Under Armour All-America Lacrosse game recaps: Girls, Boys’ South teams come out victorious in different ways

BALTIMORE, M.D. — The annual Under Armour All-America senior games were held Saturday afternoon and evening at iconic Homewood Field on the campus of Johns Hopkins University in front of 4,129 spectators. Both South teams won in different fashions.

Boys’ Game

The boys’ game wasn’t as good as it has been the past few years. The South, aka the “Dirty South” to those on the team, exploded on offense as they breezed past the North 22-15. North Carolina Tar Heels commit Nicky Solomon, the younger brother of Syracuse Orange attackman Nate Solomon, won MVP honors. He was happy.

Chris Jastrzembski

The South exploded early with a 7-1 opening quarter and a 12-2 lead with 8:24 left in the second quarter, but the North eventually got it to a five goal margin later in the quarter. However it wasn’t enough as the South kept peppering the North with shots and eventually took back the title.

It’s an all-star game, so a ton of these stats will be ridiculous to comprehend. Here we go:

Shots: 68-61 South (129 total!)
Ground balls: 53-41 South (94 total!)
Faceoffs: 25-16 South
Saves: 20-14 North
Turnovers: 19-18 South

SOUTH STATS

• A Nicky Solomon (North Carolina): 4 Gs
• A Joey Epstein (Johns Hopkins): 3 Gs
• M Owen Caputo (Duke): 2 Gs, 1 A
• A Jacob Kelly (North Carolina): 1 G, 2 As
• LSM BJ Farrare (Penn): 1 G, 2 As, 1 CT, 7 GBs
• A Drew Erickson (Denver), M Jack Simmons (Virginia), A Matt Brandau (Yale): 2 Gs
• M Chase Scanlan (Loyola): 1 G, 1 A
• M Isaiah Dawson (Harvard), M Quentin Buchman (Notre Dame), M Jeff Conner (Virginia): 1 G
• FOGO Mike Sisselberger (Lehigh): 1 G, 25-of-41 faceoffs, 16 GBs
• A/M Kyle Long (Maryland), D Tanner Hay (Albany): 1 A
• G Chayse Ierlan (Cornell), G Aleric Fyock (Penn State): 7 saves

NORTH STATS

• A Bryce Clay (Michigan): 3 Gs, 2 CTs
• M Matt Magnan (Syracuse), A George Winchelns (Maryland): 2 Gs, 1 A
• A Griffin Cook (Syracuse), A Xander Dickson (Virginia), A John John Lombardi (Cornell): 2 Gs
• M Nick Loring (Harvard): 1 G, 1 A
• M Evan Zinn (Johns Hopkins): 1 G
• M Peter Fiorini (Syracuse): 1 A
• FOGO Joe Neuman (Yale): 1 A, 16-of-41 faceoffs, 10 GBs
• A/M Alex Simmons (Denver): 2 CTs
• G Patrick Burkinshaw (Virginia): 13 saves
• G Andrew Bonafede (Duke): 7 saves

One of the biggest disappointments was the lack of celebrations. I spoke with the South’s Isaiah Dawson after the game about it and he said many of the guys procrastinated on how they were going to celebrate. Some of the guys thought last year’s All-Americans went overkill on celebrations.

We had two notable celebrations. Quentin Buchman did a Thanos-themed celebration with a twist of his wrist:

Griffin Cook and the North did the overused row the kayak celly in the second half. Other than those two cellys, that was it. Seriously.

Here’s some pictures from after the game.

Chris Jastrzembski

Chris Jastrzembski

Chris Jastrzembski

Girls’ Game

It took a little while for the North to wake up. The South scored the first five goals of the game en route to a 6-2 halftime lead. The North’s two goals were the least amount of goals in a single half in event history.

But they eventually got things going on offense. The North scored seven of the 10 goals in the second half and tied things up with 58 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime for the second straight year. But the South prevailed as USC commit Erin Bakes scored the game winner 18 seconds into the extra session. She earned MVP honors for her late game heroics.

Shots: 28-28
Ground balls: 15-13 South
Draw controls: 11-8 South
Saves: 10-9 North
Turnovers: 14-13 South

SOUTH STATS

• A Charlie Rudy (Colorado): 3 Gs, 1 A
• A Julia Hoffman (Maryland), M Erin Bakes (USC), M Jillian Wilson (Loyola): 2 Gs
• A Alex Marino (Syracuse): 2 As
• M Madison Mote (Notre Dame): 1 G
• M Maddie Jenner (Duke): 5 draw controls
• G Rachel Hall (Oregon): 6 saves
• G Julia Cooper (Stanford): 3 saves

NORTH STATS

• A Meaghan Tyrrell (Syracuse), A Shonly Wallace (Stony Brook): 2 Gs
• M Lillie Kloak (Virginia): 1 G, 1 A
• A Hannah Mardiney (Florida), M Courtney Weeks (Boston College), M Isabelle Scane (Northwestern), A Caitlynn Mossman (Boston College): 1 G
• A Jenn Medjid (Boston College), M Emerson Cabrera (Florida): 1 A
• G Madison Doucette (Northwestern), G Sarah Reznick (Florida): 5 saves

Make sure to check out my interviews with 10 of the participants from the boys’ game, as well as rosters from each game.