Tag: Big Ten

Week Six Recap

Big Ten men’s lacrosse this season has been on fire, week in and week out they have seen a ton of success. This week was a bit different as the Big Ten finished the week with 3 wins and 3 losses. One bad week won’t stop the men in the Big Ten from gathering their composure and come out fired up for Week seven.

The Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays started the Big Ten off with a with a decisive win against Mount St. Mary’s 11-4. The Blue Jays started a bit slow in the 1st quarter and were down 2-1 after 15 minutes of play but it only that one quarter for the Jays to find their footing and take control of the game moving forward. We saw an offensive explosion from JHU as they put up 9 goals in the 2nd and 3rd quarter. Seven Jays put the ball in the back of the net that were led by freshman attackman, Joey Epstein who snuck 3 past The Mount’s goalie for the Hat-Trick.  The Blue Jays defense was no slouch either this week and even with 6 penalties they were able to keep The Mount scoreless in the 3rd quarter and only gave up 1 goal in the 2nd and 4th quarters. Sophomore goalie, Ryan Darby was a brick wall in the cage as he was able to stop The Mount offense by recording 12 saves.

The Jays week six stretch wasn’t over after their win over The Mount as they hosted Delaware at Homewood field and secured themselves a 12-10 victory. Johns Hopkins proved once again that they’ve got a lot of offensive talent and haven’t just been relying on a few players to get the job done this week. Eight players found the back of the net and 8 of their 12 goals were off assists. Freshman, Joey Epstein proved showed up once again with a 2 goal performance but it was senior attackman, Kyle Marr was able to score 3 goals and assist 2 others. A strong offense was once again complimented well with Johns Hopkins specialists proving that they were a force to be reckoned with. Sophomore faceoff man, Kyle Prouty showed up for the second time this week and dominated the faceoff x winning 17 of 23 faceoffs while scooping up 9 groundballs. The man in net was sophomore, Ryan Darby who recorded 11 saves and was above .500 for the second game this week. The youths of Johns Hopkins have really stepped up their game and are ready to show the lacrosse world what they have to offer as they finish this week with an overall record of 4-3.

The Scarlet Knights of Rutgers faced off against 16th ranked Lehigh in a game that saw Rutgers with a 6-5 lead entering halftime. Even with the halftime lead, second half woes were the achilles heel for the Scarlet Knights as they gave up 8 goals in 3rd and 4th quarters resulting in a tough 13-10 loss to Lehigh. Sophomore attackman, Ryan Gallagher did all that he could by producing a 5 point performance with 4 goals and 1 assist. The Rutgers defense was pretty solid causing 13 turnovers and were led by senior defenseman, Kyle Pless who recorded 4 caused turnovers himself. Even with Lehigh having 21 unforced turnovers, the Scarlet Knights were unable to come out on top in their first game of the week.

Unfortunately for Rutgers University they were, yet again, unable to hold onto their lead when they traveled to the Carrier Dome to take on 13th ranked Syracuse. Entering the 4th quarter, the Scarlet Knights had a narrow 11-10 lead over the Orange but after giving up 8 goals in the 4th quarter, ‘Cuse topped Rutgers 18-14. The Scarlet Knights offense was led by redshirt sophomore attacker, Adam Charalambides as he produced 8 points on 6 goals and 2 assists. Even though their offense wasn’t able to score enough to take down the Orange, Rutgers was working as a unit as 11 of their 14 goals were scored off of assist. It may be a bit frustrating to lose a game like this but Rutgers should be excited that they are working as a cohesive offensive team. Faceoff woes hurt the Rutgers winning only 9 of 36 but redshirt senior goalie, Max Edelman showed us once again that he is a talented goalie. Letting 18 goals in may seem like a lot but he stood tall and refused to get down by continuing a stellar season and recording 19 saves. After a pretty strong start week #6 proved to be a tough week for Rutgers and they end the week with 4-4 on the season so far.

Unfortunately for us lacrosse fans we were unable to see if The Ohio State University were going to keep their undefeated season alive as the March 16th matchup against Denver was canceled. We will have to wait until March 23rd when they face Notre Dame if they can keep their dreams of a perfect season going.

The Wolverine of the University of Michigan were another Big Ten team that was unable to come home with the win as they suffered a 16-13 loss to the Golden Eagles of Marquette. Marquette, with their home field advantage, came out scoring fast and often in the first half as they took the lead 9-4 going into the half. The Wolverines really stepped up their game and were able to have a pretty solid second half by scoring 9 of their own but it just wasn’t enough as they couldn’t slow down their opposition until the 4th quarter. Michigan had 7 different players find the back of the net and were led by junior Avery Myers and freshman Bryce Clay who both recorded hat-tricks in this week’s loss. Something of a common theme for Big Ten teams as of late seems to be the faceoff x. Going 9 for 33 at the faceoff x really seems to be an issue for Michigan and not to mention losing the ground ball battle 40-22 didn’t help much either. Even though the Wolverines are a somewhat young program they’ve proven to the world that they have got the talent to compete. They end the week with a 3-3 overall record and they are going to be fired up to play Notre Dame.

The #6 ranked Maryland Terrapins showed us once again that they are on fire this year as they dominated Villanova 17-7 this week. The Terrapins started strong and never let off the breaks as they scored 5 or more goals in 3 of the 4 quarters this week. A whopping 9 Terrapins got on the board this week with junior Jared Bernhardt producing 5 points on 3 goals and 2 assists while sophomore Bubba Fairman showed up as well with 6 points of 4 goals and 2 assists. Maryland’s defense also stood tall and made things difficult for the Villanova shooters. Both Danny Dolan and Andrew Morris saw some time in net and recorded 13 and 3 saves respectively. The Terrapins improve to 7-1 on the season.

Big Ten Team of the Week

The Big Ten Team of the Week is going to go out to the Bluejays of Johns Hopkins University. They’ve proven that they can handle adversity and bounced right back after a tough loss to Syracuse last week. Their schedule only gets tougher from here, so we will see how they continue to handle challenging teams.

Big Ten Player Spotlight

This weeks Big Ten player spotlight is going to go to Rutger’s very own Adam Charalambides for his 8 goal and 2 assist performance this week. After being held to 2 goals against Lehigh, Adam came out firing against Syracuse and recorded 6 goals and 2 assists. It was great seeing the redshirt sophomore step up big against a tough opponent and do what needed to be done.

Thoughts for the Week

In a similar fashion to last week, lacrosse is a 60 minute game and it needs to be played that way. The team that plays for the full 60 usually comes out on top. Every team has to finish the game strong because when conference play comes around, 50 minutes isn’t going to cut it.

It should also be noted that the faceoff game has been playing a huge role in who is coming out on top in these games. If you’ve got a player dominating the faceoff x, you are essentially playing “make-it take-it” lacrosse.

In the Week to Come

Tuesday, March 19th

• The University of Michigan takes on Notre Dame it what can be considered a top tier rivalry in all of their sports, lacrosse is no exception. The Wolverines will be hosting the Irish in Ann Arbor at 4:00 PM. The game will be on ESPNU and you won’t want to miss these two teams try to prove their superiority.

Saturday, March 23rd

• The University of Michigan Wolverines will be back at it again on Saturday as they host Delaware at 12:00 PM.
• After a week off, Penn State will be heading to midwest where the weather has become incredibly unpredictable as they take on the Vikings of Cleveland State. The game will be at 12:30 PM.
• The Ohio State University will be heading over to South Bend and will be playing to keep their perfect season alive as they take on Notre Dame at 1:00 PM.

Week Five Recap

Big Ten Men’s Lacrosse has seen some successful weeks so far this year and Week four was no exception to this. Big Ten lacrosse came out on top in 5 of the 7 games that were played this week.  

Penn State has proven that they are a forced to be reckoned with after winning two games in 3 days this past weekend in Charlotte N.C. at the Crown Lacrosse Classic. The Nittany Lions are an absolute force to be reckoned with on the offensive end and put up 43 goals and 27 assists, for a total of 70 points in their two wins this weekend. Penn State started off the weekend strong with a 19-13 over Cornell. Grant Ament led the offensive charge with a 9 assist performance that helped three other Nittany Lions score 4 or more goals with Mac O’Keefe putting 6 in the back of the net. With a short one day break Penn State was back at it again with another blowout win against Jacksonville. Grant Ament had another big day for himself by putting up a staggering 10 points on 2 goals and 8 assists. With another strong offensive outing, we saw 4 players end the day with hat tricks, this time TJ Malone led the goal scoring efforts with 7 goals. With two great games for Penn State it’s no surprise that they are #1 in the nation with a 6-1 record on the season so far.

The Ohio State University Buckeyes kept their perfect season alive after a solid 14 – 8 win over Hofstra. The Buckeyes defense was on lockdown this game while being led by their goalie, Josh Kirson who only let 6 goals slip by while protecting his net with 12 saves. The offense was no slouch either as 10 different players recorded at least one point with Jack Myers leading the offensive charge with 6 points (3 goals, 3 assists). The Ohio State looks to keep their perfect season going as they had into next week with a 6-0 record.

The University of Maryland was out for revenge after Notre Dame ended their dream of a perfect season. With some time to focus, the Terrapins set their sights on Albany and fired away.  Maryland’s offense came out firing and their defense went into lockdown mode, entering the half with a strong 7-2 lead. A tough 3rd quarter cut their lead to 2 goals but after a 6 goal 4th quarter performance, the Terrapins locked down the win. Jared Bernhardt led the offensive charge with a 8 point performance that saw him dishing out 5 assists and finding the back of the net 3 times. Not to be outdone, Justin Shockey and Austin Henningsen battled it out at the faceoff winning 17 of 27. The Terrapin defense held it together on their side with a clean performance only giving up one man-up opportunity for the Danes. Maryland is prepping for the next week as the head into the week with a 6-1 record.

The Scarlet Knights of Rutgers University held onto 9 – 3 lead against Princeton to squeak out the win, 9-8. The Rutgers offense lost their footing a bit and didn’t score a single goal in the second half. Good thing for them, is that they’ve got Max Edelmann in the cage stopping shots, a lot of shots. Edelmann might have let 8 goals in the back of the net but he stood on his head and made a amazing 18 saves. This man is an absolute unit and currently has 75 saves on the season with a .610 save percentage that is enough to put him at 3rd in the nation in save percentage. Rutgers sits at 4-2 on the season and will take this time to regroup their offense and continue to stand tall for senior goalie, Max Edelmann.

After two wins to put Johns Hopkins at 2-2 on the season, the Bluejays headed to the Carrier Dome to take on the Orange of Syracuse. A strong start for Johns Hopkins propelled them into halftime with a 8-7 one goal lead over the Orange. But just like all sports, the game isn’t over until the final whistle blows and giving up 6 goals on the 4th quarter resulted in a 14-10 loss to Syracuse. Even with 7 unique goal scorers, trouble on the faceoff couldn’t help Johns Hopkins hold onto the win and head into their next game with a 2-3 record.

The Wolverines  faced a tough Yale team down in Atlanta but were unable to make the stops and lost 17-11. Hat Tricks from Clay Bryce and Kevin Mack and 23 saves from Tommy Heidt weren’t enough to make up for the absolutely dominating performance by Yale at the faceoff x. Michigan going 4-31 at the faceoff resulted in a make it take game for the Bulldogs. The Wolverines hope to bounce back after a tough loss to #4 Yale and continue what has been a pretty successful season so far as they sit 3-2 on the year.

Big Ten Team of the Week

The Big Ten Team of the Week has got to go the team that worked as a complete offensive unit, Penn State. Putting up 43 goals and 27 assists (70 points total) in two games is something that coach’s dream of. The Nittany Lions are currently sitting comfortably at the #1 spot and it seems as if they are only getting started. Expect a big year from these men as they prepare for Big Ten play coming up in the next couple of weeks.

Big Ten Player Spotlight

It’s not going to surprise anyone that this week’s Big Ten Player Spotlight is awarded to Penn State attackman, Grant Ament. Can you really not give it to the man who put up 19 points in two games with 17 assists and 2 goals in just two games!? Ament has been on a tear this season and is averaging a 8.00 points per game and is currently sits atop the assist leader board with 46 assists through 7 games. If Grant Ament can keep this trend going for the rest of the year, it would be very surprising if he weren’t in the running for the Tewaaraton.  

Thoughts for the Week

If there’s one takeaway from this week, it’s easily a lacrosse game last for 60 minutes. When playing the fastest game on two feet, there’s no time to take a rep or play off. Rutgers might have won their game but getting shutout in the second half isn’t going to work when conference play starts. The same can be said for Johns Hopkins. I would imagine that a lot of these coaches will be preaching to their players that they’ve got to play for 60 minutes.

In the Week to Come

There have already been some games played this week, but there are still plenty of Big Ten lacrosse action this weekend. 

Tuesday, March 11th

• Johns Hopkins beat Mount St. Mary’s 11-4
• Rutgers was defeated 13-10 by Lehigh in a comeback back win

Saturday, March 16th

• Johns Hopkins will be looking for another win as they host Delaware at 1pm
• Michigan travels to Marquette as they look to get back on track after a loss over the weekend. That game will be at 1PM.
• Rutgers has a road contest at 1pm in the Carrier Dome against Syracuse.
• Ohio State has a HUGE game this weekend, hosting Denver at 1pm.
• Maryland has a home contest at 3PM on Saturday against a hungry Villanova team searching for a bounce back win.

 

 

Week Four Recap

Talk about nail biters! This weekend, the Big Ten walked away with 5 wins and 1 loss loss, and every game was decided by 5 goals or less. These close games are becoming a common thing amongst all of men’s lacrosse this season.

March 2nd was a good day for the Big Ten as each team walked away with a win. Penn State squeaked out a win against Penn 15-14. The Nittany Lions found themselves down by one with about 3 minutes left before Nick Spillane put two in the back on the net within 38 seconds to put Penn State up by one with 2:01 left in the game. All in all, a pretty solid performance for the Nittany Lions with 4 different players scoring hat-tricks. Penn State improves to 4-1 on the season.

The Buckeyes of The Ohio State are still standing as one of the few undefeated teams in Division I after their 13-9 win over Marquette. The slow start for both teams only lasted a quarter as Ohio State put up 5 goals in the 2nd quarter to extend their lead, and added another 5 goals in the 4th quarter to seal the deal. Jackson Reid lead the Buckeye offense with 5 goals of his own in route to Ohio State’s 5th win of the season.

After two tough early season losses, Johns Hopkins University has shown they’ve got what it takes to win close games against against a tough opponent. The Blue Jays found themselves down by one entering the 4th quarter but a 6 goal onslaught was enough to seal the deal as they took down Princeton 14-12. Their faceoff unit showed they were a force to be reckoned with as Matt Nerewski went 10-15 at the X and scooped up 9 ground balls, while Kyle Prouty went 9-13. Don’t count out Johns Hopkins just yet as they improve to 2-2 on the season.

A strong start for the University of Michigan proved too much St. John’s. A 10 goal first half gave the Wolverines enough confidence to play a strong second half and finishing the game with a score of 16-11 (the largest margin of victory for any Big Ten team this week). Clay Bryce and Peter Hollen both put up 5 points on their way to improving to 3-1 on the season. Hopefully a weeklong rest is enough for Michigan’s faceoff man, Matt Delacroce after taking 30 faceoffs because next week will be a lot tough, facing Yale and lining up against TD Ierlan at the faceoff dot.

Consistent lacrosse and strong defense is what put Rutgers on top as they took down Farifield 8-4. The Scarlet Knights offense put up 2 goals every quarter behind what seemed to be an impenetrable defense and a brick wall of a goalie. Rutgers goalie, Max Edelmann, had a stellar performance put up 17 saves and while only letting in 4. With this win, Rutgers is over .500 on the season so far and they’ve got to be feeling good about who they’ve got protecting the cage.

The only Big Ten team to walk away this week with a loss is The University of Maryland. In what must have come as a surprise for everyone but the Notre Dame faithful, the Terrapins lost in overtime 14-13. Walking into the game undefeated, Maryland had a one goal edge on the Irish after the 1st quarter. However, Notre Dame came out firing on all cylinders in the 2nd quarter to extend their lead 7-5 entering the half. Not to be outdone, the Terrapins didn’t give up and were able to have a big quarter of their own, putting up 4 goals in the 4th quarter to tie the game up at 13 after an Anthony DeMaio goal with :16 seconds left in the 4th. After a 4 quarter battle a diving Irish goal ended the Terrapins’ dream of an undefeated season. Maryland moves into next week with a 5-1 record.  

Big Ten Team of the Week

The Big Ten Team of the Week is a pretty tough one for me to choose this week. A lot of deserving teams but this week my vote is going to go the Blue Jays of Johns Hopkins. I’m choosing Johns Hopkins because after a tough start with some big losses, they seem to have gotten back on track and are moving in the direction that they want. We will see how they handle their newfound success moving forward.

Big Ten Player Spotlight

This weeks player spotlight is a really easy one to choose. Rutgers redshirt senior goalie, Max Edelmann stood on his head this week with a stellar performance in net. Edelmann protected his net like a champ recording 17 saves and 4 goals against. This is the second time this season that Edelmann has put up 17 saves, which is his career high. This young man is on fire and I look forward to seeing what he can do throughout the season.

Thoughts for the Week

Lacrosse this season has been quite the roller coaster. Top ranked teams are going down left and right, and upsets aren’t becoming that shocking anymore. In terms of the Big Ten, it seems as if they are in the same boat. It doesn’t matter your ranking, your history or how old your program is, these men are battling it day in and day out. The biggest takeaway has  to be that NO ONE is safe this season.

In the Week to Come

• Penn State is one of four teams (Cornell, Towson, Jacksonville) taking part in the Crown Lacrosse Classic in Charlotte, NC this weekend. The Nittany Lions play Cornell on Friday, March 8th at 8pm, and Jacksonville on Sunday, March 10th at 3:30pm
• Ohio State is heading out east to Hempstead, NY to battle the Pride of Hofstra at 12:00pm on Saturday, March 9th
• Maryland will be on the road as they take on Albany at 1:00pm on Saturday, March 9th
• Rutgers will be staying home this week, hosting Princeton at 1:00pm on Saturday, March 9th. It will be the 97th all-time meeting between the two programs with Princeton leading the series 61-30-3
• Johns Hopkins will be on the road facing rival Syracuse in the Carrier Dome at 1:00pm on Saturday, March 9th