College Crosse News

Directly below is the Weekend Scorecard for Week 8, with links to teams, box scores, & recaps from all of the games from this weekend.

Congrats to Penn State on their first official win over Maryland in program history on Sunday.

A big first-quarter scoring effort was nearly completely wiped away, but Penn State never let go of the lead in its defense of the top spot in college lacrosse. The No. 1 Nittany Lions defeated No. 3 Maryland by a score of 13-10 in Penn State’s first game of the Big Ten conference schedule. The win was the first official victory over the Terrapins in program history. Penn State entered this game with a recorded 2-40 record against the Terrapins, with the last win coming 99 years ago. In 1920, Maryland lacrosse was considered a club sport by the university, so the program’s record book lists the all-time series record at 0-36 in favor of the Terrapins.

Make sure you also read Ed Lee’s post on last night’s entertaining Penn State vs. Maryland game.

The Maryland men’s lacrosse program does not recognize losses to Penn State in 1916 and 1920 and has insisted that the series record is 36-0 in favor of the Terps. There’s no dispute now. The top-ranked Nittany Lions exploded for eight goals in the first quarter, weathered a scoreless drought of 27 minutes, 57 seconds, and quelled a potential comeback to defeat No. 3 Maryland, 13-10, before an announced 3,837 at Maryland Stadium on Sunday night in the Big Ten opener for both sides.

RUTGERS!!! The Scarlet Knights started off Big Ten Play with a huge win yesterday over Ohio State on Sunday.

No. 17 Rutgers men’s lacrosse opened Big Ten play with a statement, with a 14-6 road win at No. 4 Ohio State, dealing the Buckeyes their first loss of the season. Rutgers was led offensively by Kieran Mullins’s eight-points (four goals and four assists). Adam Charalambides added three goals, while Ryan Gallagher had two goals and three assists. Max Edelmann made 17 saves for the Scarlet Knights. OSU held a 45-36 advantage in shots and 30-28 in ground balls. RU forced the Buckeyes into 17 turnovers and RU was 23-of-25 on clears. The Scarlet Knights capitalized on extra-man opportunities, scoring on two out of three.

Penn took care of business on Saturday versus Yale, beating the Bulldogs 13-12 in triple-overtime at Franklin Field.

Maybe the warm spring weather is just what the Quakers needed. On a balmy Saturday at Franklin Field, No. 13 Penn men’s lacrosse kept its five-game winning streak intact with a thrilling 13-12 triple-overtime win over Ivy League rival and defending national champion Yale. After a nail-biting first two periods of overtime couldn’t produce a winner, freshman attackman Sam Handley sent a laser into the back of the net a minute into the third bonus period to send the home bench and fans into a frenzy. Six different goalscorers — each scoring at least a pair of goals — lifted the Red and Blue (5-3, 3-0 Ivy) to victory, their first over the No. 2 Elis (6-2, 2-1) since 2017.

UNC exploited some vulnerabilities in Duke’s armor on Saturday.

Almost nothing, not even things as simple as passing and catching, went Duke’s way Saturday afternoon, as yet another ACC opponent showed how vulnerable the Blue Devils are. Tobacco Road rival North Carolina upset No. 5 Duke 10-8, sending the Blue Devils back to Durham with a second straight loss and questions on how to regroup and start winning again.

“We’re not a very good team right now, I think it’s obvious to anybody who’s watched,” a visibly disappointed head coach John Danowski said. “We’ve got great kids, they really try really hard…. But we’re not a great lacrosse team.”

Onto the next one: Lehigh keeps rolling.

The Lehigh men’s lacrosse team has won all five of its Patriot League games and is on a five-game winning streak after a 1-3 start to the season. Early on, the team struggled when senior attacker Lucas Spence suffered an injury. The team looked to younger players, such as freshman Tommy Schelling, to make contributions on the field. The attacker, who feels like the lacrosse team is his new family, said it was “an adjustment” in the beginning, especially with all the injuries. “But, I think we have shown resiliency and toughness as the season has progressed,” Schelling said. “I know confidence has been a big part to our success and with some of the underclassmen having to step into some big roles, I think the seniors have really done a great job of preparing us for the challenge.”

Here are some highlights from UVA vs. Utah.

Detroit Mercy vs. Marist highlights.

Scary stuff: A routine lacrosse play left Andrew Thomas in growing discomfort after the game. In a matter of hours, he would be facing death.

Concern flooded through Nick Willertz as he looked at his teammate during a Feb. 24, 2018, bus ride back to Lynchburg. Quickly pushed aside were the thoughts of the game he and the University of Lynchburg men’s lacrosse team had just completed, a matchup with seventh-ranked Cabrini in Pennsylvania decided by a goal. Focus, instead, turned to Andrew Thomas. “He was definitely just struggling,” Willertz said of Thomas, a fellow junior at the time and his roommate.

What’s Up, PhilaJersey?

Sixers courtside tickets are Philly’s hottest status symbol.

It was just minutes before tip-off, and the vibe was electric. For a good hour prior to the start time of this nationally televised Sunday-afternoon game, fans, throngs of media, and seemingly every employee of both teams and the arena had gravitated courtside for a chance to see, yes, LeBron James, one of the biggest names in this or any sport. But there was more buzz for the opposing team’s collection of charismatic young stars, including the power forward acquired days earlier in a trade-deadline shocker that triggered a seismic shift in the NBA’s balance of power.

World/National News

This is no laughing matter: Robots don’t get jokes.

A robot walks into a bar. It goes CLANG. Alexa and Siri can tell jokes mined from a humor database, but they don’t get them. Linguists and computer scientists say this is something to consider on April Fools’ Day: Humor is what makes humans special. When people try to teach machines what’s funny, the results are at times laughable but not in the way intended. “Artificial intelligence will never get jokes like humans do,” said Kiki Hempelmann, a computational linguist who studies humor at Texas A&M University-Commerce. “In themselves, they have no need for humor. They miss completely context.”

Your GIF/Video for April 1, 2019

Annnnnnnnd down the stretch they come!!

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