This weekend, Georgetown got a statement win on the road against a highly ranked Notre Dame squad. Division 1 Men’s Lacrosse as a whole was treated to a series of big wins, upsets, and thrillers all throughout the country.
Lets review the Top 5 games of the weekend.
Penn (14) – Duke (13) Overtime
The Duke Blue Devils suffered a heartbreaking loss in an overtime thriller versus the Penn Quakers. Despite Duke outplaying Penn in nearly every aspect of the game, along with a season-best performance by Nakeie Montgomery (4G, 2A), it was not enough to stop the Penn Quaker comeback.
The Penn Quakers were led by Dylan Gergar with 6 goals followed by James Shipley with 3 goals and one assist. But the star of the show would be Jack Schultz, who would net the game winner for Penn. With less than a minute left, Schultz took a hard dodge to the cage where he would get a step on his defender and net the game winner right over the Duke goaltender’s shoulder.
Georgetown (16) – Notre Dame (11)
In a battle of two top-five teams, we saw the Georgetown Hoyas take on the Norte Dame Fighting Irish. Georgetown jumped out to an early 6-1 lead by the end of the first quarter. The Georgetown victory was heavily aided by an outstanding performance at X by James Reilly who won 14 of the first 15 faceoffs of the day.
However, Notre Dame would not go down without a fight. The Fighting Irish were able to shutout the Hoyas in the third quarter while adding 5 goals of their own to bring the game to 11-9 heading into the fourth quarter.
Fortunately, the Georgetown defense came to play. Georgetown was able to hold off this Irish comeback mostly due to Owen McElroy, who made 24 saves in the contest, tying his career high saves in a game.
Notre Dame outshot Georgetown 19-9 in the fourth quarter, but for the Irish it was not enough and Georgetown was able to hold off an Irish comeback to move to 3-0 on the season.
Penn State (10) – Yale (6)
Not many people predicted Penn State to secure a top 5 upset win over Yale this past weekend. This win was heavily on the back of the Penn State keeper, Aleruc Fyock, who made 21 stops in the contest while only allowing 6 goals.
Penn State was looking to avoid a fourth straight loss on the season, and needless to say they did not get the ideal start. Yale opened up the game with two straight goals in the first two minutes, the exact opposite of how Penn State was looking to open up the game. Fortunately, Fyock turned into a brick wall in net, allowing the Nittany Lions to rattle off 5 straight goals to finish the first.
The Lions kept that momentum through the second half and secured the 10-6 win over the Bulldogs. Coach Tambroni of Penn State expressed his pride in his team, quoted as saying he was “grateful” and “proud” of the leadership witnessed on Saturday.
Virginia (20) – Syracuse (11)
In an ACC showdown, the Virginia Cavaliers flexed their muscle against the Syracuse Orange in a 20-11 victory.
The offensive charge was led by Virginia’s Connor Shellenberger who totaled 7 points (3G, 4A) on the day, followed by Xander Dickson (1G, 2A) and Griffin Schutz (3G) adding three points each.
Mikey Berkman led the offense for Syracuse with 4 points (2G, 2A) followed by Brendan Curry (1G, 2A) and Griffin Cook (3G) each adding 3 more points a piece respectively.
The big story in this game was the goalie battle between Virginia’s Matthew Nunes and Syracuse’s Bobby Gavin. Gavin transferred to Syracuse after losing the starting goalie battle to Nunes at Virginia earlier this year. Matthew Nunes played well for Virginia, making 15 stops and allowing 11 goals for a 58% save mark. On the opposite end of the field. Bobby Gavin made 12 saves for Syracuse while allowing 20 goals for a 38% save percentage.
Rutgers (12) – Loyola (11)
Rutgers moves to being the only 5-0 team in the nation with their 12-11 victory over the Loyola Greyhounds.
The Rutgers offense was led by Ross Scott with 4 goals on the day. Scott’s offensive efforts were followed by Shane Knobloch (3G) and Ronan Jacoby (2G, 1A) who each added 3 points respectively. For Loyola, they were led by Aidan Olmstead, who totaled 7 points on the day with 2 goals and 5 assists for the Greyhounds.
Additionally, the Greyhounds are still solving questions between the pipes as we saw action from Sam Shafer and Luke Staudt. Sam Shafer finished the day with 6 saves and 4 goals allowed for a 60% save percentage. Luke Staudt made 5 saves while allowing 9 goals for a 36% save percentage.
Moving into the following weeks, Loyola must figure out their goaltender situation to avoid a fourth straight loss as their schedule only presents more challenges.
