Another Saturday marked by upsets and down-to-the-wire finishes has left Division I men’s lacrosse in a state of blissful chaos.
Parity? Yes, indeed.
Three teams ranked in the top 11 of the Nike/US Lacrosse Division I Men’s Top 20 suffered defeats Saturday, including defending NCAA champion and top-ranked Yale, which was victimized by Villanova in overtime for the second consecutive year.
Connor Kirst rolled underneath his defender on the wing and scored to lift the visiting Wildcats to an 11-10 victory — the 100th career win for Villanova coach Mike Corrado.
No. 6 Denver, meanwhile, couldn’t hold onto a four-goal lead against No. 14 Duke, as the Blue Devils rallied in the fourth quarter for a 10-9 victory over the visiting Pioneers at rainy Koskinen Stadium.
Denver appeared to be in complete control, its defense blanketing Duke for the better part of three quarters and inducing the Blue Devils to commit 22 turnovers. But then Joe Robertson, who scored four fourth-quarter goals in Duke’s comeback win over the Pioneers last year, reprised his role as the sparkplug with three unanswered goals in a span of 1 minute, 55 seconds, igniting a five-goal run that put the Blue Devils ahead 9-7 with 2:51 remaining.
Then came the wild finish. A transition goal by Ellis Geis 26 seconds later and then Alex Simmons’ nifty inside finish with 19 seconds remaining drew Denver even at 9 apiece. After Duke won the ensuing faceoff, Joey Manown corralled a mishandled pass off the wet turf and calmly sunk the game-winning goal with an overhand blast from the right alley with 7 seconds remaining.
No. 11 Rutgers also suffered its first loss of the season, at the hands of a surprising Army team that knocked off its second ranked foe in as many weeks after defeating UMass last week. Brendan Nichtern scored the go-ahead goal with 3:45 remaining and the Black Knights held on for a 10-9 victory in a similarly back-and-forth affair Saturday in Piscataway, N.J.
Not to be forgotten, High Point, which stunned then-No. 2 Duke in Durham 10 days ago, proved its new No. 13 ranking was no fluke. Despite trailing Drexel for nearly the entire game, the Panthers scored the last two goals of regulation and then defeated the Dragons 15-14 on Koby Russell’s game-winning goal with just 41 seconds left in overtime.
Asher Nolting and Tim Troutner, heroes of the Duke win, stepped up again. Nolting finished with two goals and three assists, feeding Russell for the winner, while Troutner made 10 of his 13 saves after halftime.
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