The Weekend in Stick: Off to the Hub (Part II)

"The Weekend in Stick": It's exactly what it sounds like -- a recapitulation of this weekend's most notable. No doink.

(Part I is here.)

Part I gave you all the big stories from this weekend; Part II is all about the little stories that are notable and adorable in easily digestible form.

Maryland Pastes Johns Hopkins in 109th Edition of "No Hugging"
Everyone on the planet expected this to be a lacrosse war of infinite damage. As it turns out, the only team that took a direct hit was Johns Hopkins:

It was a first-rate smoke show from the Terps today, dominating the possession game -- Patrick Stevens of The Washington Times estimates that time of possession was 40:38-19:22 in favor of the under armored -- and riding the back of tournament terrorist Drew Snider (three goals). There wasn't a statistic or eyeball analysis that John Tillman's club didn't crush on the day, save "Looking Drunk" which Johns Hopkins wrapped up without a serious challenge. The Jays had no answer for Maryland's patient undertaker offense and the Terrapins totally locked off Zach Palmer. (The Canadian had one goal on the day in an unsettled, transition situation, which is almost tragic from a make-heads-spin-around standpoint.) It was a perfect performance of pragmatism from Maryland and the Terps are rewarded with a trip to Gillette Stadium next weekend for a shot at the national title.

It's consecutive Final Four trips for John Tillman and the Terps and another chance for Maryland to earn its first title since 1975.

Duke Thinks Colgate Isn't All That Cute
Using a 13-0 run and a scoreless streak that exceeded 26 minutes from the Raiders, Duke drubbed upstart Colgate in 17-6 fashion:

It was one of those games where, if you're the Raiders, you don't just burn the tape after the game; you pretend that it doesn't exist and say "Who?" when someone encourages you to invite it to the family reunion. Peter Baum caused little havoc on the day -- which may be the story of the season -- with his one point performance, thanks to the work that Henry Lobb, Costabile, and Mike Manley did to control him and his offensive machine. With Colgate struggling to get anything together with the bean, Duke took complete control of the game, getting the ball wherever they wanted and rifling so many shots past Conor Murphy that the sophomore keeper probably wondered what he did to make the Devils so mad at him (other than, you know, merely existing). It was an experiment in testing the limits of one's resolve, and Duke pushed so far past the envelope that the Raiders may start the 2013 season with a 2-0 deficit.

The Devils will meet Maryland on Saturday for the third time this season. The two schools have split the prior meetings between each other, but this one's for all the marbles -- a princess' hand in marriage (I think).

PUMMELING AND PUMMELING AND PUMMELING

Your best individual performances from the weekend:

• Backstop Circus: No goalies breached the 15-save threshold, but Denver's Ryan LaPlante and Notre Dame's John Kemp each came close with 14. Let's give the award to Kemp for being a really good human being and an even better magnet for compressed rubber.
• Will Manny Award for Being Will Manny: Duke's Rob Rotanz. (I know, right?) Rotanz went off for five-and-one against Colgate on Sunday and pretty much ruined the Raiders' existence all by himself. A thumb's up to Steele Stanwick for and Eric Lusby for their seven point exhibitions against Notre Dame and Denver, respectively. I wonder if those guys would like an "Atta boy!" e-card. I should look into that.
• "Five-Goal Club and More!": Rob Rotanz (5, Duke); and Eric Lusby (5, Loyola).
• Rock 'n Roll Band: Sly and the Family Stone, because it's Championship Weekend at Gillette Stadium and that requires some dancing:

Do you have anything else to add from this weekend? The comments, they are yours.