Lax Factor Lacrosse Podcast

We had a few more college lacrosse games to enjoy this weekend, in what has come to be known as Week Zero. The big game Saturday was technically Towson playing at Virginia because it was our second glimpse into the quality the ACC will put on display this year. Towson jumped out to an early 4-2 lead before UVA got settled and trounced them from there. Redhsirt freshman Connor Shellenberger was good for 4 goals and 3 assists, redshirt sophomore Payton Cormier went for 6 goals and a helper and graduate transfer Charlie Bertrand put up 4 goals and 2 dishes in the UVA win.

Utah proved just how terrible I am at predicting winners by beating Bellarmine 12-7 on the road. Bellarmine struck first, Utah then took over and got themselves a 6-3 lead before allowing Bellarmine to tie things up at 6-6. It was all Utah from there though as the Utes went on another run and took the game away from Bellarmine.

Other games we'll get to, Mercer picks up a big win over a D2 team, and Alabama Huntsville knocks off Lees-McRae in overtime.

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We have our first huge college lacrosse matchup of the year, #5 Denver hits the road to face-off against #1 Duke at 3pm this Friday in what is being dubbed the happy hour game. I myself will 100% be taking work off early on Friday (via getting started by 5am) to watch this one as Denver tries to shake off the dust in order to give Duke a full game. Michael Sowers will make his Duke debut as will Brendan O'Neill. Duke has gone 4-3 against Denver over the last 7 years, with Duke winning the last 3 matchups (Denver won the 3 prior).

Saturday we get to see Virginia for the first time as they face Towson. UVA got off to a disappointing start last season by their own standards, and Towson is coming off one of the worst starts in the history of college lacrosse going 0-6. Virginia gets the services of Dox Aitken back and teamed up with buddies Matt Moore, Ian Laviano, Jared Conners, Kyle Kology, Petey Lasalla and more, the Cavs have reason to be excited in 2021.

Denver proving they are a glutton for punishment travels 15 minutes down Erwin Road to take on #4 North Carolina Sunday. Chris Gray, Nicky Solomon, Justin (Mr.) Anderson and company are hoping to repeat last years quick start against the Pio's on their way to another win. Denver should finally be getting comfortable offensively and hopefully Jackson Morrill is fully acclimated because Denver will need him, Jack Hannah and Ethan Walker to play tough twice this weekend.

There are more games going on that we'll talk about in this Saturday's 10am live stream.

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College lacrosse action on Saturday didn't dissapoint with Bellarmine defeating Mercer by two goals in the seasons first action and Utah giving Denver all the Pio's could handle in a one-goal Denver win.

Bellarmine took advantage of no Adam Goldsmith and took down Mercer 9-7. Mercer had a 4-2 lead at the half, but Bellarmine chipped back and took down their conference foe by the end.

Denver coming in as huge favorites over Utah played as poorly as a team could play on offense over the first half allowing Utah a 3-1 lead heading into the third. Denver used a big second half from all of its usual suspects seeing Jack Hannah (2 goals, 1 assist), Ethan Walker (3 goals, 1 assist) and Jackson Morrill (1 goal, 2 assists) all have huge second halfs.  In the end, Denver gained the lead and didn't give it up over the course of the fourth quarter.

All in all, a great first weekend of lacrosse action and I can't wait for next weekend.

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OK folks, lacrosse is here, FINALLY, so let's talk week 1's matchups.  Bellarmine at Mercer and Utah at Denver.  I had already set lines for these with Mercer -6.5 and Denver -9.  As I type this, Mercer is already losing haha, maybe I wasn't so smart.  I stand by the Denver line though.  I think it's going to be a tough day for Utah.

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Yes, TD Ierlan decided to transfer to Denver. Yes, Syracuse has back their full roster and is at full strength in 2021. Both pieces of information are crazy news. But nothing compares to the fact we will be able to watch college lacrosse this weekend.

First game of the 2021 season, Bellarmine @ Mercer most likely won't be all that close as Mercer brings back almost everyone from a very good team last year. Mercer returns Sean Goldsmith's 34 goals and 8 assists as well as Michael Quinn's 12 goals and 12 assists. More importantly for Mercer, they bring back Wesley Chairs, Danny Walsh and Garrett LeClaire on the defensive side of the ball. Mercer is a complete team.

MY PREDICTION:  Mercer -6.5

The second and more interesting game of the weekend is Utah @ Denver. Keep in mind, Utah has a totally new looking team. They have lost almost everyone on offense. Denver on the other hand brings back almost everyone on offense and added Jackson Morrill and Lucas Cotler. Throw in the fact that Jungle Jack Hannah played 2020 like someone told him he was the best midfielder in the country and now Morrill is paired on attack with Ethan Walker, one of the best finishers in the game, meets one of the best QB's in the game, Denver is going to be scary with all caps.

About TD Ierlan's announced transfer to Denver, it's reported by Terry Foy that he won't be able to take the field for the first time until Denver's 8th or 9th game, so that will factor.

Come back Saturday morning for the pre-game livestream on Saturday at 10am on the dot.  We'll talk about the upcoming games and I'll answer questions. Then come back again on Sunday for the weekend recap show.

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College lacrosse is almost upon us.  This Saturday, January 30th we will see Mercer host Bellarmine, and Denver host Utah. The following weekend so far has Denver @ Duke (our first realy big matchup), Air Force @ Notre Dame, Robert Morris @ Duke and finished off by Denver at North Carolina.  We get right into some serious non-conference matchups right off the bat.

Air Force by far plays one of the toughest schedules in the land facing the likes of Notre Dame (2/6), Denver (2/13), Duke (2/27), Virginia (3/6), North Carolina (3/20) and finish the season off with High Point and Richmond.  I don't imagine anyone will be playing a schedule like that outside of the ACC teams.

Syracuse's schedule isn't released yet, but we know they are playing Virginia and Notre Dame twice, and it looks like Albany and Army are two of their confirmed non-conference matchups.  We'll wait to see if Cornell and some other NY schools make that cut.

Reppert is leaving Maryland for Holy Cross, but the Terps will be fine. We'll talk some "covid season" and more.

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The biggest news this week so far, TD Ierlan has entered the transfer portal, but before people start freaking out, lets see what happens with Yale's decision first. It's not looking good for the Ivy League for sure, but lets not jump to conclusions and see how this plays out.

Other huge news in the ACC, Dox Aitken is returning to Virginia to play out the 2021 season. He had left and was at Villanova in the fall trying to play some football, but that didn't work out, so he's back at UVA and that immediately makes the Cavs a lot better overall. They were already solid.  Now they are back to approaching scary status.

Be sure to come back this Sunday as we continue on with team previews and talk about the schedules that have dropped thus far.

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The college lacrosse season was ended early in 2020, so we don't really know how Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame, Towson, Rutgers and Bryant would have finished off their seasons, but it's safe to say all five teams will be looking to bounce back and attempt to start 2021 with a bit more giddyup.

Hopkins with a new coach and a healthy Joey Epstein have a lot of potential. Notre Dame is barely needs a bounce back as they were pretty solid last year and only had one bad loss out of their three in 2020. Rutgers will improve thanks to the transfer portal and a solid culture. Bryant was going to finish 2020 above .500 so they are just hoping to be further above .500 in 2021 than they would have been in 2020. Towson started 0-6, but I argue they were one of the best 0-6 teams of all time, and that a tough schedule and some tough luck is largely to blame for their terrible start.

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College lacrosse is almost upon us so here is our pre-season top 20 for division 1 lacrosse in 2021. It starts out really ACC heavy, and gets filled out by the Big Ten and Ivy schools. The list goes...

We'll also rip through and talk about Richmond's squad in 2021 and how I think they should probably win the SoCon. Owen Murphy entered the transfer portal and is apparently no longer hanging with the Hopkins team.

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So ripping through my college lacrosse pre-season positional players of the year for 2021, which ends up totally matching US Lacrosse's version of these, here goes... Attack, Michael Sowers (Duke), Midfield, Ryan Terefenko (Ohio State), Defense, JT Giles-Harris (Duke), Goalie, Drake Porter (Syracuse), Specialist, TD Ierlan (Yale), Player Of The Year, Michael Sowers (Duke).

It's that simple, we'll also dive into a new segment where we show a funny clip of pro lacrosse players telling stories and this week we use a clip from The Post Game w/ Nick Ossello and Evan Molloy as they asked Ryder Garnsey to tell a story of an interaction he had with Ossello while at Notre Dame.

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