The Cooldown: BU, Michigan Keep Kryptonite Powers in Upset Wins

Two of the last three undefeated NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse teams ran into their own forms of Kryptonite on Saturday, leaving Fairfield (9-0) as the last one standing.

Unbeaten and No. 1 ranked Maryland fell to Michigan 11-10 in triple overtime, the Terps fourth consecutive loss to the Wolverines over the last three seasons.

Unbeaten and No. 5 ranked Army fell to Boston University 10-9 in overtime. It was the fifth straight loss for Army in the series and the second year in a row that the Terriers gave the Black Knights their first loss of the season. 

Where to begin?

How about with Michigan’s defense? After giving up seven first-half goals to Maryland, the Wolverines surrendered just three goals over the final 41 minutes of action. Uncharacteristically, Maryland committed 21 turnovers with Kees Van Wees forcing four turnovers. Hunter Taylor made 13 saves, including four in the fourth quarter and two in overtime.

Earlier this year, Duke rallied for an 8-7 overtime win against Michigan with many of the key plays coming from X. Michigan shut down any of those late moves from behind the goal this time around, including some rock solid 1-on-1 D from Pace Billings to set the stage for Nick Roode’s game-winner.

Former Terp assistant coach Kevin Conry has used victories over Maryland to help turn things around the last two seasons and is hoping the third time is also a charm as Michigan goes for its third straight Big Ten title.

At West Point, Boston University goalie Will Barnes (22) and Army’s Sean Byrne (18) combined for 40 saves in a back-and-forth game where no one could take control. The game featured four lead changes and seven ties – high numbers for a relatively low-scoring game.

Army looked like it was going to pull out some magic when freshman star Brayden Fountain picked up a loose ball on a scrum in front of the net and scored with 31 seconds left – a goal that was upheld after replay review.

Army won the faceoff to start overtime, but the Black Knights settled for an outside shot that was gobbled up by Barnes for his 22nd save. Army took 57 shots in the game, but many from outside off the dodge and they finished with just four assists on nine goals.

After Barnes' save, BU used some quick ball movement and the “one-more” feed from Tyler Fox set up Jimmy Kohr’s game-winner.

Meanwhile, “America’s Team,” a moniker Fairfield has proudly embraced, pulled out a 12-11 victory over Drexel to stay unbeaten. It was the third one-goal victory of the season for the Stags and they rallied from a three-goal deficit in the fourth quarter.

Rob Moore had five assists in the game and Luke Okupski’s second goal of the game, coming with 4:13 left, proved to be the game-winner.