College Crosse Prospectus: Who’s #1?

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, College Crosse Nation!! Thanks for making us a part of your day! Here are your links for February 26, 2018.

What You Missed

Who’s trending up and down in this week’s Arestia Development?

Tre Leclaire played hero in Ohio State’s big 12-11 overtime win over Jacksonville.

Binghamton-Marist and Cleveland State-Denver were the two other games on Sunday.

Penn upset top-ranked Duke on Saturday, and that wasn’t the only crazy game.

Lacrosse The Nation

My Three Stars from the weekend’s games:

The Albany Great Danes are tops in the media poll. Maryland, Duke, Virginia, and Denver round out the top five.

Meanwhile, the Maryland Terrapins top the US Lacrosse poll. They’re followed by Albany, Duke, Denver, and Notre Dame.

It was an overall great day in Jacksonville, even if the Dolphins failed to complete the upset!

LET’S GOOOO!!!!

Albany FOGO TD Ierlan is a big reason for the Great Danes’ success to start the season, pens Michael Kelly of The Daily Gazette:

Tireless, too, in crediting those around him. Ierlan — who earned all-conference and All-American honors last season — makes a regular habit of praising his wings on faceoffs. After Saturday’s win, he referenced the help he received from six different Great Danes, while also acknowledging the day’s strategy had been for Ierlan to do more on his own than usual.

“They gave me space to win it to myself,” said Ierlan, who collected 17 ground balls. “We kind of knew that was going to be the game plan going into [Saturday].”

Through two games, UAlbany has excelled in all facets of the game. But what Ierlan brings is special — and extra special because of what his success means in the context of the Great Danes. UAlbany’s offense is powered by two of the best attackmen in the country in senior Connor Fields and freshman Tehoka Nanticoke, so the Great Danes are nearly unbeatable when they win faceoffs on a consistent basis.

“With an offense as good as ours,” Ierlan said, “I think if we can just keep getting them the ball, it’s really hard [for opposing teams] to get out of that hole.”

Paddy Cotter from The Daily Collegian examines why Penn State is off to a rough start to the season:

One possible reason for the team’s struggles is the absence of a few key pieces. Peter Triolo and Nick Aponte were important elements of last season’s squad, but the loss of two quality players to graduation isn’t a legitimate reason for falling to two unranked opponents.

The most glaring loss happened days before the team’s season opening loss to Villanova, when Grant Ament went down with a lower leg injury.

In Ament’s absence, the attacking corps has lacked the spark that made them capable of scoring wherever, whenever, against whomever last season. Ament’s excellent dodging skills attracts defensive attention and gets others open.

After scoring six goals in the opening half against Robert Morris, the Nittany Lions were desperate for the skill set. The offense scored only two goals in the second half.

“I think we lacked confidence today,” coach Jeff Tambroni said after his team lost, 12-8, against the Colonials. “We’ve just got to do a better job of collaborating offensively.”

GOT ‘EM!

Sacred Heart Pioneers freshman Anthony Scaramucci Jr. (WE’VE HEARD OF HIS DAD) was interviewed by Reed Alexander of Moneyish to talk about his crazy few months:

Scaramucci Jr. is now hoping to launch into a new chapter in his life. “Growing up in my town [Manhasset, Long Island], it was a typical thing for kids to…go to college for business, follow their [parents’] footsteps, work on Wall Street,” but his passion is filmmaking and video game production. It’s what he’s majoring in as a freshman at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. “Now, I’ve just got to work as hard as my dad does.”

His love of video games — especially those with intricate plotlines like the first-person role-playing “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” — inspired him to learn how they’re made. So he checked out a series of YouTube videos and created a basic game from scratch. It’s a hobby he’s continued and gotten more skilled at. One of his most popular creations so far is an animated video of Lego Star Wars characters, which quickly accrued over 80,000 views on YouTube.

Now, he’s on the road toward earning his bachelor’s degree in video game design, and has already been accepted into a combined five-year master’s degree program in film and television production. He wants other kids to know that coding is the way of the future. “It’s one of the biggest gateways for opportunity when it comes to finding success in your work… The best way to start off, if you don’t really know anything about it, is you go on YouTube and do some research.”

For now, Scaramucci is occupied with school, friends, and lacrosse practice six days a week, but is definitely looking toward the future. “My dream job would be the CEO of Disney,” he laughed. “As ridiculous as that is, I just love it… Walt Disney was an absolute stud; he had a dream and went after it and became the craziest thing.”

Philly Jawns

Jason Kelce is a man of the people:

World News

Happy NHL Trade Deadline day!!

Video of the Day

Oh hello there.

That’s it for today!! I’ll see you out there!! Make sure you follow us on social media!

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Managing Editors: Safe Fekadu, Chris Jastrzembski, Ryan McDonnell