ADVERTISEMENT

NCAA Men's Lacrosse PSU 13--Princeton 12

I'm old enough to remember the 80s when they routinely had losing records and would get hammered by the Syracuse and Princetons of the world...program has come a long long ways.
 
I'm old enough to remember the 80s when they routinely had losing records and would get hammered by the Syracuse and Princetons of the world...program has come a long long ways.
As has the sport, which has had a “rising tides” effect.
 
Reminded me of the 2019 loss to Yale in the final four, when we fell behind 10-1. Came back to some extent there but eventually lost by three, but I agree, good to see the team stay together and keep fighting last night. Change to a zone defense shut down Princeton and held them scoreless for 20 minutes while the offense chipped away and eventually took the lead. And helpful to have the game at home. Good crowd even with school out. Army will be another challenge as they beat the Terps on the road.
 
Reminded me of the 2019 loss to Yale in the final four, when we fell behind 10-1. Came back to some extent there but eventually lost by three, but I agree, good to see the team stay together and keep fighting last night. Change to a zone defense shut down Princeton and held them scoreless for 20 minutes while the offense chipped away and eventually took the lead. And helpful to have the game at home. Good crowd even with school out. Army will be another challenge as they beat the Terps on the road.
Yale game was frustrating because we seemed to be better than Yale in every position except for FACEOFF.

Yale would score.....win the draw and then shoot on our end for 2-3 shots if we stopped them all then we could try to score on Yale. Our offense was almost unstoppable, but we could not get the ball to attack.........
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ski
Yale game was frustrating because we seemed to be better than Yale in every position except for FACEOFF.

Yale would score.....win the draw and then shoot on our end for 2-3 shots if we stopped them all then we could try to score on Yale. Our offense was almost unstoppable, but we could not get the ball to attack.........
A faceoff in hockey is important, but not like in lacrosse. In lacrosse, especially when you play a tough team, you really need to win the majority of faceoffs or you limit your chances of scoring by such a margin that it becomes very problematic to win; it's the equivalent to turnovers in football.
 
A faceoff in hockey is important, but not like in lacrosse. In lacrosse, especially when you play a tough team, you really need to win the majority of faceoffs or you limit your chances of scoring by such a margin that it becomes very problematic to win; it's the equivalent to turnovers in football.

Yea, that was before the mandatory shot-clock (it was still subjective and up to Ref to put stalling team on shot-clock). New 60 second shot clock should have been instituted a long time ago (which also requires the ball hits the pipe or the goalie touches it for shooting team to maintain possession). Under the old rules, teams would stall (not attack, which they were required to do or be put on clock by Official... - but subject to Official calling it) - then, teams with lead would also employ the BS tactic of putting a man behind net, stall for a bit... then take a bad shot just wide of cage before Ref called anything which would maintain possession with offensive team as rule was it went to team closest to ball on a missed shot.... Then they would burn more clock take a bad shot.... rinse & repeat ad naseum). It made college lacrosse horrible to watch (Major League Lacrosse went to shot clock long ago) - it was effectively as boring as NC's 4-Corner Offense (i.e., burn the clock with a lead) before NCAA Basketball's Shot-Clock Rule.
 
Yea, that was before the mandatory shot-clock (it was still subjective and up to Ref to put stalling team on shot-clock). New 60 second shot clock should have been instituted a long time ago (which also requires the ball hits the pipe or the goalie touches it for shooting team to maintain possession). Under the old rules, teams would stall (not attack, which they were required to do or be put on clock by Official... - but subject to Official calling it) - then, teams with lead would also employ the BS tactic of putting a man behind net, stall for a bit... then take a bad shot just wide of cage before Ref called anything which would maintain possession with offensive team as rule was it went to team closest to ball on a missed shot.... Then they would burn more clock take a bad shot.... rinse & repeat ad naseum). It made college lacrosse horrible to watch (Major League Lacrosse went to shot clock long ago) - it was effectively as boring as NC's 4-Corner Offense (i.e., burn the clock with a lead) before NCAA Basketball's Shot-Clock Rule.
With that said, the shot clock is too long for my liking.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LongJakk
A faceoff in hockey is important, but not like in lacrosse. In lacrosse, especially when you play a tough team, you really need to win the majority of faceoffs or you limit your chances of scoring by such a margin that it becomes very problematic to win; it's the equivalent to turnovers in football.
A few years ago, Denver University had a faceoff specialist named Baptiste who was incredibly good. He allowed Denver to get so many more possessions per game than pretty much any other opponent on their schedule, and they won the national championship in 2015.

When I watched Penn State this year, it looked like we just aren't quite there yet in terms of number of faceoffs won. Against Princeton, the game started to turn towards Penn State once we started to win a few faceoffs.
 
With that said, the shot clock is too long for my liking.

Still way better than before (they also shortened the amount of time to cross midfield stripe from 30 seconds to 20 seconds). Infinitely better in making these objective quantified rules than leaving them subjective in biased Officials hands (and Officials are always insanely biased as anyone who watched these games in the old days.... and watched Refs let them get away with this bullshit.... knows).

But I agree with you, they should probably shorten clock to get across midfield stripe to 15 or even 10 seconds (this would require true skill on the part of defenders attempting to transition ball to offensive players - put more pressure on them)... they should also probably go to 45 second clock once ball is passed on offensive side (or person who brings it up enters box) instead of current 60 second clock.
 
If I were king for a day, I would get rid of the faceoff in lacrosse and go to alternate possessions. It would increase the chances that the better team will win and not the team with the better face off guy/girl that day. Never having played there might be unintended consequences that I have not thought of, but in my opinion that would make it a better game.

$.02
 
A faceoff in hockey is important, but not like in lacrosse. In lacrosse, especially when you play a tough team, you really need to win the majority of faceoffs or you limit your chances of scoring by such a margin that it becomes very problematic to win; it's the equivalent to turnovers in football.
and that kid from YALE on the faceoffs was incredible if I recall..the best in the Nation..
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ski
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT