The Post-Week Tailgate: April 21, 2024

When Saturday’s first game of the day — Mercer at Queens — went to triple overtime with the Bears winning on the road, I should have known that it was going to be a special weekend. In reality, the specialness started the night before when Matt Brandau simply did what he’s been doing all season — piling up points at near-record levels.

What didn’t this weekend have?

Here are three things that made this weekend a little bit different than what we’ve seen this season.

1) Atmosphere

How can you top a big crowd for Syracuse in the Dome? Make the opponent be Virginia and honor one of the greatest legends in the sport, Paul Gait, by putting his No. 19 jersey in the rafters.

Syracuse-Virginia might not be the oldest rivalry in the sport, but I challenge you to find a more entertaining one. Both teams looked ready to deliver a knockout blow at various points in yesterday’s classic, but at the end, Syracuse delighted a crowd of 8,348 with an 18-17 victory.

Immediately after the conclusion of that game, the national television audience on ESPNU was transported to historic Homewood Field for the Johns Hopkins-Maryland rivalry. The flow of play didn’t match the excitement of Cuse-Virginia — Hopkins ground out a 7-5 victory over the Terps — but the atmosphere sure did.

A crowd of 10,458 was on hand on a sun-splashed day, the largest crowd for a Division I game this season and the biggest at Homewood since 2004.

2) Stars

UAlbany's Jake Piseno burst onto the national scene when he was named as the top defensive player at the 2023 World Lacrosse Men’s Championship playing for the Haudenosaunee in San Diego. For anyone that missed that performance, he turned heads again with an eye-popping game at Virginia earlier this season and has rightfully drawn raves from everyone.

On Friday, he drew the nation’s leading scorer in Yale’s Matt Brandau. Brandau, leading an injury-ravaged Yale squad, was up for the challenge and finished with eight points in a 17-10 win over UAlbany. He had a first-half hat track and then poured in five assists in the second half to give him 94 points in just 13 games.

BRANDAU ON THE BOARD. 🔄 

He cuts the @YaleLacrosse deficit to 3-2 before the end of the first quarter. pic.twitter.com/URh1nxdb6g

— USA Lacrosse Magazine (@USALacrosseMag) April 19, 2024

In a season in which four Tewaaraton finalists return — Pat Kavanagh, C.J. Kirst, Brennan O’Neill, Connor Shellenberger — I went to bed on Friday night thinking Brandau was a lock for the award.

And then on Saturday, Virginia was on the ropes when Shellenberger seemed to single-handedly will his team back into the game. Though Virginia didn’t win, it was through no fault of Shellenberger who finished with four goals and five assists.

* checks profile pic *
* yep, he is him *

Connor Shellenberger is on 🔥 at the Dome, notching career points 300 and 301 to tie it at 9@UVAMensLax pic.twitter.com/M7MkWePzLp

— USA Lacrosse Magazine (@USALacrosseMag) April 20, 2024

Kavanagh also took a turn. Notre Dame’s offense is so lethal that’s he’s not piling up monster numbers, but he’s still the straw that stirs the drink. He had two goals and four assists in a 14-6 win over North Carolina and is averaging over three assists per game.

3) Comebacks

Lehigh trailed by as many as five goals against Boston University, trailed by three goals in the fourth quarter and trailed by two with under 90 seconds to play. The Mountain Hawks got it done as Scott Cole tied it with 21 seconds to go and Dakota Eierman scored the winner in overtime, allowing Lehigh to keep pace in the ultra-competitive Patriot League race.

Jacksonville scored three goals in the final 5:15 of regulation to force overtime at Air Force and then won it in extra time to move into a tie for first place in the ASUN.

Ohio State didn’t finish the deal, but almost pulled off a Siena-like comeback on Saturday night. Michigan led by six goals in the fourth quarter before the Buckeyes staged a furious rally, including three goals in a span of just 26 seconds with a little over a minute to play to cut the margin to one goal. It took a dangerous play by Michigan goalie Hunter Taylor coming out of the cage to pick up a loose ball to allow the Wolverines to escape with a 13-12 thriller.

What a weekend.

Random Observations

The Patriot League continues to be the gift that keeps giving. The six-way tie for first place has been trimmed down, but it’s a still a four-way battle with Army, Colgate, Lehigh and Loyola currently at the top with 5-2 records. The nation will get a chance to see things sort themselves out when Loyola hosts Army on Friday night on CBS Sports Network.

The Patriot has some huge non-conference wins this season: Army over Syracuse, Colgate over Penn State, Loyola over Georgetown and Navy over Johns Hopkins topping the list, but it could very well be a one-bid league for the NCAA tournament. The last two weeks are going to see some outstanding teams battling for their lives.

A six-team field takes some of the pressure off the Patriot League teams – that’s not the case in America East where only four teams make the tournament. UAlbany leads the way with a 5-1 record after today’s win over Merrimack, but behind the Great Danes are four teams tied at 4-2 — Binghamton, Bryant, UMBC and Vermont. UMBC heads to Vermont next weekend in one of the crucial battles.

Color analyst Matt Ward made an astute observation about hockey assists in lacrosse during his call on the Notre Dame - North Carolina game. There was a play where Eric Dobson drew a double team and passed to Pat Kavanagh who quickly found a wide open Jordan Faison in front of the net. Faison scored while Dobson ended up on his back and no stats for a play that he made happen.

Soaking in the atmosphere of Homewood Field, ESPN analyst Quint Kessenich mentioned many of the Baltimore-area media personalities that helped make lacrosse in the region, and the Hopkins-Maryland rivalry in particular, so prominent. Included in that list was my longtime USA Lacrosse colleague Bill Tanton, who passed away in 2022.

The longtime sports editor of the Evening Sun in Baltimore, Tanton wrote for Lacrosse Magazine for more than two decades after covering some of the biggest sports event in the Baltimore and the world. As Quint appropriately said, “He was a guy that wrote about Johnny Unitas the same way he wrote about Frank Urso.”

By the Numbers

27 • Numbers of seniors that Rutgers recognized on Senior Day for Friday night’s game against Penn State. That’s a lot of experience.

34 • Sponsors for the Canisius broadcast against Sacred Heart – ranging from national brands to local companies. Love the support and the all-student broadcast crew.

207 • Career goals for Virginia’s Payton Cormier. Cormier ranks third in NCAA Division I men's history, trailing just Mac O’Keefe’s 221 and Justin Guterding’s 212.

353 • Career points for Yale's Matt Brandau, one behind Rob Pannell's Ivy League record of 354.

9 • Consecutive wins for Saint Joseph’s since beginning the season 0-3. The Hawks head to Richmond next Saturday for the Atlantic 10 regular season title.

3 • Number of times Denver has been held to single digits this season and still won the game. Denver matched its season-low with just seven goals on Saturday, but knocked off Providence 7-4.

53 • Saves for Delaware goalie Kevin Ellington in the last three games. Ellington had 17 while allowing just six goals in a 13-6 win at Drexel on Saturday. The first-year starter has taken over the national lead with a 61.5 save percentage.