College Crosse Prospectus: Mercer continues to honor John Michael Night

All the lacrosse news you can handle and plenty more!

By Chris Jastrzembski@Chris_Jast Apr 2, 2018, 9:31am EDT

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GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, College Crosse Nation!! Thanks for making us a part of your day! Here’s everything you need to know for April 2, 2018.

What You Missed

Kyle Marr gave Johns Hopkins a big 13-12 win over Rutgers to kick off Big Ten play for the two teams.

We also recapped Saturday’s bevy of games.

Lacrosse The Nation

Our good friends at On The Banks recapped the Rutgers loss.

The latest top 20 media poll is out.

Cam Gaskins does a great package on the Mercer Bears team and John Michael Night.

WATCH: Every game this season, a different @MercerLacrosse player has worn No. 24 to honor John Michael Night, a former recruit who suffered a brain stem stroke in high school. Even though he's never played a game with the Bears, he continues to inspire them every day. pic.twitter.com/EUfPy3gZyv
— Cam Gaskins (@CamWGXA) April 1, 2018

Plenty of young guys contributed in Albany’s latest win over Stony Brook. 16 of the 19 non-senior points were scored by freshmen or sophomores, pens Michael Kelly of The Daily Gazette:

For sure, some of those younger players already have made major contributions this season — and each of the Great Danes’ youngest two classes already have a bonafide star.

[Tehoka] Nanticoke has lived up to his immense hype during his freshman season, as the nation’s No. 1 recruit has produced 28 goals and 22 assists, leaving him second on the team in total points behind Fields. He scored two goals and had three assists in Saturday’s win,

Then, there is TD Ierlan, a sophomore putting together one of the greatest seasons in NCAA history for a faceoff specialist. Ierlan, who went 24 of 24 on faceoffs and collected 21 ground balls against Stony Brook, is leading the nation in faceoff winning percentage (83.8 percent) and ground balls per game (14.4).

“He is a competitor to the core,” [Scott] Marr said of Ierlan. “He’s absolutely a beast.”

In women’s lacrosse, Penn’s crazy comeback came up short against Northwestern as the Wildcats edged the Quakers in double OT.

Penn State is 0-35 all-time against Maryland. They’ll look for their first win against the Terps at home Sunday night, writes Andrew Rubin of The Daily Collegian:

Coach Jeff Tambroni, who said the team has had problems with energy at practice some weeks, shouldn’t have any issues with motivation ahead of Sunday night’s clash. The coaching staff’s job will be focused on slowing down Tewaaraton candidate Connor Kelly and the rest of the offense.

“You don’t have to worry about energy. There are some weeks that you have to coach energy, you have to get guys focused and excited to play against certain teams,” Tambroni said Saturday. “This is not one of them.”

It’s also going to be about getting an upset that’ll launch the Nittany Lions right back into contention for one of the at-large spots in the NCAA Tournament. Before Sunday’s games, the Nittany Lions’ RPI was at 19. They’ll need to get up to around 10 or 12 come Selection Sunday if they want a shot at an at-large bid. A win over Maryland would likely get them very close to being in that spot for the time being.

For the seniors, though, this game would mean a lot on its own. Losing to a team every year of their college career is something that no one wants to do — especially the way Maryland has done it.