Duke-Syracuse Thriller, Towson Topples Loyola – DI Rundown Week 7

This week saw a major upset with Loyola falling to Towson, some order being defined in the ACC – including a thriller between Duke and Syracuse – order falling apart in the America East, and a few other surprises across the country. Also, it’s turns out TD Ierlan is pretty good at this faceoff thing.

Now, onto the rundown!

Duke-Syracuse Thriller – Week 7 DI Rundown

Scoreboard

Tuesday

UMass 12 vs Albany 13

Wednesday

Lafayette 8 v Drexel 24

UMBC 7 v Binghamton 8

Thursday

Syracuse 14 v Duke 15

Friday

Monmouth 8 v Manhattan 9

Hofstra 15 v Fairfield 7

High Point 10 v Richmond 17

Saturday

Binghamton 6 v UMBC 7

Air Force 8 v Bellarmine 6

Utah 10 v Mercer 15

Hartford 9 v Vermont 14

VMI 12 v Jacksonville 18

Loyola 6 v Towson 7

Villanova 7 v Georgetown 8

Quinnipiac 5 v St. Bonaventure 4

NJIT 14 v UMass Lowell 10

Mount St. Mary’s 13 v Saint Joseph’s 14

UVA 12 v Notre Dame 11

Bryant 11 v Merrimack 10

LIU 18 v Wagner 13

Ohio State 14 v Michigan 6

Boston U 13 v Lafayette 9

Holy Cross 3 v Army 13

Robert Morris 13 v Drexel 19

Cleveland St 5 v Marquette 10

Siena 9 v Detroit 11

Denver 19 v Providence 11

Albany 10 v Stony Brook 16

Sunday

Lehigh 15 v Colgate 10

Johns Hopkins 8 v Penn State 11

Maryland 13 v Rutgers 9

Bucknell 10 v Navy 13

Conference Comparison

This is the section of the rundown to keep track of how conferences are doing against each other. Intra-conference games are not part of the records below.

*2021 Independents: Utah, Robert Morris, Cleveland State, Hampton (2021 season is suspended)

Like last week, there were still just six out-of-conference games this week, and none of them involved the ACC, which may have been a first all year. UNC had an open date but took a bye week instead. The big conference this week was the CAA, playing in four of the games and winning three. That included the big upset of Towson over Loyola and a pair of wins by Drexel. The league was on the wrong side of Albany’s win over UMass, though. The independents had a bad week, dropping all three games to Mercer, Marquette, and Drexel.

Game Notes

ACC Taking Shape

With UNC taking the week off, the other four ACC teams faced off against each other. The general consensus is you have Duke/UNC, then Syracuse, and then UVA/Notre Dame. So this weekend was big to see how close Syracuse was to the Duke and North Carolina duo and who was avoiding the dreaded last place spot in the league, despite the fact that they’re all still top-10 teams.

First up was the highly-anticipated Syracuse and Duke showdown. The Duke-Syracuse contest wasn’t back-and-forth throughout but still came down to a last-second save by Duke’s Mike Adler to give the Blue Devils the win. The key for this game came down to faceoffs. Syracuse was getting called for violations, and subsequently serving penalty time for how many it had, but these losses were piling up and fueling the Duke offense, allowing the Blue Devils to put up eight points in the second quarter alone. My concern for Duke going into the game was its defensive midfield, and while it still had lapses, it held the Syracuse midfield to just six goals, forcing the Orange attack line to lean heavily on Stephen Rehfuss and Chase Scanlan while JT Giles-Harris kept Owen Hiltz on lockdown after an early score.

Then on Saturday, Notre Dame hosted Virginia for the Irish’s first real test of the year. They looked like they were on their heels early, and UVA carried a 3-0 lead into the second quarter. And while the takeaway for most is the re-emergence of Dox Aitken (which it should be!), this game was also one of the most complete games we’ve seen from Virginia this year. Even though Notre Dame did grind its way into this game and had a big second quarter, UVA was never far behind and didn’t have to get away from its game plan.

America East Shakeups

In a week that only Covid could bring us, a prior game being rescheduled meant Binghamton and UMBC played each other twice in the same week. In the midweek version, the 3-0 Retrievers fell to the Bearcats in overtime, which was their third overtime game of the year. Once Saturday rolled around, it was UMBC that came away with the win, but just by a single goal. Is UMBC just the reincarnated 2017 Syracuse team?

Elsewhere in AE action, Albany scored a big midweek victory over UMass, which was much-needed for the Danes to regain their top 20 status. But then they lost to Stony Brook in conference, so go figure. This now leaves Vermont at the top of the AE, with Stony Brook’s lone loss being to UMBC, who lost to Binghamton. NJIT picking up their first AE win now means only Hartford is still winless. Overall, this conference continues to make no sense.

Big East Progress

The two big teams in the Big East are still just Georgetown and Denver. While Denver made Georgetown come crashing back to earth, this weekend reminded the Hoyas that they are still firmly at sea level. The expectation for the Hoyas shot up after their dominant 16-1 win in their opener against Villanova, but this 8-7 win over the same Wildcats showed this will not be a cakewalk for them.

For Denver, it saw the debut of TD Ierlan in a Pioneer uniform for its win over Providence. How did he do? A perfect 14-of-14 with 10 ground balls. You could say that he adjusted to the new rules pretty well.

Big Ten Weekend

We’re into rematch mode right now with the Big Ten, and the two big games were Penn State and Hopkins on opposite trajectories while the big boys at Maryland and Rutgers saw their round two. Penn State lost its first match against Hopkins 13-6, which was the first of two defeats for the Nittany Lions. This round was very much a game for Penn State from start to finish, but it came out on top, being led by Mac O’Keefe’s four goals.

The Terps faced their second challenge from Rutgers, and this one was much more of a game for all four quarters. Rutgers came out hot and was looking like it could pull off the upset, but Jared Bernhardt was too much to handle for the Rutgers defense. He scored two goals that just astounded me from a situational awareness perspective. One was a diving goal where he scored while falling but still shot to the top corner as the goalie dropped. The other was evading the entire defense collapsing on him, where he managed to keep his stick exactly where it could not be checked. The word “unguardable” is being tossed around with him right now, and it is well deserved. If Maryland doesn’t have a bad game, it’s looking like it will be undefeated when May rolls around.

Reschedule Tracker

I’ll be using this section to keep track of which games are postponed or canceled as the season goes on as that information will easily get lost in the shuffle. Every season always has a few games postponed or canceled due to weather or travel issues, but as you’ll see below, this season is already going to be quite a bit different.

Also note: the “Games Scheduled” will include new games added, which may make the percentages look different compared to the missed games listed below. For example: Colgate and Robert Morris both had games canceled, so they played each other, meaning there are two games cancelled but one game played as scheduled.

Games scheduled: 223

Games played: 191 (85.7%)

Games played as scheduled: 184 (82.5%)

Missed Games

2/13 Army v UMass – Canceled

2/13 Army v Virginia – Moved to 2/14 – PLAYED

2/13 Loyola v Richmond – Moved to 2/14 – PLAYED

2/13 Villanova v Delaware – Canceled

2/13 Mount St. Mary’s v VMI – Rescheduled to 4/7

2/13 Cleveland St v Marquette -Canceled

2/16 Bellarmine v North Carolina – Postponed

2/18 Bellarmine v High Point – Rescheduled to 4/3

2/20 UMass vs UMass Lowell – Moved to 2/23 – Canceled

2/20 Robert Morris v Bucknell – Canceled

2/20 UMBC v Saint Joseph’s – Canceled

2/20 VMI v Colgate – Canceled

2/21 Albany v Lehigh – Canceled

2/23 Bellarmine v Robert Morris – Rescheduled to 4/2

2/26 Bucknell v Colgate – Rescheduled to 4/3

2/27 Bellarmine v VMI – Rescheduled to 3/9 – PLAYED

2/27 UMass v Boston U – Canceled

2/28 Bucknell v Delaware – Canceled

3/6 Hofstra v UMass – Moved to 3/30

3/6 Wagner v St. Joseph’s – Rescheduled to 3/8 – PLAYED

3/6 Navy v Bucknell – Postponed

3/9 UMass vs Albany – Moved to 3/23 – PLAYED

3/13 UMBC v Binghamton – Moved to 3/24 – PLAYED

3/13 Mount St. Mary’s v Bryant – Moved to 5/1

3/13 Quinnipiac v Marist – Moved to 4/20

3/13 Colgate v Army – Postponed

3/13 Hofstra v Towson – Moved to 4/13

3/13 Georgetown v Denver – Rescheduled to 3/16 – PLAYED

3/20 St. Bonaventure v Canisius – Rescheduled to 4/6

3/20 Marquette v St. John’s – Postponed

3/20 Hofstra v Syracuse – Postponed

3/20 Siena v Quinnipiac – Moved to 4/7

3/20 Vermont v UMass – Canceled

3/20 Holy Cross v Army – Postponed

3/20 Marist v Monmouth – Postponed

3/20 Navy v Lafayette – Moved to 5/1

3/21 Denver v Villanova – Postponed

3/27 Sacred Heart v Hobart – Postponed

3/27 St. John’s v Marquette – Postponed

3/27 Canisius v Marist – Postponed

3/27 Bucknell v Army – Canceled

3/27 Holy Cross v Navy – Canceled

This Week’s Games

Tuesday

UMass vs Hofstra

Thursday

North Carolina v Duke

Friday

Fairfield v Delaware

Detroit v Canisius

Saturday

NJIT v Binghamton

Jacksonville v Robert Morris

LIU v Merrimack

Colgate v Bucknell

Loyola v Navy

Marquette v Denver

Providence v Villanova

Towson v Hofstra

UMass Lowell v Albany

Manhattan v St. Bonaventure

Marist v Siena

Mercer v Air Force

Wagner v Saint Joseph’s

Notre Dame v Syracuse

Hobart v Bryant

Georgetown v St. John’s

Utah v Boston U

Vermont v UMBC

Stony Brook v Hartford

VMI v Cleveland St.

Richmond v Virginia

Sacred Heart v Mount St. Mary’s

Army v Lehigh

Ohio State v Rutgers

Penn State v Maryland

Bellarmine v High Point

Quinnipiac v Monmouth

UMass v Drexel

Sunday

Michigan v Johns Hopkins

Lafayette v Holy Cross

What to Watch

Tuesday

UMass vs Hofstra

Thursday

North Carolina v Duke

Friday

Fairfield v Delaware

Saturday

LIU v Merrimack

Loyola v Navy

Towson v Hofstra

Notre Dame v Syracuse

Richmond v Virginia

Army v Lehigh

Ohio State v Rutgers

Sunday

Michigan v Johns Hopkins

The biggest games for national consideration are definitely UNC/Duke, Loyola/Navy, Notre Dame/Cuse, Richmond/Virginia, Army/Lehigh, and Ohio State/Rutgers. The sneakiest potentially-great game of the week is LIU v Merrimack. The two former DII powerhouses both became DI at the same time, and LIU is a quiet 5-1 right now and looking to stay on top of the NEC. There is also big upset potential with Richmond v Lehigh, while Delaware and Hofstra are looking to keep improving through the season.

Catch Up on the DI Rundown

This is the eighth DI Rundown of the season. If you want to see what you missed earlier in the campaign, you’ve come to the right place.

Week 0 | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6