I went thirteen for sixteen on my picks for Saturdays slate of games. The most surprising game of the day for me has to be Lynchburg’s loss to WNE. The team I’m most worried about is SLU after they barley escaped an average Cortland team. The team I’m most impressed by has to be CNU. This was the first time I’ve gotten to watch them and even though they played a middle school team they pop off the screen with their athleticism.
I don’t know which stat I’m more impressed with, Shooting almost 50% when scoring 29 times, 29 face off wins, or 56 ground balls. This was a total shit kicking and very impressive to watch. They move on to play Wesleyan, who took down RPI. Wesleyan jumped on the Engineers early and never let them back in. The stats were basically even in every category but the Cardinals just took advantage of there opportunities in the first half. I picked RPI to move on to play CNU in the third round but that doesn’t effect my decision of CNU still moving on to next weekend. Wesleyan is a good team but similar to Maryland in the division one bracket, CNU is on a mission this year and I don’t know if anybody can stop them.
York started slow and let Southern Virginia hang for a bit but once they turned on the jets, it was over. The stats were basically doubled in York’s favor for this one; which makes sense when looking at the final score. They moved on to play Denison who played in maybe the game of the tournament vs Grove City. This was an epic game which came down to the final minutes and ultimately, GC not being able to capitalize on their last possession to tie it up. York’s coaching staff came up with a master piece of a game plan and shut down Denison by only giving up one goal in the first 3 quarters. I’m basically a genius, and also called this game having York move on. We will have to wait until Sunday’s slate is complete to see who York will play next.
Dickinson took on Stevens Tech in a game that wasn’t very close. The stats weren’t really as lopsided as you would think in a game where a team wins by 14, but Dickinson did it. Gettysburg edged out Roanoke by taking a big first half lead and not letting Maroons back in. Again, not to brag but I also called this matchup. I think the Red Devils improve to 20-0 and move onto next weekend.
Public service announcement for Sean McCusker and the WNE faithful, please skip this paragraph. The game I’m really surprised about has to be the Lynchburg loss to WNE. Coach Koudelka could have used #13 out there slanging that thing around for the Hornets today. I mean no disrespect to WNE, they have had an excellent year, but Lynchburg is a playoff veteran team and shouldn’t be dropping games like this in the second round. John Carroll fought really hard and from what I was watching never let Union get comfortable in the game. Even though Union won, this might factor into the Sunday match up with all the extra effort they had to put in to win this game. WNE has just shown they are not afraid to play anybody and I’m very interested to see how this one plays out. I had Union moving on in my original bracket against Lynchburg and I will stick with that against WNE.
Faceoff wins and ground balls ended up being the big difference in St. John Fischer taking down Catholic. SJF triples Catholic up on face offs and the extra 9 ground balls picked up lead to the extra possessions that kept Catholic from being able to keep this one closer. Tufts putting up 33 points in a playoff game is absolutely insane. Did they possibly over exert themselves for there matchup with Fischer? Only time will tell but this will be must watch lacrosse. Not many times you get number four take on six team in the country in the third round of the playoffs. Before the year started and you told me these two were playing I would have thought it would be for the National Championship. Make sure to have your popcorn ready and pee before the game starts because you wont want to miss a second of this one. The face off factor might be just to much to over come here so I will be picking SJF to move on to next weekend.
Cabrini dominated the stat chart in their game against W&L. The Cavs end up winning by 6 and now move on to play familiar foe, Salisbury. Shout out to Stockton, they went punch for punch against the most dominant lacrosse program division 3 has ever seen (maybe besides Hobart in the 80s). Salisbury was put in a position to have to play there starters all game because after a Seagull score the Osprey would fire one right back. As a Tiger fan I loved every second of it because I know how much effort they had to use to win this game. This might not effect them this weekend but as they move on to next weekend the heavy legs could be a big factor. I have Salisbury beating Cabrini so we will see if my tiny brain is right and the legs become a factor.
Bowdoin never really struggled at any point in there win against Colorado College. Saint Lawrence on the other hand had to fight with everything they had to take down Cortland. I do see this being a huge factor going into Sundays matchup against Bowdoin. I think Bowdoin moves on easily to next weekend.
my last wrong pick of the weekend was Amherst vs MIT. I thought Amherst’s experience playing deep in the playoffs would have been the x factor in them taking down undefeated MIT. Those geniuses over at MIT really stuck it to the kid who took 6 years to graduate college. Regardless of who won this matchup, I still have RIT taking them down in Sunday’s matchup anyway. Coach Coons approach to Saturdays game was genius in my eyes. Starting in the second quarter he cleared his bench and mixed and matched starters with new guys. The entire team got to play a part in there win over Albion. I was talking to my inside source at RIT about how they could have played the starters and won that game 30-3 but instead they get everybody involved and win 23-6, what a day to be a tiger. I believe the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers will win and advance to next weekend. #RollTigers
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