(Photo Courtesy of Ohio State Athletics)
Rejoice. After nine months of waiting, college lacrosse is finally back.
This weekend saw 18 games be played at the DI level with 15 going down Saturday. Week zero featured the Denver Pioneers upsetting Johns Hopkins in overtime, Colgate stunning Penn State, Maryland escaping Richmond, and more.
Here is a look at five takeaways from the opening weekend of the college lacrosse season.
JJ Sillstrop is clutch
Denver enterd halftime on Saturday afternoon trailing Johns Hopkins 9-6. They would go 6-for-1 shooting that next frame and find themselves in an even deeper hole, trailing 11-7 with 15 minutes remaining in regulation. The game would, indeed, not end in regulation as Pioneer graduate student and offensive mainstay JJ Silstrop showed up when his team needed him most.
Sillstrop scored each of the Pioneers’ final four goals of the day. He cut it to 12-10 with 3:29 left and then made it a one-goal game with just 44 ticks on the clock. With just two seconds left, Hopkins’ Scott Smith committed a penalty that gave the Pioneers a very small window to make something happen. It would be Sillstrop again who took the opportunity and cashed in as the buzzer sounded to force overtime. And thus, who else would end the game but the Pioneers’ returning leading scorer from a year ago as his sixth goal of the contest sealed the deal in overtime.
As Hopkins came back to even strength following a penalty, Denver worked the ball around the perimeter. Cody Malawsky would find Sillstrop down low for a low-to-high rip that beat Chayse Ierlan and secured the win for the Pioneers. Sillstrop ended the day with six goals to record his first career sock trick.
Hunter Chauvette starts college career with a bang
Johns Hopkins lost 12-13 in overtime at home to Denver on Saturday afternoon. The Blue Jays led 11-7 at the end of the third quarter before a measly final few frames that saw them take just two shots in the final 18 minutes.
While that late-game complacency is concerning for the Blue Jays coming out of their season-opener, this offense was all the talk before things took a turn for this worse for this squad. Hopkins looked in mid-season form for most of the game on the offensive end. The Blue Jays had seven goal scorers on Saturday with grad student Jacob Angelus (3G/3A) and freshman Hunter Chauvette (3G) leading the way.
Chauvette arrived at Homewood after a decorated high school career that saw him tally 287 points and be named a senior All-American when it was all said and done. Rated as the No. 22 player in the class by Inside Lacrosse, his shooting was what separated him from the rest at the high school level. Just one game into his college career and Chauvette has shown that he can indeed translate to the next level, and especially so as a shooter. He netted a first-half hat trick in his Hopkins debut. His first score came off a sweep from up top, his second off a slip screen from X, and his third was an absolute missile from the right wing. He has to keep it up but through one game he has shown he’s ready for the bigtime.
Mason Kohn is what Syracuse needed at the dot
Last spring, Syracuse was one of the worst teams in college lacrosse at the faceoff dot. The Orange went 41.9% as a team (64th in DI) and did not have a player who took more than two faceoffs go 50% or higher. Things were even worse against ACC competition as the Orange went just 37.6% as a team and no individual went above 40%. With the position drastically needing to be improved, the Orange grabbed Tufts transfer Mason Kohn in the transfer portal over the summer.
Kohn went 71.6% (3rd in DIII) during the 2023 season while helping Tufts a DIII national title game appearance. He picked up right where he left off in his debut for the Orange on Saturday evening, going 16-for-24 (67%) in the dominating 20-7 win over Vermont. Though one game, at least, Kohn has been everything Syracuse has needed at the position.
Growing pains in Happy Valley
After making Championship Weekend a year ago, the Nittany Lions came into the 2024 season ranked No. 4 in the nation and with high expectations. But Penn State opened the season on Saturday looking nothing like a top five team as they fell to Colgate 13-12. A Kyle Aldridge pass was intercepted with under 10 seconds remaining and Liam Connor converted the score on the other end to help secure the big win for the Raiders.
Graduate student TJ Malone (1G/7A) and freshman Kyle Lehman (3G/1A) were bright spots for Penn State on a day where they committed 25 turnovers (15 caused) and went 17-for-24 (70%) in the clearing game. Colgate’s Max Yates (7GB/4CT) and Aidan Munrane (1GB/3CT) caused a lot of trouble for the Penn State offense, as did goalie Matt Lacombe (13 saves).
Defense Shines in Ohio State Comeback Victory
A lot of talk about Ohio State coming into the season surrounded their 10 transfers and in particular their get at faceoff via the portal in Tommy Burke. Burke had a strong debut for the Buckeyes, going 61% on the day. A quartet of transfers (Gannon Matthews, Ben Mayer, Thomas Greenblatt, Kurt Brunn) led the Buckeyes’ offense. But perhaps the most encouraging thing for Ohio Sate Saturday was its defense.
Ryan Stines netted a hat trick for Utah with 11:29 left in the second to put the Utes up 6-2. However, over the next 41 minutes the Utes would be held to just two goals as the Buckeyes were able to pull together the comeback and secure the 11-8 win. Utah was 2-for-20 shooting in that stretch with five being saves by Ohio State’s Henry Blake (10 saves, 55%) while three others were blocked. Cullen Brown (5GB/2CT) led the way at close alongside Bobby Van Buren and Marcus Hudgins, as well as Jacob Snyder who came in after Van Buren left with an injury. Connor Cmiel (4GB/3CT) and Eli Fisher (1GB/3CT) had a monster days at SSDM.
Other Week Zero Notes
– Rutgers beats Lehigh 14-12 with Ross Scott and Dante Kulas each netting two goals and dishing out two assists.
– Evan James put up nine points off five goals and four assists to lead Loyola past Georgetown in an 18-10 win.
– Defenseman Jackson Bonitz had one goal, one assist, six ground balls, and three caused turnovers as Navy beat Mount St. Mary’s 19-6.
– Duke blasted Bellarime 20-12.
Lacrosse Bucket 