any case, great work by Loyola to grab the win.
No. 2 – Bucknell’s Will Yorke Gives It The Backhand
The over-the-shoulder sling shot 🤯🤯#NCAALAX | @Bucknell_MLAX
pic.twitter.com/t4DuhA44OS— NCAA Lacrosse (@NCAALAX) February 22, 2020
No. 3 – Some Goalie Love For Drake Porter
Drake Porter is unreal pic.twitter.com/8QOtT403Jy
— Syracuse Lacrosse (@CuseMLAX) February 23, 2020
No. 4 – Grant Ament Takes The Big Ten Career Points Record
3Q (3:04) | Yale 7, Penn State 6
Ament takes it himself! It’s a one-goal game and that goal gives Grant Ament the Big Ten career points record with 267!#WeAre pic.twitter.com/BtTIZTCFLz
— Penn State Lacrosse (@PennStateMLAX) February 22, 2020
No. 5 – Marist Jason Intermesoli’s No-Look Celebration
Congrats to @Marist_MensLax on the win, but also some major props to Jason Intermesoli for having some bravery for this no-look celebration on the assist.pic.twitter.com/aG5FR9lSkf
— Lacrosse All Stars (@LaxAllStars) February 18, 2020
This play was from last Tuesday but is too good to not include. You can read more about it here.
