Big Ten Lunch Club Memo

To - Big Ten Lunch Club members

Re - Week 4 Review

Welcome back everyone to our weekly Big Ten lunch date. Apologies on the delay, as I was a bit busy earlier this week. Our beloved Rogue Conference was also a bit busy last week, going 5-1 in Week 4 to bring its overall record to 22-7 record on the season. That’s not too shabby. With Big Ten conference play starting the last weekend of March, if the B1G can have a few more weeks like Week 4, our 5-bid dream will have gone from a faint whisper a couple weeks ago, to a polite dinner conversation with friends.

You can find the Big Ten Lunch Club Big Board for March 8, 2019 directly below. Links in the 2019 Overall Record column will take you to that team’s official 2019 schedule page. Links in the Last Game column will take you to the recap of that team’s most recent game, while links in the 2018 Overall Record column will take you to Chris’ 2018 Year in Review post for that particular team. Below the Big Board is a preview of the seven B1G games this weekend.

Johns Hopkins vs. Syracuse

Hopkins stayed on the winning path last week with a victory over Princeton. I was at the game, as was Adam, and let me tell you, the Hopkins faithful can travel. It must’ve been at least 60/40 Hopkins to Princeton fans and probably closer to 70/30. Thankfully, the Jays won to bring them to .500 on the season. This weekend we have Hopkins vs. Syracuse, the rivalry that is essentially the origin story of this blog.

This will be the 57th meeting between the schools, with Hopkins owning a 30-26-1 advantage. The Jays offense looked pretty good last week against Princeton and I was very impressed with their face-off play. JHU went 19 of 28 versus the Tigers. Kyle Prouty won 9 of 13 & Matt Narewski won 10 of 15 face-offs on the day. If JHU can keep feeding that offense with possessions after scores like they did against Princeton, JHU could really give Syracuse all it can handle in the Dome on Saturday.

Maryland vs. Albany

Maryland lost a heart-breaker to Notre Dame in overtime last weekend, but aside from goalie play and one quarter of offense, the Terps played pretty well against the Fighting Irish. Maryland is still 5-1 despite the loss and will have a chance to start a new winning streak against an Albany team that has lost its last two games & stands at 1-3 on the season.

Maryland will need a better game from Danny Dolan on Saturday. Dolan allowed 14 goals and only made 7 saves last week against Notre Dame. While Albany isn’t the team it was last year, they shouldn’t be overlooked. However, so long as Maryland can play to its potential, the Terps should be able to prevail in this one.

Michigan vs. Yale

No fourth quarter defensive letdown for Michigan last week. The Wolverines won by a comfortable 16-11 margin over a pretty good St. John’s team. That was a good win for Michigan, as the Wolverines were able to hold SJU three goals below their season average.

Michigan takes on the defending champs on Sunday in the Atlanta Lacrosse Classic. The Wolverines have been pretty good on the road this season, going 3-0 in away games this season. This will be Yale’s first game outside of New Haven in 2019 and while the Bulldogs have wins over Penn State and UMass, they have also relied heavily on their star TD Irelan. Matt Dellacroce had his first full-game at the dot for Michigan last week versus St. John’s and played well, going 16 for 31 on face-offs. Dellacroce will have his hands full versus TD Irelan if he gets the nod again this weekend, but if Michigan can contain TD and if their offense can get rolling, things could get interesting down in Atlanta.

Ohio State vs. Hofstra

The Buckeyes beat Marquette last weekend to extend their winning streak to five games. OSU is one of only three teams in the country without a loss, with Towson & Cornell being the other two. However, it kind of feels they are being overlooked by many. Nevertheless, if Ohio State keeps on winning, people are going to have take notice.

OSU travels to Hempstead to play Hofstra on Saturday. This definitely has the potential of a trap game for OSU, especially with next week’s big home game versus Denver and the Buckeyes coming off of last week’s trip to Dallas to play Marquette. Nevertheless, I get the feeling that Ohio State won’t slip up versus the Pride. Coach Myers’ boys are tough and their defense has held teams to 10 goals or less four out of their five games this year. Hofstra will put up a fight but OSU should be able to win this one and move to 6-0 on the year.

Penn State vs. Cornell/Penn State vs. Jacksonville

Penn State was definitely on the ropes last week against Penn. The Quakers had a 2 goal lead at various points during the game and clung to a 1-goal lead with 3:05 to play in the fourth quarter. But Nick Spillane came to Penn State’s rescue with two goals in 40 seconds in the final minutes minutes of the game to drag Penn State to its 4th win of 2019.

PSU will have double-duty this weekend as they take on Cornell and Jacksonville in The Crown Lacrosse event down in Charlotte, North Carolina. Penn State’s game against Cornell is tonight. Unfortunately, as of now, we won’t be able to see it since The Crown games aren't presently scheduled to be streamed, regardless, this is obviously another big opportunity for Penn State to get a major non-conference win.

The Nittany Lions were close against Yale, but fell just short. If PSU can beat Cornell and then take care of business against Jacksonville, we might see Penn State garner some 1st place votes on Monday.

Rutgers vs. Princeton

After losing two games in a row, Rutgers was able to snap their losing streak with an 8-4 victory over Fairfield. RU’s Kieran Mullins did not play last week, missing his second game in a row after sitting out versus Loyola. Mullins’ absence is definitely having an impact on the Rutgers offense, but luckily for Rutgers, their defense played great last weekend to help steer the team to victory. Max Edelmann tied his career-high with 17 saves versus the Stags and the RU defense held Fairfield without a goal for nearly 30 minutes between the 2nd and 4th quarter.

This is a big game for Rutgers as the Scarlet Knights need to keep winning if they want to keep their at-large resume competitive. However, the Tigers have a great offense & Princeton is coming off an impressive 19-11 win over Navy on Tuesday. Rutgers won this game in 2017 when it was in Piscataway, but with Kieran Mullins’ status up in the air, it is difficult to predict if RU will have the firepower to keep up with Princeton.

We got a great set of games this weekend, starting with Penn State vs. Cornell tonight. I will be at Rutgers vs. Princeton on Saturday. Hopefully I don’t jinx the Scarlet Knights like I did when Pat Spencer came to Jersey. Anyway, good talk. I’ll see you out there.

Very truly yours,

@Eri_Barrister