I Still Can't Believe That Some Of You Idiots Don't Watch College Lacrosse
I genuinely believe that anybody who says that they hate lacrosse has simply never watched a game of lacrosse before in their life. It’s the only reasonable explanation. Because if you’ve ever actually watched a game before, you would be hooked by now. Especially if it was any of the 4 quarterfinal games from this past weekend.
We had 4 games on the weekend with 4 trips to Philadelphia for Championship Weekend on the line. In those 4 games, we had 3 of them go to overtime. And the only reason why the 4th didn’t go to overtime is because Penn State has one of the greatest offenses ever assembled in college lacrosse history and they put up 20+ goals now in back-to-back tournament games. And we had 94 goals scored total throughout those four games. These games had everything you could have possibly asked for. The greatest players in the nation, the greatest teams in the nation, almost every game came down to the wire, and defense was optional. It was one of the greatest weekends of lacrosse that I can remember in a long ass time, and we still have the Final Four ahead of us this weekend.
Again, the only way that anybody could come out of this past weekend saying that they hate lacrosse is if they’ve never actually watched a game before and they’re just blindly saying that they hate lacrosse because they think they’re supposed to hate lacrosse. And you know what? I just feel terrible for those sorry sacks of shit. Because they missed out on an unreal weekend all because they can’t think for themselves. It’s a shame but it’s their loss, not ours.
Anyway, the Final Four is set for Lincoln Financial Field this weekend so let’s take a quick look back on how we got here.
Virginia 13 – Maryland 12 (OT)
Matt Moore was the overtime hero for Virginia as the Cavs put an end to Maryland’s Final Four streak. It’s only fitting that a kid from the Philly area would send Virginia to Philly for the Final Four. It’ll almost be like a home game for the Cavs on Saturday with how many Philly kids are on that roster. But while it was a nasty shot to cap off a wild game, obviously we need to address the elephant in the room. Pipegate.
With a little under 2 minutes to go in the game, Michael Kraus rang a shot off the crossbar which was eventually ruled a goal. But anybody who has ever picked up a lacrosse stick before in their life knows that ball didn’t hit the back of the net. If it did, then it wouldn’t have came flying right back out like this.
I mean you could see the one ref who had the best angle on the shot signal for the shot clock to reset–meaning that he saw it hit the cage but not the net. So did Maryland get a little boned on that call? Absolutely. With that being said, the ball still would have stayed with Virginia there and there was still plenty of time for them to score again. So you can’t necessarily say “the game shouldn’t have gone to overtime in the first place” because Virginia had all the momentum after erasing a 5-goal lead and they had the ball. They were probably going to score anyway and send the game to OT. It’s just a shame that such a wild game will forever be remembered for that controversy. But in the end, Matt Moore and the Virginia Cavaliers were the only team to keep Maryland out of the Final Four for the 6th straight year.
So Maryland won’t be heading back to Championship Weekend this year but how about Duke…
Duke 14 – Notre Dame 13 (OT)
Since 2007, Duke has only missed out on the Final Four 3 times. Every year besides 2015-17, their season has ended on Memorial Day Weekend. They won their first national championship in 2010. And then they went back-to-back in 2013 and ’14. So that’s 10 Final Four appearances and 3 national championships in 13 years. Which would explain why everybody keeps calling them the team of the decade right now. And they kept that shit rolling on Saturday afternoon after taking down Notre Dame in overtime.
Now I’ll admit that I’m pretty upset that we won’t get to watch Ryder Garnsey do what Ryder Garnsey does at Lincoln Financial Field this upcoming weekend. Notre Dame losing on Saturday means that we’ll be missing a ton of highlights like this during Championship Weekend.
But the fact that Duke has been able to sustain this level of dominance through so many different eras and superstars is impressive as hell. And the thing is that this is a completely different style Duke team that we’ve ever seen before. Because they don’t really have any true superstars offensively. It’s the defense that is doing most of the work for Duke this year. We’re so used to seeing guys like Danowski and Crotty and Wolf and Myles Jones and Guterding, etc. Duke doesn’t really have one of those guys this year but they’ve got an absolute unit of a defense and then they have a ton of guys offensively who just know how to get the job done. But if they find a way to make it back to the National Championship game, there’s a chance that they’ll have to beat the team that beat them on Memorial Day last year. That’s because…
Yale 19 – Penn 18 (OT)
I think we need to create a new rule in college lacrosse that says that Penn and Yale need to play against each other every single week. Because this was the 3rd and final time these two teams played each other this season, and all 3 of those games have been fucking insane. The first game was during the regular season and Penn pulled out a 13-12 win in triple overtime. Then they met again in the Ivy League Finals, with Penn winning that game 12-11. And then yesterday these teams closed out the quarterfinals with yet another overtime classic. So that’s 3 games between Penn and Yale this year that were decided by 4 overtimes and 3 goals total.
And this one yesterday could have been the best game of the season in general. It was back and forth for 4 straight quarters. I’m pretty sure that no team led by more than 2 at any point throughout the game. And even when there was under 10 seconds left in regulation with Penn down by 1, you just knew that the game wasn’t going to end that easily. So what happened next? Simon Mathias–the all time leading point scorer in Penn lacrosse history now–sent the game to overtime with 6 ticks left on the clock.
But in the end it was Jack Tigh with the good ol’ fashion slip & slide dodge for the win. The defending champs are heading back to the Final Four, and they’ll be playing against a team that only has one loss on the season. That loss just so happened to come against Yale back in February.
Penn State 21 – Loyola 14
Let’s just talk about how silly this Penn State offense is for a minute. So as you saw right there, they are the first team to put up back-to-back 20+ goal games in the NCAA Tournament since the 1990 Syracuse team. A team that had guys like Gary Gait, Paul Gait and Tom Marechek. So to even be put in the same sentence as a legendary team like that is a wild accomplishment, and there’s still a chance that they have 2 more games on the season to put up even more ridiculous numbers. Grant Ament has already broken the DI record for most assists in a season with 91, and he’s only 2 assists away from setting the NCAA record of 93. He’ll break that record about 5 minutes into their semifinal game on Saturday. Then you have Mac O’Keefe who is only 7 goals away from the single season goals record of 82. Considering he scored 9 goals on Sunday against Loyola, I have to imagine that record will be his on Saturday as well.
If Penn State has just one more game like they did yesterday against Loyola, they’ll break pretty much every offensive record in DI lacrosse history. If they win on Saturday and Penn State then has the opportunity to play 2 more games this season? Well they will completely SHATTER every offensive record in DI lacrosse history.
With that being said, Penn State will need to beat the only team that has beaten them so far this year if they want to play for their first National Championship in program history. Saturday February 23. The first and only loss for Penn State on the year and it was a 14-13 loss to Yale, at Yale. Now I’ve said this a ton of times already but I’m almost positive that if that game was just 30 seconds longer, Penn State would have tied it up and could have won in overtime.
But it’s almost better that they ended up losing that game back in February because now they can use it as a little extra juice heading into the semifinals. Imagine if they go 18-1 on their way to winning a National Championship and got to avenge their only loss of the season on Championship Weekend. You couldn’t script it any better than that.
While Penn State gets to keep things going though, we did have to say goodbye to one of the greatest careers in college lacrosse history with Pat Spencer leaving the field for the last time.
149 career goals. 231 career assists, which is a DI record. And 380 career points which is the 2nd most in DI lacrosse history behind only Lyle Thompson. It was an absolutely preposterous career for Pat Spencer, and it’s just a shame that it had to end against one of the best offenses ever assembled.
Either way, we’re on to Philadelphia for Championship Weekend. I’ll see all you beautiful people out at the Linc on Saturday morning. Only 3 games left on the season. Let’s get it.
P.S. – I couldn’t end this blog without giving a quick shoutout to Cabrini after taking down Salisbury yesterday and advancing to the DIII National Championship game for the first time in school history. Just a bunch of Philly boys on that squad who get to live out the dream and play some lacrosse on Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, with a chance at bringing home a natty. Regardless of how that game goes, the tailgate on Sunday is going to be insane. Roll Cavs.
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