Grow the Game®

then there were two yale brown
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on reddit
Share on whatsapp

And Then There Were Two… D1 Rundown

And then there were two… With Denver’s loss to Penn State, only the Ivy League’s Brown and Yale are left loss-free. Brown has a tough one scheduled against Villanova on #UpsetTuesday while Yale will face a 5-2 Penn team on Saturday. Let’s all hope they both stay undefeated until their head to head matchup on April 16th simply because that would be epic.  Anyway, enough about the future, this article’s all about the past! Well, the past week anyway.

Also, check out Connor’s Top 20 poll from this week. I think he is currently being possessed by a Presidential candidate.

Then There Were Two – D1 Scoreboard

Tuesday

7 Dartmouth vs. NJIT 10
10 Binghamton vs. Drexel 7
15 Providence vs. UMass Lowell 11
9 Duke vs. Air Force 10 OT
13 Fairfield vs. Quinnipiac 7
8 Harvard vs. Boston U. 9

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P2ubHAXAbE

13 Hofstra vs. Vermont 12 OT
11 Navy vs. Lafayette 4

Wednesday

7 Georgetown vs. Loyola 10
6 Michigan vs. Marist 7 OT

Saturday

10 Holy Cross vs. Jacksonville 6
10 Denver vs. Penn State 15
16 Duke vs. Syracuse 15 OT

5 Hobart vs. Saint Joseph’s 13
13 Marist vs. Canisius 10
9 Marquette vs. Georgetown 8
9 Mount St. Mary’s vs. Robert Morris 11
11 Quinnipiac vs. Siena 6
11 UMBC vs. Stony Brook 14
9 Penn vs. Cornell 6
5 VMI vs. Furman 18
11 Yale vs. Princeton 10
7 Colgate vs. Army 11
12 Drexel vs. Mercer 5
9 Hartford vs. Albany 13
6 Lafayette vs. Boston U. 16
14 Loyola vs. Bucknell 3

8 Ohio State vs. Notre Dame 9
9 Providence vs. Bellarmine 7
8 St. John’s vs. Hofstra 15
5 Detroit vs. Air Force 7
11 Vermont vs. UMass Lowell 9
15 Villanova vs. Fairfield 9
10 Wagner vs. NJIT 8
11 Maryland vs. North Carolina 8
18 Harvard vs. Dartmouth 8
7 Lehigh vs. Navy 12
15 Towson vs. Binghamton 6
5 Manhattan vs. Monmouth 10
15 Rutgers vs. Delaware 11

Sunday

7 Richmond vs. High Point 3
13 Virginia vs. Johns Hopkins 12 2OT

The Stat Freaks

Freak-on-a-leash of the Week: This was a tough call this week given the great competition. Deemer Class and Connor Fields’ seven goals certainly earn some consideration, as do the many dominant faceoff and goalie performances. But I’m going to give my weekly hat tip to Jimmy Cunningham out of Providence. This team is trying to make a name for themselves in the Big East, and picking up four caused turnovers is a good start. I say it’s a good start because he paired the 4 CTs with 11 ground balls.  That’s almost unheard of among non-faceoff guys. Seriously ELEVEN GBs in one game is ridiculous for a non FoGo.

Offense: The Cutoff here is a combined 7 goals and/or assists

Harvard’s Devin Dwyer 3G, 4A vs. Dartmouth
Providence’s Brendan Kearns 3G, 5A vs. UMASS-Lowell
Providence’s Will Mazzone 4G, 4A vs. UMASS-Lowell
Air Force’s Chris Walsh 3G, 4A vs. Duke
Duke’s Deemer Class 7G, 2A vs. Syracuse
Loyola’s Pat Spencer 1G, 6A vs. Bucknell
UMBC’s Nate Lewnes 6G, 1A on 7 shots vs. Stony Brook
Army’s Cole Johnson 3G, 4A vs. Colgate
Albany’s Connor Fields 7G, 1A on 9 shots vs. Hartford
Vermont’s Ian Mackay 4G, 3A vs. UMASS-Lowell

Defense:  For here, you need 8 GBs, CTs, and/or points

Harvard’s Bobby Duvnjak 5GB, 4CT vs. DartmoutH
Dartmouth’s Timmy Burke 4GB, 4CT vs. Harvard
Providence’s Jarrod Neumann 6GB, 4CT vs. UMASS-Lowell
Providence’s Jimmy Cunningham 11GB, 4CT vs. UMASS-Lowell
UMASS-Lowell’s Will Pudusky 8GB, 2CT, 1A vs. Providence
Lehigh’s Craig Chick 5GB, 2CT, 1G, 2A vs. Navy
Navy’s Matt Rees 8GB, 1CT vs. Lafayette
Marquette’s Jacob Richard 9GB, 1CT, 1G vs. Georgetown
Mount St. Mary’s jack Mangan 3GB, 4CT, 2A vs. Robert Morris
Penn’s Connor Keating 5GB, 2CT, 1G vs. Cornell
Delaware’s Austin Haynes 8GB, 1CT vs. Rutgers

Faceoffs: Greater than 70%, at least 10 attempts

Harvard’s Michel Keegan 13 FO wins, 12 GB, 1G, 1A vs. Dartmouth
Dartmouth’s Don Stephan 15/20 vs. NJIT
Binghamton’s Dan Mazurek 10/13 vs. Drexel
Providence’s Colin McKendry 12/16 vs. UMASS-Lowell
Duke’s Kyle Rowe 16/21 vs. Air Force
Fairfield’s Will Fox 15/19 vs. Quinnipiac
Navy’s Brady Dove 14/19 with 11 GB vs. Lehigh
Loyola’s Graham Savio 14/19 vs. Georgetown
Marquette’s Zachary Melillo 15/21 vs. Georgetown
Quinnipiac’s Will Vitelli 16/21 vs. Siena
Furman’s Justin Kane 7/10 vs. VMI
Army’s Alex Daly 7/10 with 7GB vs. Colgate
Hartford’s Dylan Protesto 17/22 vs. Albany
Boston’s Elliott Burr 10/11 vs. Lafayette
Boston’s Sam Talkow 8/10 vs. Lafayette
Air Force’s Josh Radjenovich 11/15 vs. Detroit

Goalies:  Greater than 70%

Harvard’s Robert Shaw 10 Saves vs. Dartmouth
Loyola’s Jacob Stover 12 saves on 13 shots vs. Bucknell
St. Joseph’s TJ Jones 9 saves vs. Hobart
Robert Morris’ Alex Heger 12 saves vs. Mount St. Marys’
Quinnipiac’s Jack Brust 14 saves vs. Siena
Penn’s Reed Junkin 14 saves vs. Cornell
Drexel’s Jimmy Joe Granito 8 saves vs. Mercer
Richmond’s Henry Buonagurio 11 saves vs. High Point

The Big Upsets and Surprises

  • The week began with a bang as Air Force topped Duke in overtime during a mid-week contest. This loss gave everyone a good feeling about recently voting Air Force into the top 20 and also raised even more question marks about a puzzling Duke squad.  Next to Loyola, they may be the most inconsistent team out there.
  • Duke is especially inconsistent as they went into overtime once again, but this time they were victorious over Syracuse. While this late comeback did not make an evaluation of Duke any easier, it is starting to make Syracuse a tougher read. They allowed a late Duke rally during which they were getting beat handily at the faceoff x. They had been even in that stat for the entire game leading up to the fourth quarter and then Duke took over.
  • Coach Desko and most of the lacrosse media has made faceoffs the main narrative for Syracuse since 2013, so why stop now? Having one of the best FOGOs in the country is great and winning faceoffs is better, but winning them when you need them the most is best. Syracuse has now lost two games on the road in overtime to top 10 opponents. This is not exactly doomsday for the Orange.
  • In the Battle of the Charles (river, not street) where BU could have done their warmup jog over the two miles it takes to get to Harvard, it was the Terriers who would be victorious by a goal. Both of these teams have larger concerns in their respective leagues, but if this can turn into a neighborly rivalry, lacrosse fans in the Boston area will be thankful. Boston needed a college lacrosse rivalry like this.
  • UPSET ALERT! The upset alert may end up broken this year from overuse, but Penn State’s shocking win over Denver deserves every whistle, siren, and alarm you can find. I would say this brings a heavy dose of legitimacy to what Jeff Tambroni is growing in State College while Denver can just chalk this up to a bad day. Either way, one more undefeated team bites the dust.
  • Speaking of undefeated teams, Yale eeked out a close one over Ivy foe Princeton. 10 goals was a lot to score on the Bulldogs, especially by a struggling Princeton team. The win keeps Yale blemish free and gives them some stronger close games credentials.
  • Speaking of close games against teams they should have beat handily, Notre Dame scored a 9-8 win over a Ohio State team that is still trying to live up to their preseason hype. The Irish should study this film hard to see where they went wrong, because traveling up to Syracuse next weekend to play in the Carrier Dome against a team looking to make a statement is not a good place to be without answers.
  • Loyola continues to confuse me. They had a three point win over an underperforming Georgetown team which wasn’t bad, but made sense given their inconsistency. Then they went out and beat a Bucknell team who was looking to make a move in the Patriot league by a margin of 11 goals.  Yup, I’m officially still confused.
  • Maryland also scored a good win over North Carolina, 11-8. UNC still has yet to play an ACC opponent, but given their out of conference record, they almost need to run the table in the league to boost their resume enough for an at large bid. Right now, it’s not looking great. Maryland’s only losses to Notre Dame and Yale are still looking pretty darn good as far as losses go.
  • The weekend ended with a fantastic game down in Charlottesville as Virginia topped Hopkins in an overtime finish. This game was a true back and forth contest and was great to watch from start to finish. Both teams had players making plays, but it was UVA who came out on top. UVA is still below .500, but has VMI and Georgetown left on the schedule. Their games against UNC and Duke are absolutely must win games. A victory over both may be enough to launch them into the ACC tournament. Hopkins has a tune-up against UMBC before their conference slate begins. Hopefully coach Pietramala will be back in full health and on the sidelines soon.

Conference Comparison

Conference Record % # of Teams
ACC 24-13 .649 5
Ivy 23-15 .605 7
Big Ten 30-20 .600 6
Patriot 22-17 .564 9
Big East 26-21 .553 6
Colonial 29-26 .527 6
Northeast 26-24 .520 7
America East 18-25 .419 7
Southern 21-32 .396 8
MAAC 12-28 .300 7

There was not a lot of movement here this week as the only change in order was the Patriot league overtaking the Big East. As good as the top portion of the Ivy league is, the bottom teams are really dragging them down. The ACC continues to be on top because in reality, their worst team is Virginia, who just beat Hopkins this week.

For some fun theoretical discussion, if we only count the wins and losses of the top five teams in every conference, the ACC only drops to third.  The Ivies would be the best with .740 followed by the Patriot with .682. The Big East and B1G would still be on the heels of the ACC, but it does make for some interesting conversation. This may move beyond mere conversation in May when the at large bids are being selection.

So we are down to two undefeated teams, some of the conferences are starting to make sense, and we’re seeing the slightest beginnings of a playoff picture being painted. Keep your eyes and ears open, it only gets better from here on out!