Virginia Experiences Orange Wrath – DI Rundown Week 3

After this past week of games, things are starting to take a clearer shape. That said, this weekend may have created more questions than answers: there’s now a weird triangle among Virginia, Syracuse, and Army, Rutgers made another big statement, Notre Dame finally saw the field and more. Of all the games played, seven involved one team scoring 20 or more goals, which is good for just fewer than a quarter of the games played. What’s shocking is that of those seven, four were against ranked teams. We also had a handful of upsets to keep things exciting.

Now, onto the rundown!

Orange Wrath Engulfs Virginia – Week 3 DI Rundown

Scoreboard

Tuesday

Saint Joseph’s 13 v Delaware 16

Wednesday

Towson 11 v Mount St. Mary’s 5

LIU 10 v Sacred Heart 12

Friday

Maryland 13 v Penn State 7

Mount St. Mary’s 7 v UMBC 8

Saturday

Johns Hopkins 14 v Michigan 7

Villanova 16 v Marquette 14

Providence 10 v Denver 23

Air Force 7 v Duke 17

Vermont 12 v Bryant 15

Towson 10 v Richmond 11

Merrimack 16 v UMass Lowell 8

St. John’s 1 v Georgetown 19

Virginia 10 v Syracuse 20

Utah 8 v Loyola 20

Saint Joseph’s 5 v Army 13

NJIT 10 v Lehigh 24

Robert Morris 7 v Notre Dame 19

Stony Brook 17 v Hofstra 20

High Point 12 v North Carolina 27

Wagner 8 v LIU 19

Rutgers 22 v Ohio State 12

Boston U 15 vs Pace 2

Albany 15 v Colgate 9

Sacred Heart 10 v Holy Cross 11

Sunday

Cleveland St 9 v Mercer 10

Jacksonville 6 v Navy 13

Bellarmine 11 v Delaware 14

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)

The ACC continues to march on, still having only lost to Army thus far. Of course, there are no ACC/Big Ten games this year, which is usually good for a few more Ls by this point. But the Patriot League is looking very strong with only four losses to date: Loyola and Army to UVA and Colgate to Albany and Robert Morris are all the league has at this point. Speaking of which, the UVA over Army over Syracuse over UVA triangle of wins is making the rankings an interesting exercise this early in the season.

Game Notes

This was definitely a week of some eye-popping scores! Rutgers big over OSU, Syracuse big over UVA, UNC routing High Point, Notre Dame over Robert Morris, Denver over Providence, and Duke over Air Force. In the close game category, there were a few overtime and tight ones, but Hofstra over Stony Brook jumps out to me as an especially notable one. Here are some thoughts on a handful of the games:

Syracuse v Virginia

One of the most surprising upsets of the weekend was Syracuse topping Virginia. It’s fairly well known by this point, but this rivalry is as even as it gets. It’s always a fast, back-and-forth affair with narrow margins. Overall, the series was even, the points were even, and just about every other metrics was as close to even as can be. But 20-10? That’s the most Syracuse has ever beaten Virginia by. Ever. Coming off such a shocking loss to Army the week prior, this was not predictable. Improvement was expected, but Syracuse got better in every phase of the game. Its GBs were tougher, crisper, and produced transition. Its defense was aggressive, and Syracuse was communicating and helping in ways it could barely dream of last week. Simply put: this was a different team. Also, the Orange’s 20 points were very evenly distributed, which is what this team should have been doing a week ago. Virginia surely isn’t hitting the panic button, but it will need to learn from this. Once its deficit started growing, UVA’s offense was taking much lower percentage opportunities, which gave Syracuse the ball back pretty quickly. This will likely be a blip on the radar for the ‘Hoos, but it was an ugly blip.

Rutgers v Ohio State

So, Rutgers, eh? This was a statement of all statements this year. Rutgers over Penn State last week was big. Ohio State embarrassing Hopkins was also big. But this? Rutgers went to Ohio State and acted like it’s not only lived there for years, but redecorated, and even filled out a change of address. It was incredible. From faceoffs to transition offense to a stifling defense, Rutgers controlled this game in every aspect. Oddly enough, the only knock against Rutgers in this game was its 0-2 man-up, which is just puzzling. This was probably the best game I’ve ever seen out of Rutgers, full stop. If the Scarlet Knights play like this all year, forget about breaking their playoff curse – they would be a shoe-in for Championship Weekend.

North Carolina v High Point

In the rare regular season rematch between two teams, the neighborly foes faced off once again just a short time from their first meeting. Last time, High Point gave UNC just about all it could handle, and it was the most pressure UNC had faced in awhile. Well, it turns out that the Tar Heels studied that game film and learned quite a bit. The game was back and forth for the first quarter, but then UNC blew the doors wide open. From its goal at just under 13 minutes left in the second to the 12-minute mark in the fourth, North Carolina outscored High Point, 19-4. That included two separate runs of eight-plus unanswered goals. It’s about as potent of an offense as there is in the country.

Denver v Providence

The Pioneers were certainly expected to beat the Friars, but not like this. The score was 23-10, but it wasn’t even that close. Five of Providence’s goals came in the last six minutes, well into Denver’s substitution game. This was also one of the few times you’ll ever see four goalies register time in a game for one team. There was not a single statistical category where Denver didn’t win. It was sheer domination.

Notre Dame v Robert Morris

Notre Dame had its debut this week and made its presence known. While the rest of the ACC has been making noise, the Irish were a looming presence. As Syracuse showed, preseason hype does not match first-game results. While a strong Notre Dame defense is almost a given at this point, my reservations about this team were focused on the other side of the ball. But that is where Notre Dame shined: 19 goals from 13 different scorers, and a whopping 17 of them were assisted. The Irish were moving the ball well all game long and really looked excellent. Defensively, they held Robert Morris to its lowest output of the year.

Hofstra v Stony Brook

Even though it was Hofstra against Stony Brook, it was essentially Ryan Tierney against Stony Brook. Tierney accounted for eight of the 20 goals (off 11 shots) and had three assists. And while one was an empty netter at the end of the game, even that involved him splitting a double team and creating the opportunity. But this game was actually pretty close throughout except for a stretch of five goals between the third and fourth quarters. This was a good win for Hofstra in the battle for Long Island.

Navy v Jacksonville

One of the final games of the weekend saw Jacksonville face Navy in a downpour up in Annapolis. These are both teams fighting to be among the top in their conference – Jacksonville behind Richmond and High Point while Navy is behind at least Army and Loyola – making for a compelling matchup. The Dolphins looked impressive early on in this game. It was similar to how they opened against teams like UNC; they don’t back down. They have some aggressive defense. They dominated the middle of the field, being perfect in clearing and forcing a few turnovers from Navy. That built up a convincing 5-2 lead, and they were seemingly in control. But then Navy woke up. Reeling off nine-straight goals over the next 15 minutes of clock spanning the two halves, Navy took over. In that span, the Midshipmen dominated faceoffs and ground balls, plus allowed just six Jacksonville shots. It took a close game and turned it completely one sided.

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: 78

Games played: 66 (84.6%)

Games played as scheduled: 64 (82.1%)

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 – Postponed, date TBD

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 – Postponed again

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

2/27 UMass v Boston U – Postponed

This Week’s Games

Tuesday

Robert Morris v Bellarmine (Ind v SoCon)

Hofstra v Wagner (CAA v NEC)

Mount St. Mary’s v Georgetown (NEC v Big East)

Wednesday

Providence v Fairfield (Big East v CAA)

Virginia v High Point (ACC v SoCon)

Vermont v UMass Lowell (AE)

Saturday

Bryant v Merrimack (NEC)

Hofstra v UMass (CAA)

Wagner v St. Joseph’s (NEC)

Georgetown v Marquette (Big East)

Virginia v Air Force (ACC v SoCon)

UMBC v Stony Brook (AE)

Navy v Bucknell (Patriot)

Lafayette v VMI (Patriot v SoCon)

Quinnipiac v St. Bonaventure (MAAC)

Sacred Heart v LIU (NEC)

Hobart v Mount St. Mary’s (NEC)

Syracuse v Vermont (ACC v AE)

Utah v Jacksonville (Ind v SoCon)

Drexel v Towson (CAA)

Lehigh v Loyola (Patriot)

North Carolina v Mercer (ACC v SoCon)

Boston U v Army (Patriot)

Siena v Canisius (MAAC)

Fairfield v Delaware (CAA)

Colgate v Holy Cross (Patriot)

Notre Dame v Bellarmine (ACC v SoCon)

St. Bonaventure v Detroit (MAAC)

Hartford v Albany (AE)

Marist v Detroit (MAAC)

Maryland v Johns Hopkins (Big Ten)

Penn State v Ohio State (Big Ten)

Rutgers v Michigan (Big Ten)

NJIT v Binghamton (AE)

St. John’s v Denver (Big East)

Manhattan v Monmouth (MAAC)

Sunday

Providence v Villanova (Big East)

Richmond v Duke (SoCon v ACC)

What to Watch

We still have some teams that are getting the chance to play for the first time, so it’s exciting to get a look at just about everyone. While some squads are entering conference-only opponents from here on out, there are still some non-conference contests taking place. But in-conference tends to be where the fun is. The games in particular that will help shape the top 20 pique my interest the most. These are the ones I have my eye on:

Tuesday

Robert Morris v Bellarmine (Ind v SoCon)

Wednesday

Providence v Fairfield (Big East v CAA)

Virginia v High Point (ACC v SoCon)

Saturday

Bryant v Merrimack (NEC)

Hofstra v UMass (CAA)

Georgetown v Marquette (Big East)

UMBC v Stony Brook (AE)

Navy v Bucknell (Patriot)

Hobart v Mount St. Mary’s (NEC)

Lehigh v Loyola (Patriot)

Maryland v Johns Hopkins (Big Ten)

Penn State v Ohio State (Big Ten)

Sunday

Providence v Villanova (Big East)

Richmond v Duke (SoCon v ACC)

Catch Up on the DI Rundown

This is the fourth 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