Lax Factor Lacrosse Podcast

In the first episode of our D2/D3 podcast, we'll rip through the following games...

Ross Filtch, a Le Moyne midfielder scored both the game tying and eventual game winning goals for the Dolphins over host Pace.

#2 Tampa had a bit of a scare put into them against undefeated Lynn, but walked away with a 7-6 win.

Caleb Kueber and Devin Pipher went off for Mercyhurst, Kueber putting up 5 goals and 5 assists and Pipher chipped in 4 goals and 4 helpers.

Lenoir-Rhyne bounced back nicely after suffering their first loss in 13 outings against Wingate earlier in the week.  They beat up on Lincoln Memorial on Saturday 18-6.

York got production up and down their roster in their 15-3 win over Lebanon Valley on Saturday. Brendan O'Sullivan put up 3 goals, Michael Russo went for 3 assists and Jacob Wilhelm went for 2 goals and a dish.

Lynchburg has won three straight games after losing to Washington & Lee on April 2nd. Granted, they returned the favor the next day beating Washington & Lee the following day and have added 2 additional blow out wins since. Roanoke is the latest victim getting bounced 20-10 on Saturday.

#10 Union followed up their opening season win with a win over #6 St. Lawrence in a battle of NY teams.

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Notre Dame's defense came to play on Saturday handing #1 Duke their first loss of the season and upending the power structure of the ACC. Michael Sowers was held to a single goal and Notre Dame got production from their midfield in the huge ACC win.

Virginia got revenge against North Carolina by defeating the Tarheels in their second meeting, this time in Chapel Hill. UNC had beat UVA in Charlottesville by three goals earlier in the season and the Cavs returned the favor this time around handing UNC their second loss in a row.

In other action, Drexel upsets Delaware on the road 12-9 and now the CAA conference is looking really interesting with Delaware, Hofstra, Drexel and UMass all scrambling for position as we get close to the seasons end.

In Big Ten action, Maryland and Rutgers beat up on Michigan and Penn State respectively. Ohio State got back to 500 by defeating Johns Hopkins 14-12 at home. So Maryland owns the Big Ten at this stage with Rutgers coming up right behind them and Ohio State filling out the "good" side of things. Rutgers has Hopkins and Michigan left to play. Maryland has Ohio State and Hopkins left to play. For Ohio State, a win over Penn State in their season finale leading into the Big Ten tournament is going to be a must.

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Ryan Tierney's 3 goals and 3 assists were exactly what Hofstra needed to edge UMass in a huge conference win. Syracuse took down Albany in a semi-slow going game at the Dome, but it was exactly the win Syracuse needed heading into North Carolina next weekend.

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The biggest matchup of the weekend will see Duke hitting the road to take on Notre Dame in yet another top 10 matchup of ACC lacrosse teams. Duke is coming in as the favorite and the #1 team in the land, but Notre Dame is feeling really confident after beating up Syracuse in the Carrier Dome over the weekend. It's Michael Sowers against Pat Kavanagh in this one and both guys can light it up.

Big ACC games are the norm this year and Virginia hosting North Carolina could be another masterpiece. UNC dropped UVA in their first matchup, but Virginia likes playing at home and is hoping that Connor Shellenberger and Petey LaSalla can both play big and even the score against their ACC rival.

Army will face Loyola in a big Patriot League matchup. Loyola coming off a big win over Navy and Army is coming off a heart breaking loss to Lehigh, so expect this one to be a dog fight. Loyola will have to play tough against Brendan Nichtern if they want a shot at upsetting the Black Knights.

Syracuse is going to be looking to bully Albany after losing to Notre Dame the way they did. I don't wish this Syracuse anger on anyone and UAlbany playing without Tehoka Nanticoke is going to have their hands full in the carrier dome.

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Notre Dame rode their face-off duo to the promise land in the Carrier Dome taking down the Orange 18-11 while winning 23 of 32 draws on the day. Charles Leonard won 8 of 10 and Kyle Gallagher won 15 of 22 for the Irish. Pat Kavanagh peeled the Orange for 4 goals and 5 assists and teammates Griffin Westlin and Will Yorke each went for 4 goals.

Jared Bernhardt entered the record books at Maryland by surpassing Matt Rambo as the Terps all time leading goal scorer. His 1st goal of the day tied the record and his 2nd broke it. He now sits at 159 goals, breaking Rambo's old mark of 155 goals. Maryland also happened to beat up on Penn State 17-10. Bernhardt finished the day with 5 goals and 3 assists.  Logan Wisnauskas put up 4 goals and Daniel Maltz chipped in a hattrick in the easy win.

Mike Sisselberger won 23 of 27 face-offs and helped lift Lehigh to a 13-12 win over Army. Cole Kirst scored the game winner late in the fourth (his 4th goal of the game).

Hobart picked up a huge NEC win over Bryant, picking up a 2-goal lead late in the game and successfully killed man-up opportunities for Bryant over the final minute of the game. Hobart gets the 11-10 win and the NEC is up for grabs.

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Biggest game of the season see's #2 North Carolina travel to Durham to take on #1 Duke in an ACC lacrosse matchup on Thursday. It's Michael Sowers of Duke vs Chris Gray of UNC doing battle for the first time since each player transferred to their new ACC schools. Gray of course transferred a year earlier. Duke comes into this game with the #4 ranked offense in the nation as scored by LacrosseReference.com and UNC is #1. But defensively, Duke's #13 rank looks a lot better than UNC's #42 rank. So on paper, Duke looks like the slightly more complete team, and that's why I like Duke in this game by a goal.

Maryland beat Rutgers again in Big Ten action on Sunday and Penn State got revenge over Hopkins by beating the blue birds in their second meeting.

We'll also take a look at the calendar for Saturday to see what games may be worth watching.

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Virginia and Notre Dame played another classic ACC lacrosse game on Saturday and we saw UVA pull out the 12-11 win thanks to Dox Aitken's game winner with 3:24 left in the fourth quarter. Aitken was good for 2 goals and 2 assists. Payton Cormier put up another 5 goal game and Ian Laviano got himself a hattrick in the UVA win.  Will York (Bucknell transfer) had his breakout game for Notre Dame with 5 goals in the loss. Petey LaSalla won 13 of 25 face-offs against Notre Dame's two headed monster of Kyle Gallagher and Charles Leonard. Alex Rode won the goalie battle with 9 saves and UVA wins the game.

Georgetown and Villanova played a barn burner despite the Hoyas beating Nova 16-1 in their first meeting. Georetown wins this one 8-7 without Carraway. Towson upset Loyola 7-6 in OT thanks to Tim Montgomery's 3 goal day.

Brendan Nichtern continues his tear putting up 1 goal and 6 assists in Army's route of Holy Cross. His 6.2 points per game surely have him gaining some attention for the Tewaaraton.

Stony Brook is trying hard to keep pace with Vermont in the America East and looks like they may do so thanks to a 16-10 win over visiting Albany. Total team effort in the win.

Drexel turned some heads in beating Robert Morris 19-13.

Lots more to talk about, even some D2 and D3 action that we'll get into this week.

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The #4 ranked Syracuse mens lacrosse squad travels to Durham, North Carolina to face the #2 ranked Duke on Thursday in a huge ACC lacrosse showdown.

It will pit Michael Sowers and company against the highly reguarded Syracuse midfield unit of Tucker Dordevic, Jamie Trimboli and Brendan Curry. Curry and Trimboli have both scored game winners against Duke in their last three meetings and Duke will be wanting some revenge as Syracuse owns a 4-2 advantage over their last 6 meetings dating back to 2014.

If you go through unit by unit, Duke holds a slight edge offensively and defensively but Syracuse holds a considerable edge in terms of midfield depth and they have the more consistent goalie.  So this should shape up to be an absolute masterpiece of a lacrosse game and can't be missed.

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Chase Scanlan's 7 goals helped Syracuse defeat Holy Cross in the Carrier Dome on Saturday. Teammate Owen Hiltz put up 1 goal and 5 assists in the win. Syracuse used their ride to limit their opponents possessions and the Orange defense was stingy only giving up 11 shots on cage. Syracuse will face Duke on Thursday in Durham. AJ Fox stood on his head in cage for Holy Cross contributing 19 saves in their losing effort.

Robert Morris gave Virginia all they could handle, but it was the Cavs outlasting the Crusaders by the end. Payton Cormier paced UVA with 5 goals and 1 assist and Matt Moore went for a goal and 4 helpers. Shellenberger went 1 & 3 and Dox Aitken returned to the box score with a big game, 3 goals out of the veteran midfielder.

Despite controlling most of the first half, Johns Hopkins ended up losing 15-9 to Rutgers. Maryland slowly but surely separated from and defeated Ohio State. North Carolina beat Air Force by ten goals thanks to Chris Gray's 2 goal and 6 assist day. Penn State is now in last place in the Big Ten after losing 14-12 to Michigan. Tye Kurtz scored the game winner in OT to lift Delaware over Towson.

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Denver exposed Georgetown's lack of defensive depth on Tuesday in a Big East Lacrosse matchup that pitted the countries most formidable defense (Georgetown) against one of the most battled tested teams in the country in terms of strength of schedule and overall experience (Denver). While Georgetown jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, the Pio's used a 7 goal over about 15 minutes of play to take a 7-2 lead and never looked back.

Jack Hannah had a huge day for Denver scoring 4 goals off just 8 shots, a huge improvement over his shooting percentage so far this season. Also factoring heavily was Ethan Walker who contributed 3 second half goals to go along with his two assists.

The Tewaaraton Award watch now involves three guys that all have a legit shot at winning by the seasons end. Included on my own personal short list is Ryan Tierney (Hofstra), Jared Bernhardt (Maryland), Michael Sowers (Duke) and Chris Gray (North Carolina).  I think Tierney is the long shot, and the other three, Bernhardt, Sowers and Gray are all the obvious front runners. But who do I think has the best chance?

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