College Crosse Prospectus: We Really Missed You, Lacrosse

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What You Missed

In their first game, Cleveland State held their own, but fell to Michigan, 13-8.

In other action yesterday, Vermont once again came from behind to win in overtime, while Boston University needed two OTs to beat Providence.

I guess we nailed the section about what games to watch.

LaxCon is returning to Baltimore for 2018.

Lacrosse The Nation

Cleveland State BOSS Dylan Sheridan is a happy man.

Shout out to @CoachPerella for this wonderful video. #TitanicLacrosse

UNC freshman Justin Anderson was worth the wait, pens Matt DaSilva of USLaxMagazine.com.

WORTH THE WAIT

Justin Anderson, one of the top recruits in the Class of 2014 who delayed his college career two years to serve a two-year Mormon mission in Chile, scored a hat trick in his NCAA debut Saturday, as No. 3 North Carolina started its NCAA championship defense with a convincing 17-6 win over UMBC.

The game was moved from Chapel Hill to Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh, N.C., due to an emergency water shortage in Orange County.

The Tar Heels led 10-1 after the first quarter and never looked back. Anderson, a first-line midfielder, finished with three goals and an assist.

Anderson wasn't the only player who shone in his collegiate debut Saturday. Penn State freshman attackman Mac O'Keefe, a U.S. U19 team standout, dropped seven goals on Robert Morris. The No. 15 Nittany Lions opened with a 15-11 victory.

BU had a nice win yesterday over Providence. Is it a start of something special? Jonathan Sigal of USLaxMagazine.com has the story.

Christian Carson-Banister, a senior and BU’s likely starting goalie, agreed, pointing to how the Terriers at long last boast four recruiting classes. In the early days, it was often freshmen and sophomores taking on All-Americans, and the experience just wasn’t there. When injuries came about, he added, they proved fatal, even in simply having enough bodies for practice.

“Sometimes we couldn't even do two sides efficiently,” Carson-Banister said. “Now I’m looking over and the other side is going at a fast tempo and we’re going at a great tempo, too. That’s a really special moment for this program to finally have that depth.”

Those moments also emerge in conversation with [La Salle College High School product] Adam Schaal, a senior attackman/midfielder for BU. He points back to a 10-7 loss at home to Lehigh during his freshman season, a result he felt showed the Terriers could compete with the Patriot League’s best. It was more of a moral victory, Carson-Banister added, and now speaks to a cultural shift where such a performance would leave BU furious and disappointed.

Each tale also is packed with motivation, especially for Schaal, who was steadfast that BU is slowly building something special in the heart of Beantown.

“In my recruiting phase, one of the last coaches I was down to besides BU – I'm not going to name who it was – said, ‘You went to a high school where you won a lot of games and won a state championship,’” said Schaal, a Philadelphia area product who played at La Salle. “‘If you come here, you'll be a winner. If you go to BU, you'll be a loser.’ That's something that's always stuck out to me and stuck with me. I think of that as a challenge and really speaks to how hard we've worked to become a respected program.”

Hey there’s a scrimmage going on right now!

There were other scrimmages yesterday too!

Hofstra hosted Hobart and Rutgers in a three-way set of scrimmages in Hempstead.

While the scores were secondary to seeing the chemistry of the respective teams, the Pride won both of their three, 15-minute period contests, topping Hobart, 8-6 in the first game of the day and Rutgers in the final scrimmage, 16-4.

In the first scrimmage of the day against Hofstra, the Pride slipped to a 4-1 deficit after the first period. But Hofstra came roaring back, holding the Statesmen to just two goals over the final 30 minutes, including no goals in the middle period, to post the 8-6 victory. The Pride outscored Hobart, 5-2 in the third period for the win. Senior Josh Byrne, Hofstra's leading scorer last season with 30 goals and 15 assists, tallied six goals and two assists in the contest. He posted four goals and one assist in the third period. Junior goalie Jack Concannon made nine saves in the Pride cage.

Hobart was led by sophomore Chris Aslanian with a goal and two assists while senior John Tanner posted two goals.

In Hofstra's second scrimmage against Rutgers, the Pride jumped on the Scarlet Knights early, running out to a 6-2 lead after the first period. Junior Alex Moeser had two goals and Byrne added a goal and three assists. After outscoring Rutgers, 2-1 in the second period, the Pride blew the game open with eight goals in the third with eight different players scoring goals in the period.

Rutgers defeated Hobart, 15-4, in that scrimmage. Connor Murphy had five goals and two assists in that win. He’ll probably play a big role in the Scarlet Knight offense.

Meanwhile, Syracuse took down Harvard, 15-8, in their final scrimmage before their regular season opener next week against Siena.

The Orange got a hat trick from Nick Mariano, who also added an assist for a game-high four points, with Brad Voigt and Ryan Simmons each adding a pair of goals in the win. Evan Molloy turned away 10 shots and allowed just seven goals in three periods of play, while Ben Williams won 13-of-20 face offs as well.

After Harvard's Ryan Graff opened up the scoring, 'Cuse responded on its first extra-man opportunity of the game when Voigt finished a pass from Brendan Bomberry to even things at one.

Harvard scored again with 39 second remaining in the first on a Jake Scott goal off a Morgan Cheek pass, but Mariano scored his first tally of the day on a feed from Jordan Evans with just five seconds remaining in the period to even things once again at two heading into the second quarter.

From there, Syracuse took the lead and never looked back. Evans scored a goal of his own on a pass from Bomberry at the 13:16 mark of the second, before Mariano scored his second with 9:59 before halftime to give the Orange a 4-2 lead.

Look at that nice squad (and helmet)!

On the women’s side, Stony Brook and North Carolina both squeezed out wins in their first games of the season, from DaSilva.

The visiting Seawolves were down two players with four minutes remaining and trailed 9-8 with two minutes left. Samantha DiSalvo tied it at the 1:53 mark.

The Tigers failed to get a shot off on the ensuing possession, giving the ball back to Stony Brook with 17 seconds remaining. Kasey Mitchell earned a free-position , but elected instead to pass the ball to [Kylie] Ohlmiller for the game-winner.

“Not a thing of beauty,” Seawolves coach Joe Spallina said. “We found a way to get it done.”

—-

The Dukes jumped out to a 3-0 lead and were up 8-5 late in the first half. North Carolina needed an eight-goal run bridging the first and second halves to take control of the game.

But even then, pesky James Madison would not go away. Kristen Gaudian scored three goals to spark a 5-1 run that pulled the Dukes within one at 15-14 with 5:52 remaining. The Tar Heels answered 30 seconds later, and neither team scored in the final five minutes.

Other women’s games include Oregon over Michigan, Penn State crushing Albany, Boston College over Holy Cross, and Louisville getting past Vermont after a slow start.

In Division III men’s lacrosse, defending champion Salisbury crushed Methodist, 21-2.

Maryland BOSS John Tillman and his ties to Corning were highlighted by Andrew Legare of the Star Gazette.

"When you're in the moment, you don't realize it, but then you reflect back and you're like, 'Man, what a place to grow up,'" he said. "The teachers cared about you, my coaches cared about me, they held you accountable. I went to a great public high school with just a lot of really good people and I'm thankful for those friendships."

Although it has been 30 years since Tillman graduated from Corning West, that childhood is not far removed from his role as head men's lacrosse coach at the University of Maryland, which came within a goal of capturing the Division I national championship last year. Tillman, 47, enters his seventh season in College Park with a record of 80-26, having guided the Terrapins to five Final Four appearances and berths in four of the last six national championship games.

Setting the tone for a culture where winning is only one part of being successful has been one of the keys for Tillman as a head coach at Maryland, and Harvard before that. His college playing days at Cornell University and stints as an assistant coach at Ithaca College and Navy also have helped shape that path.

"We've done some pretty good things and we certainly have some more things we'd like to accomplish, but certainly couldn't be more proud of the guys we've had and what they've been able to do and the way they've been able to do it in the classroom and the way they've represented our university and the community service they've done," Tillman said Friday in a phone interview. "It's a lot more than just winning games. It's really important how we do things and it's really important we're developing young people into leaders who can go back and make a positive impact in their communities.”

Philly Jawns

Brian Dawkins was not named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2017. Sad!

Neither did Terrell Owens

Philly World News Jawns

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to play in a hockey game against a team of ex-Flyers.

World News

Today is Super Bowl LI between the Falcons and Chris Hogan and the Patriots.

Video of the Day

NFL quarterback Michael Vick called it a career on Friday. Let’s look back at the human cheat code.

We have two games on tap today, so look out for the Big Board very soon!

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Managing Editors: Safe Fekadu, Chris Jastrzembski, Ryan McDonnell