Courtesy of Major League Lacrosse
March madness isn’t just reserved for college basketball. Between the overtime finishes between Syracuse-Johns Hopkins and Virginia-Notre Dame to the Green Turtle Classic in Maryland, lacrosse fans had plenty to cheer about.
This week also brought the first wave of additions to the watch list for the 2016 Tewaraaton Award. Three more 2016 MLL Draftees were added to the mix: John Edmonds, midfielder from Cornell and 17th overall pick by the Rochester Rattlers, Blaze Riorden, goalkeeper for Albany and 51st overall pick by the Rochester Rattlers, and Zack Sikora, defenseman for Rutgers and 61st overall pick by the Charlotte Hounds.
The action started off early with Princeton pulling out a 10-7 victory over Rutgers. Ryan Ambler (New York, 39th) added three goals and one assist in the win. Despite the weekend loss to Penn, Ambler now leads the team in goals (11) and assists (12) and needs only two goals to become the seventh player in Princeton history with at least 70 career goals and 70 career assists. In the win for Penn, Nick Doktor (Charlotte, 18th) tallied one goal and six assists.
In a No. 12- No. 15 matchup, Stony Brook defeated the higher-ranked Hofstra squad behind eight combined points from Challen Rogers (Boston, 32nd) and Brody Eastwood (New York, 52nd – rights traded to Denver). Following a 16-10 loss to No. 10 Albany, Eastwood and Rogers are each 27 points from 200 points for their careers. Riorden added 16 big saves in cage for the Great Danes. In Albany’s win over Stony Brook, Riorden came up big with 16 saves.
Teams showed some resiliency this past week in comeback efforts. Ohio State rallied from a 9-2 deficit with help from Carter Brown (Chesapeake, 56th) and his three points (2G, 1A) but fell in 9-10 in overtime to No. 9 Towson. Tyler White (Charlotte, 27th) had 8 big stops in goal for Towson. Albany faced a tough midweek challenge with No. 6 Maryland and despite a three-goal comeback in the third quarter, they fell 7-10. The Terps were led by Greg Danseglio (Atlanta, 19th) and his four goals.
Matt Hossack (Denver, 23rd) and No. 3 RIT had a big weekend in Maryland at the Green Turtle Classic. On Friday, Hossack went 11-22 from the face-off and scooped up eight groundballs to lead the tigers to a 16-8 victory over No. 14 Lynchburg College. The momentum carried into their Saturday matchup against No. 5 Cabrini. RIT trailed 9-7 going into the fourth quarter, but Hossack had two timely face-off victories and the Tigers forced OT. Hossack won the opening face-off of overtime, giving RIT possession, and the Tigers won 11-10 in extra time.
Fairfield won 12-7 over Colgate behind four goals and five groundballs from TJ Neubauer (Rochester, 34th). Despite holding Brown to a season-low 11 goals and a scoreless third quarter, Harvard fell 8-11 in a close matchup. Devin Dwyer (Florida, 46th) added one goal and one assist and currently has 21 goals on the season for a career-high. UNC handed Richmond a 15-6 loss and Steve Pontrello (Florida, 25th) found the back of the net three times. Pontrello has recorded a hat trick in three consecutive games and now has six hat tricks in eight games this season.
Yale beat Cornell 15-9, won its sixth consecutive game and firmly established its defensive prowess. Michael Quinn (Ohio, 8th) and the defensive unit effectively shut down John Edmonds (Rochester, 17tth), Cornell’s leading scorer. Quinn tallied three groundballs and two caused turnovers while Edmonds finished with one goal.
Johns Hopkins used a series of 3-0 runs in the second half to pull out an overtime 11-10 victory over Syracuse. Ryan Brown (Charlotte, 4th) tallied one goal and one assist, but the lone goal was a timely one. Brown scored the game-tying goal with just 38 seconds left on the clock. Notre Dame played their second consecutive overtime game and needed 29 seconds of extra time before defeating Virginia 8-7. Michael Howard (Chesapeake, 55th) scooped up six groundballs and caused two turnovers for Virginia while Matt Kavanagh (Denver, 5th) added six groundballs of his own and two goals for the Fighting Irish.
In a rematch of last year’s Metro Atlanta Athletic Conference Championship semifinal, Joseph Radin(Charlotte 45th) tallied five points (4G, 1A) to lead Marist to a 9-8 victory over Monmouth. Jacob Richard (New York, 35th) picked up six groundballs in Marquette’s 11-5 victory over Quinnipiac. In Duke’s 20-6 win over Georgetown, both Deemer Class (Atlanta, 11th) and Case Matheis (Atlanta 53rd) tallied five points on the day. Mike Messenger (Ohio, 43rd) and Sal Tuttle (Rochester, 69th) each added five points on Saturday in victories for Limestone and Adelphi respectively. In the home opener for Tufts, Conor Helfrich (Denver, 66th) led the team with seven groundballs and went 16-25 from the face-off.
The right kind of “streaky” play
John Edmonds (Cornell | Rochester, 17th)- point scoring streak is extended to 9 games and this includes the game-winning assist to Zach Ward for Cornell’s 6-5 win over Colgate
Joseph Radin (Marist | Charlotte, 45th)- point scoring streak extended to 21 games
Scott Bieda (Rutgers | New York, 70th)- goal scoring streak extended to 16 games; point scoring streak extended to 27 games
Devin Dwyer (Harvard | Florida, 46th)- point scoring streak is extended to 40 games
Ryan Brown (Johns Hopkins | Charlotte, 4th)- point scoring streak extended to 40 games
Myles Jones (Duke | Atlanta, 1st)- point scoring streak extended to 44 games
Dylan Donahue (Syracuse | Charlotte, 2nd)- goal scoring streak extended to 31 games; point streak extended to 45 games
Career-best performances || Record book performances
Steve Pontrello (UNC | Florida, 25th)- recorded a career-high 5 goals in win over Manhattan
Sal Tuttle (Adelphi | Rochester, 69th)- became the program’s all-time leader in career goals at the DII level; leads the Northeat-10 Conference in points and assists at 44 and 22 respectively
Sam Llinares (Hofstra | Denver, 31st)- is now 12th on the program’s all-time list for goals
Ryan Brown (Johns Hopkins | Charlotte, 4th)- is now 14th on Johns Hopkins’ career point-scoring list with 176 total points.
In the Habit of Winning
>>No. 3 Yale starts their season 6-0 for the first time since 1990.
>>With a victory over Stony Brook, Albany extended its conference winning streak to 17 games. This streak dates back the last three seasons and is the longest active streak in Division I.
>>No. 1 Limestone has started their season 9-0 and have extended their winning streak, which began in 2015, to 21 straight games.