Call it Shakeup Saturday. Call it Upset Saturday. Call it whatever you want, but expect a drastically different look when the Nike/US Lacrosse Division I Men's Top 20 comes out Monday morning.
Saturday's schedule featured five matchups between Top 20 teams, highlighted by No. 2 Albany at No. 1 Maryland, so there was sure to be some movement, but no one was expecting six Top 20 teams to fall to unranked teams.
The upsets started with Cornell rallying for six fourth-quarter goals to beat No. 17 Penn State 9-7 on Tierney Field at US Lacrosse headquarters and didn't end until Towson pulled off a dramatic 7-6 overtime win at Ohio State. In all, nine teams in the Top 20 lost to unranked teams or teams lower than them in the standings. Here's a look at a wild Saturday.
• Albany Erupts in Fourth Quarter to Beat Maryland
• Notre Dame Bounces Back to Beat Denver
• Scoreboard
Cornell Storms Back to Beat Penn State
Jordan Dowiak scored three second-half goals, including what proved to be the game-winner with 2:02 left in the fourth quarter, to lift Cornell to a 9-7, come-from-behind win over No. 17 Penn State before an estimated 1,000 fans at Tierney Field at US Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Md. The Big Red (3-2) never led until that time and trailed by four goals in the closing seconds of the third quarter.
Clarke Petterson, who tallied three in the fourth quarter including an insurance goal with 25 seconds to play, tied the game at 7 when he converted a pass from John Piatelli with 4:31 left. Roughly 90 seconds later, Colby Kneese made the last of his 13 saves for the Nittany Lions (4-3) but could not secure possession following Dowiak’s shot. Jonathan Donville did to give Cornell another possession, working the ball to Jeff Teat about 15 yards away to Kneese’s right. Dowiak cut down the middle and Teat fed him beautifully to put Cornell up once and for all.
Teat finished with two goals and four assists to lead the Big Red, starting the rally with an unassisted goal with just six seconds remaining in the third quarter. He then assisted on Cornell’s three straight goals to open the final period, the last of which to Dowiak to forge the game’s first tie, at 6, with 7:23 to play.
John Nostrant scored his second of the game to put Penn State back on top, 7-6, at 5:26, and faceoff midfielder Gerard Arceri won the ensuring draw and raced to the cage. His bid to restore a two-goal advantage was rebuked by Christian Knight, who likewise finished with 13 saves.
Cornell won thanks in part to better faceoff play in the second half. Paul Rasimowicz won six of 11 against Arceri after intermission, a stark contrast from the first half, when the Nittany Lion won six of eight. Kevin Hill scored the game’s first two goals and finished with a hat trick to lead the Nittany Lions, who grabbed leads of 3-0 in the first quarter and 6-2 with 5:13 left in the third when Mac O’Keefe found Tanner Peck for his first goal of the season.
— Paul Krome
Hofstra Runs Away From North Carolina
PHOTO BY LEE WEISSMAN
Hofstra held No. 11 North Carolina scoreless in the first half and led by as many as 10-1 before settling for a 12-6 victory over the Tar Heels.
Alex Moeser scored the only goal of the first quarter to give the Pride a 1-0 lead and then Hofstra broken it open with six second-quarter goals. The lead stretched to 8-0 before Chris Cloutier's goal with 13:01 left in the third quarter finally got UNC on the board.
Dylan McIntosh had three goals for Hofstra (2-2) and Brendan Kavanagh, Moeser and Ryan Tierney each scored twice. Kyle Gallagher won 13 of 20 faceoffs and Jack Concannon made nine saves.
North Carolina (6-2), which lost its second straight game, got two goals and an assist from Cloutier.
Duke Improves to 6-1 by Beating Loyola
No. 3 Duke (6-1) scored seven straight goals over a span of 19 minutes in the second and third quarters to highlight a 13-9 victory at No. 10 Loyola.
Trailing 4-2 midway through the second quarter, Brad Smith scored to start Duke's run that didn't end until Loyola's Jay Drapeau scored with 3:16 left in the third quarter.
Peter Conley, a graduate transfer from Georgetown that earned honorable mention All-American honors for the Hoyas last year, keyed the run. Conley had two goals and two assists during the stretch and finished the game with four goals and two assists.
Loyola (4-2) scored back-to-back goals just 41 seconds apart early in the fourth quarter to cut Duke's lead to 11-7, but Joe Robertson and Conley answered with goals for Duke to put the game out of reach.
Smith matched Conley's six points with his own four-goal, two-assist effort and Danny Fowler made four of his eight saves in the fourth quarter. Robertson, a freshman, had three goals and classmate Joe Stein won 17 of 25 faceoffs.
Drapeau and John Duffy each had three goals for Loyola, while All-American Pat Spencer was held without a goal, but did have three assists. Jacob Stover made 13 saves and the Loyola defense forced Duke into 22 turnovers.
Sims Fuels Princeton Rally Past Rutgers
Austin Sims had five goals, including the game-tying goal with 49 seconds left in regulation, and the game-winner in overtime to lead Princeton to a 15-14 come-from-behind win over No. 13 Rutgers.
With the scored tied 10-10 midway through the third quarter, Rutgers (4-2) ripped off four straight goals to take a 14-10 lead on Casey Rose's goal with 9:58 left.
Less than two minutes later, Sims scored the first of five straight Princeton (3-2) goals to ignite the Tigers' combeback victory.
Michael Sowers had three goals and six assists and Princeton registered assists on 13 of its 15 goals, including Riley Thompson assisting both of Sims' last two goals. Princeton converted four of six extra-man opportunities in the game.
Kieran Mullins (5g, 1a) and Jules Heningburg (2g, 4a) led the Rutgers offense.
Lehigh Defense Fuels Upset of Army
PHOTO BY JUSTIN LAFLEUR
Lehigh entered Saturday’s game in West Point looking for a breakthrough win. The Mountain Hawks were 4-1 on the season and on the fringe of the top 20, but didn’t have a ranked win under their belts.
That changed on Saturday as Lehigh used a pair of 4-0 runs, one in each half, to defeat the 12th-ranked Black Knights 9-7 and remain undefeated in Patriot League play at 3-0.
Saturday’s effort saw Lehigh’s offense score nine goals against an Army defense allowing just 6.60 per game entering the day. On the other end, the Mountain Hawks’ defense held the Black Knights to a season-low seven goals.
It was Army who jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead behind goals from Matthew Donovan and Ted Glesener, but Lehigh’s zone defense frustrated the Black Knights’ offense as Army had its four-game home winning streak dating back to last season snapped.
Lehigh entered the contest ranked top-10 nationally in scoring defense, using its zone defense on Saturday to disrupt Army’s rhythm.
“They played man-to-man through the whole game against Colgate and a week prior, they played zone the entire game against Holy Cross,” said Army associate head coach Kyle Georgalas. “Give a lot of credit to number 13, Crag Chick. He did an incredible job of disrupting the flow of the offense as we got the ball around the perimeter and tried to set certain plays up. You have to give credit to Lehigh for the way they competed, from the first whistle all the way to the end of the game.”
Chick was the catalyst, finishing with seven ground balls and three caused turnovers. Teddy Leggett, a freshman, also collected seven ground balls, as the Mountain Hawks finished with a 28-23 edge in that category. Andrew Pettit led Lehigh’s offense with five goals.
Trailing 2-0, Lehigh posted a 4-0 run to take a 4-2 lead following the first of two goals from Andrew Eichelberger.
Trailing 5-3 at halftime, Army came out of the break and immediately snatched momentum. Glesener scored his second just 3:28 into the third quarter, sparking a 3-0 Black Knights’ run. Two consecutive goals from Conor Glancy gave Army the lead back at 6-5.
Pettit took over from there, tallying a natural hat trick, evening the score at 11:02 of the fourth quarter, giving Lehigh the lead at the 9:18 mark and adding an insurance tally on the extra man at 8:42. Lucas Spence scored a transition goal to round out the 4-0 run.
“For us, it’s just about trying to keep teams on their heels,” said Lehigh head coach Kevin Cassese. “I thought we did a pretty good job of that, although they hit some shots and got after us in between the restraining lines pretty well today, in the third quarter in particular. But we were able to make a few plays in the end to secure the win.”
— Justin LaFleur
Villanova Throttles Penn Offense
No. 5 Villanova shut out No. 18 Penn for the first 36 minutes of the game and held off a heroic one-man effort from Tyler Dunn to down the Quakers 8-6.
Trailing 6-0 with under nine minutes to play in the third quarter, Penn got back into the game with four straight goals from Tyler Dunn, three of them unassisted.
Connor Kirst ended Penn and Dunn's run with his third goal of the game with 6:03 to play in the fourth quarter to give the Wildcats a 7-4 lead and Christian Cuccinello added an insurance goal less than two minutes later.
Kirst, who scored the first goal of the game just over a minute into the contest, had a had trick, and Cuccinello had a goal and two assists. Nick Testa went the distance, making 10 saves, to earn the win for Villanova.
Dunn led the Quakers with five goals and Reed Junkin made 13 saves. Penn committed 11 turnovers in the game, including five in the fourth quarter. Villanova committed just four turnovers in the game and just one through the first three quarters.
Dome No Problem For Hopkins
PHOTO BY RICH BARNES
No. 20 Johns Hopkins ended a string of frustration, routing No. 8 Syracuse 18-7 for its first win at the Carrier Dome since 2007.
The Blue Jays, who scored 10 second-half goals in a 16-9 win over Princeton last Saturday, kept the second-half fireworks going with 11 tallies in the final 30 minutes against the Orange. This time they were already in command after taking a 7-2 halftime lead. Leading just 3-2, Hopkins scored four goals in the final 2:16 of the first half.
Cole Williams led Hopkins with four goals for the second straight game, and Alex Concannon, Connor DeSimone and Kyle Marr each had hat tricks. Brock Turnbaugh made 10 saves to earn the win, and Hunter Moreland was solid on faceoffs again, winning 17 of 26.
Jamie Trimboli had three goals for Syracuse.
Towson Suprises Ohio State in Overtime
Ohio State ended Towson's 2017 season with an 11-10 win in the NCAA semifinals. On Saturday, the Tigers got a small measure of revenge with a 7-6 come-from-behind overtime victory at Ohio Stadium.
Towson's offense continued to struggle as it has all season following heavy graduation losses, but redshirt freshman goalie Shane Brennan was outstanding, making 16 saves to keep the Tigers in a game in which they were outshot 40-19.
The Tigers didn't take a single shot in the second quarter and took just two in the third quarter before coming back in the final quarter. Trailing 5-3, entering the fourth quarter, Towson scored goals just 15 seconds apart to tie the game 5-5 with 12:02 remaining.
The score remained that way until Ohio State's Jack Jasinski used a pick coming from behind the goal to give the Buckeyes a 6-5 lead with 3:31 left. Grant Maloof then tied the game for Towson on an extra-man goal with 1:14 left in regulation.
Ohio State won the faceoff to start overtime, but was unable to convert and eventually turned it over an a shot clock violation with 1:36 left in the first overtime. Facing its own shot clock warning, Towson's Jon Mazza forced himself into heavy traffic to the left of the goal and stuck the game-winner with just seven seconds left in the overtime and less than that on the shot clock.
.@Towson_MLAX PULLS THE UPSET! Mazza bulldozes his way in to score the OT game-winner to beat @OhioState_MLAX 7-6. Brennan with 16 saves. pic.twitter.com/ra54lheuQQ
— US Lacrosse Magazine (@USLacrosseMag) March 10, 2018
Games of Note
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Conor Mackie was 15-for-15 on faceoffs, Jack Starr made 10 saves and Joseph Sessa had three goals and two assists as No. 6 Yale picked up an 8-3 road win at Fairfield.
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Michael Kraus had a 10-point game on five goals and five assists, and No. 9 Virginia held off a late Stony Brook rally for a 15-14 win. After Kraus' fifth goal of the game gave Virginia a 15-8 lead with 12:53 to play, Stony Brook ripped off six straight goals before running out of time. Dox Aitken added four goals and Justin Schwenk won 20 of 25 faceoffs for the Cavaliers (6-1). Connor Grippe and Tom Haun had hat tricks for Stony Brook (1-5).
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Robert Morris raced out of the gates with seven first-quarter goals and never let up in a 12-2 win at No. 14 Marquette (3-2). Ten different Robert Morris (4-2) players scored goals, led by Ryan Smith and Matt Schmidt with two goals and one assist each. Alex Heger made 12 saves in the victory.
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Daniel Bucaro (5g, 2a) and Jake Carraway (3g, 3a) led No. 16 Georgetown to a 12-9 win over Hobart, the Hoyas sixth straight win to open the season. Nick Marrocco made 12 saves to earn the win.
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Binghamton picked up its first victory of the season, beating Delaware 8-7 in double overtime on Sean Gilroy's goal with 1:57 left in the second overtime. Binghamton (1-6) scored five of the last six goals in the game and tied it on Will Talbott-Shere's goal with 14 seconds left in regulation. Gilroy had a hat trick. Delaware has now dropped three straight games -- by a combined four goals -- to fall to 3-3.
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Will Sands reached the 200-point mark for his career as Bucknell beat Holy Cross 12-4. Sands had a goal and three assists to hit 200 on the dot.
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Freshman Christian Daniel had a career-high five goals in Navy's 15-5 win over Lafayette. The Midshipmen are 3-0 in the Ivy League for the first time since 2008.
Nike/US Lacrosse Division I Top 20 Scoreboard
No. 2 Albany 11, No. 1 Maryland 10
No. 3 Duke 13, No. 10 Loyola 9
No. 7 Notre Dame 11, No. 4 Denver 9
No. 5 Villanova 8, No. 18 Penn 6
No. 6 Yale 8, Fairfield 3
No. 9 Virginia 15, Stony Brook 14
Hofstra 12, No. 11 North Carolina 6
Lehigh 9, No. 12 Army 7
Princeton 15, No. 13 Rutgers 14 (OT)
Robert Morris 12, No. 14 Marquette 2
Towson 7, No. 15 Ohio State 6 (OT)
No. 16 Georgetown 12, Hobart 9
Cornell 9, No. 17 Penn State 7
No. 20 Johns Hopkins 18, No. 8 Syracuse 7
Other Scores
Binghamton 8, Delaware 7 (2 OT)
Bucknell 12, Holy Cross 4
Colgate 16, Boston University 9
Drexel 12, Bryant 9
Hartford 11, Sacred Heart 10
Harvard 11, Providence 8
Massachusetts 17, NJIT 3
Mount St. Mary's 12, Mercer 9
Navy 15, Lafayette 5
Quinnipiac 11, Wagner 3
Richmond 18, VMI 12
St. John's 14, Siena 7
St. Joseph's 11, Monmouth 5
UMass-Lowell 11, Manhattan 9
UMBC 7, Marist 4