Game Time - A look back at week 9 and a preview of Week 10 of the 2024 season

Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of In the Crease with Danny and Kevin, a coast-to-coast discussion of D2 Men's lacrosse. I'm your co-host, Kevin Stenstrom, and with me as always is the Ricky Ricardo of the In the Crease podcast, Danny Moran. Hey Danny. So you remember the show. No, so let's let's just do some disclaimers here for everyone. When we saw that show as kids, it was already in reruns. Let's not put us like we were watching it when it came out prime time. Right? But it was all over, right? And you remember what Ricky used to say in a Cuban accent, right? Lucy, you have a lot of splaining to do. Yep. I think your line tonight, since we missed an episode last week, is Kevin, you have a lot of splaining to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Yeah, well, you know, we missed a week. Um unfortunately, but you know, we got a lot of stuff to talk about.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

We'll get through what it's like I'll just explain this as we kind of put out there. It was it was my family emergency. It was my mom, 92. I had a stroke. Um, she's now in rehab uh facility trying to get her strength back. Um, and it uh it was interesting, Danny. I actually brought my podcast equipment down with me. Brought my mic, brought my mixer, and my laptop. It was just way too much going on with family and my mom. I just couldn't do it. So um Kevin, family is more important than anything else, and especially your mom, you know, when it comes to moms, sons are well you and I, yeah, you you and I talked about this last night when we talked, right? And you're right. 92, she's lived a good life. But I don't care who you are and what age your mom is, you're never ready. Luckily, my mom is doing well, but you know, you just I when I went and saw her, you're just never ready.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Yeah, you know, I lost my mother in 2009. Unfortunately, she went in for a biopsy and never came home. She wound up getting every hospital-borne infection that you could, and she just deteriorated, you know, within 70 days. It was just such a sad thing. And just last week was her birthday. Her birthday is five days in front of mine. My birthday is tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

So we always had happy birthday, Mr. Moran. Everyone at In the Crease. All the staff at In the Crease wish you a happy birthday.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

Both of them.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

And one of them 62, and I feel like I'm 22. I act like I'm 15. That's right. You know, I'm lucky. I'm on no medications, and uh, I drink my water, I try to eat my vegetables, I'm trying to eat a little bit more fruit. I usually don't eat much fruit in the winter, but I'm trying to now, you know.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

My my wife just eats fruit. That's her go-to. She's always eaten fruit, which I don't, and she's really good at it. That's it's just great. That's great that you're doing that.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

Yeah, I'm trying, I'm trying. I want to stay around, I want to stay healthy, you know. But like I said, last week was my mom's birthday, and you know what? Again, a son and his mom, there's nothing like that bond. I don't care. You know, I've heard the father-daughter thing, but the son-mother bond is really, really strong. And you know what? I still can't hear, like, I can't listen to Lou Rawls anymore because as soon as Lou Rawls comes on, I think of my mother. She loved it. You know what I mean? Tears start flowing. Yeah. And you know what? I even at 62, I miss my mother terribly. I bet. And you know what? And I wish your mother a speedy recovery. She seems to be doing a lot better.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

She's getting there. Long road, long road as a 92-year-old, but uh hopefully we'll we'll get there and uh she won't have any setbacks. But I have to say, God bless, man. God bless. And when she had this, she tripped, is what started this whole thing. But she and when she's in the hospital, everyone's saying, Well, she's 92. Of course, she probably has lots of falls. No, she was in such great shape before this happened that people wouldn't believe that she was 92. So she's been blessed, we've been blessed. Um, and we hope that that continues for a while. But I have so let's move on, though. I have more explaining to do, Danny. Unfortunately, I've got more. I got more. We have no player spotlight tonight. I swear to God, I think you need to fire the producer. Oh, but then you'd be down to one on the staff if you did that. No, we can't do that. So it was the player we were supposed to have on last week. He was very gracious when I told him we couldn't do it. There was some miscommunication this week, just he didn't really see my emails coming to him. His family is in town, and he lives, he comes from Canada. Okay, he's from British Columbia.

unknown 5:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

And his family's in town for senior night tomorrow at their game, at his game. So, you know, got like you said, that like you said, family's the most important thing. I said, go have fun with your family, we'll figure it out. Well, you have it on in another another episode coming down the road. But uh, you know, I I obviously I've not I'm not been firing all cylinders with my producer role here lately. Hey, you know what?

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Again, things come up that we can't control. And uh the good Lord said, you know, control the things you can and try not to worry about the things you can't control too much. The yeah, you know, player that we were gonna have is uh Eric Dozey from Chihuan. He's uh if you look at the numbers, this is putting up if he's not a first team All-American, I don't know what is, but uh we'll get him with Eric George on their team who we had on last year.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Eric Dosey, by the way, and we'll mention this when we have him on. He crossed 100 career assists. He was the first Chihuahuan player to have 100 career assists.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Yeah, he's uh he's just he's got a hundred and hundred and six in his career. He's got eighty-six goals, a hundred and six, hundred and ninety-two points, and and yeah, and a really cool is 26 ground balls, man. Yeah, like that's in his career. He's uh currently sixth in the country in uh goals per game, averaging over three and a half, almost 3.67 goals a game. He's second in the country in assists in nine games. He's got 30 assists, and he leads the country in points, Kevin, averaging seven points a game. So Eric's doing a phenomenal job to go on.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

We're really looking forward to having him on.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

Love to, I can't wait to have him on. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

All right, well, we need to move on.

Top 10 Roundup

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Let's talk a little bit more about lacroft in general. Do you want to give the top ten roundup?

SPEAKER_02 6:56

Right, Kev. Ladies and gentlemen, this is your own. All right, Kev, here we go. A lot went on this week, Kevin. Uh, we missed an episode, so there's a couple of games of play. Number one, limestone had a good week. They just continue to roll on and roll on. They beat Newberry, number 10, Newberry, uh 20 to 12. Pretty good beat down. And they beat Anderson 19 to 12. Uh, number two, Lenore Ryan beat number eight Wingate, 12-7, in a good game. And they beat Mars Hill 25 to 5. Number three, Tampa had a really good week. They beat number six, Rollins, 16-11, and they beat number 14, Florida Southern, 12 to 8.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Yeah, but remember too that Rollins, when they played him, was number two in the country.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

That's right. That's right. So, all right, anyway, they had a really good game. They beat him. I got you out of your rhythm. They beat him. All right, number four, the Adelphi, the Panthaz. They beat uh St. Mike's 21 to 6 and beat number nine pace 12 to 6 in any 10 action, Kev. Uh number five, the Mercy Mavs beat UDC. Oof, 22 to 2. But UDC, you know, they're a young program and uh not a lot of numbers. So Mercy put a beatdown on them. And uh they also beat St. Thomas Aquinas 21 to 2. So they put up 43 points and only let up four goals in two games. Pretty impressive. Uh number six, Rollins lost to number three, Tampa, and then beat Florida Tech 18 to 10. Number seven, Undy was upset when they lost to unranked Rockhurst 9-8 in overtime. Number eight, Wingate lost to number two, LR 12-7, but beat Katawha and LMU. They had three games this week. Uh they beat Katawba 19-6 and beat LMU rather handily 23-3. Number nine, Pace beat Franklin Franklin Pierce 19-8, but they lost to number four, Delphi, 12-6. And number 10, Newberry lost to number one Limestone, 20 to 12, and beat Coker 21 to 4. Uh, and that's your own. Okay, if I just got a couple of quick scores from note. Um Colorado Mesa in RMAC. Beat Westminster, 1312, and overtime. We'll talk about that maybe a little bit. Uh, number 18, Frostburg beat Malloy by one. 12-11, those pesky lions from Long Island. They're pesky, you know, they got a couple of losses, but they're you're not beating up on Malloy too much. Uh Henry Riddle won two this week, beating Lynn 17-11, and then upsetting Florida Southern 15-14 in overtime. We'll talk about it. Stain A's. Stain A's beat Bentley pretty bad. That was that was that one.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

So that's what we got so far this

Week in Review

SPEAKER_00 10:45

week. That's a great rundown, Danny. Let's go to the week in review. Now, we missed a week, so we're really not going to do two weeks in review because we'd be here till tomorrow recording this. But um, why don't can you just hit on some of the big games you saw from the week we missed?

SPEAKER_02 11:04

Sure. Um, well, I went and attended the the LR Wingate game two Saturdays ago. I was down there in uh Wingate, North Carolina. Um, quite the game, Kev. Quite the game. You know, two heavyweights going at it. Uh it was at Wingate. Um, it was 3-2 after after one or 2-1 or something like that. I mean, it was a close game, pretty much. Um first quarter. Uh second quarter, Lenore Ryan went on a like a little four-goal run. It was like a four-minute lapse of defense, uh a lack of whatever it was. Yeah. Um, Lenore Ryan was coming, uh, initiating from X, wrap around, get to GLE, and shoot that you know, high degree of angle, that high degree of difficulty angle shot. Yeah. And some of these shots were going in, and they were amazing shots to get in because the window was so small, but Lenore Ryan's a really good offensive team. Yeah. And then after that, Kev, it was uh quite the battle. I mean, these two teams are both great defensively and great offensively. Where wingate struggled was at the dot. Mancini for Lenore Ryan was over 80%. So Wingate did not have not have the ball very often. You know, they seemed like they were on defense all day. But one thing I liked about what I saw about Wingate was um, you know, when they did get the ball, they were very patient and worked their offense and was able to get shots off. And they they actually started chipping back a little bit. But that little four-goal, four-minute lapse in that second quarter was just enough.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Yeah, and we could keep people in Orion ahead. We've seen that in several games. In fact, there's a game or two that I this past week that we'll get into that that's exactly what happened again. So it's tough when you when you play a team of the caliber of LR, um, it's tough to make up that four or five goal deficit. Now, a team like Wingate, they've got the the team to do it, but you know, LR's defense is top-notch, too. So yeah, I uh you're right. When you get that's a it's a tough thing, tough road to to come back that many goals to a team like Lenore Ryan.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

And you know what? I gotta be honest, like the Bulldogs were very, very patient. You know, like a team, you know, sometimes when they get down, they want to rush through, they want to get, you know, they just want to get that goal back. They just gotta get that goal back, they gotta get it back. And Wingate didn't do that, they worked the offense, they yeah, they, you know, and they had their opportunities. Um, Mr. Pensipanny in goal, Kevin. He's really, really good, man. Yeah, he's really, really good. He stopped a breakaway fast break goal one-on-one, stopped the goal. I mean, and then there were two doorstep stops that he made. I mean, that's three goals that he stopped that most goalies in the country don't make. You know what I mean? Yeah, and then you know what, Lenore Line had added an empty netter at the end of the game. I don't count that. You know, it was an empty netter that was seven seconds left in regulation and gave him that fifth goal. But you know, Lenore had two EMOs, uh uh Wingate had one EMO. I mean, six on six, it was a pretty tight game, you know what I mean? So those guys, I have a feeling are gonna meet again in the SAC tournament. Yeah. Yeah. Everything goes right in the SAC the way I see it right now, be Limestone one, LR two, Wingate three, and then Newberry four, and then you got five and six, you know, who's gonna be? Is it gonna be Anderson? It could be, you know, and uh that would mean, you know, the Bulldogs would probably have to play in the first round. It would be the higher speed they would host, and then they'd have to play in the number two team, which would probably be Lenore Ryan. Yeah. So I have a feeling these two are gonna meet up again. Yeah, I see that. All right, any other games? Well, see, I mean, we what the we can talk about Tampa, the Rollins game. Did you just want to go over the room?

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Yeah, let's talk about that a little bit. That's probably the other really big one. That was actually, I think that was our game of the week. So let's talk about that one.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

Yeah, number three, Tampa, Deep Rollins, uh, number five, they were number five when they played. So Rollins has been going up and down the rankings the last couple of weeks. Uh like Wingate, they've been going up and down the last couple of weeks as well. Um, it was 16-11. Um, you know, I just think that from watching this game, you know, Tampa led 10-4 at halftime. They really like poured it on. It was like I just felt that Rollins could not get into their offensive mojo. I don't know. Did you watch the game?

SPEAKER_00 16:09

I didn't. I saw the score 10-4, and it really surprised me uh that it was that much of a gap. And the same thing. You just talked about it with Leno Ryan and Wingate, right? And this is even more a gap. This is a six-goal deferential that they've got to come back from. That's tough against a team like Tampa.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

Yeah, you know, Tampa's looking pretty good, man, lately. I mean, they're looking really good. Their defense is starting to sharpen up. They're still giving up a lot of double digits, you know. They're giving up 10, 11 goals a game, which I know JB would love to get that under 10, you know. But they're giving up those goals, but they're scoring. I mean, Tampa, Tampa to me right now, this is my notes. This is what I said. Rollins just couldn't find this offensive mojo. Tampa is a great team. High IQ, well coached, team that has a legitimate shot to get to the national championship, and the defense holdout. And the defense holdout. That's my that's my whole thing. I think Luca Mokado in goal, he he gives up goals, you know. I'm but but Tampa outscores most of the other teams. Right. You know, but Malcado gives up goals, and then I think there's times when he could wish that he could get some of those back. You know what I'm saying? Tampa was nine for 29 on the face-offs, Rollins was 10 for 29, Tampa had 50 shots to Rollins 35. Ground balls, Tampa ruled. They had 33 ground balls to Rollins' 14. Um, Tampa was 14 out of 15 for the clear. Rollins struggled a little bit clearing. They were only 17 for 22. Uh, Tampa was 0 for 1 on the EMO, and Rollins was 1 out of 3. Um, for the Tampa, Jackson Backshaw had three, Charlie Bolish had three. Nick Papa, Owen Miller had two goals apiece. And then uh Palmer Sanchez, Andrew Milani, and even Matthew Beto scored a goal, the long pole. Um they were just they were just dominant. Um Rollins, the same guys. Jack Johnstone, he's a really good player, man. He's tough. He's tough to he's tough, man. He had three and one. Uh Grant Hansen and Bolera and Charlie Metz, Logan Myers, William Metz, his brother, Ariciolo, Sam Mattson, and they all had a goal apiece. Catchadurian had 11 saves. But Tampa just looked better. They looked better to me. They looked like a better team. They just were sharp, strong, moving quickly, moving, you know, guys moving without the ball. The defense played pretty well. And uh, I don't know, man. Tampa looks good to me. They got they got a legitimate shot to get to the Natty, Kev. Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Okay. Uh why don't we move on to the games from last week? And let me start off with the one that was on Friday. Top 10 matchup, any 10 matchup, pace against a Delphi. A Delphi wins 12-6. And let me tell you, Danny, I think, in my humble opinion, Dylan Renner was the difference in this game. Even though it was a six-goal difference, he made several doorstep saves to really kind of stop the momentum for the on the set side. Like, not only stop the momentum, like if they got that goal, they're they're inching closer, and he shut it down. And then what does that do when he does that so many times from a just a morale standpoint? He had a season high, 15 saves, and was at a 71% save percentage for that game.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Yeah, yeah. You know what? A Delphi's defense was really good in this game. Yes. You know, this year I just I think their defense has been their Achilles heel a little bit. I mean, offensively, they're good. They're gonna score, you know. Logan Tucker. Yeah, they got boys that can score, you know. Yeah, yeah, you know, they got boys that can score and play and play hard and play aggressive, you know. But the defense to me has been a little suspect. They've had Dylan Renner. They've been relying on Dylan Renner, I think, a lot. And the defense really played well against Pace. They've forced Pace into shot clock violations, they forced them to go deep into the clock. Um Pace was having trouble getting decent looks, you know. They get a Delphi was getting sticks on sticks and stuff like that. Again, again on a Delphi as well, they do struggle at the dot. They they do struggle. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

Well, and that showed again because Pace won the face-off battle. They had 14 face-offs to a Delphi's eight. The other thing is Pace won the ground ball battle 43 to 26. So you'd think with those kind of stats that the game would have been closer. And you're right, defense was great. But uh, I think Dylan Renner was the extra difference to really keep pace at bay. Interestingly, I turned the game on when it was already six to one. A Delphi, you see Adelphi scored three goals in the first four minutes of the game, and then added three more in that first quarter before Pace even scored. So we talked about the a run by the Norrine in the second. A Delphi had the run in the first, up by five, uphill battle from there for pace.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

Yeah, again, again, I gotta give all the credit to you know that that Panther defense was really good, man. They were very good, like I said, forcing them deep into the clock, you know, just sliding, making good, just they played really solid, a really solid game. I think that might have been a Delphi's best. All around game so far. Because I've watched them play that movie five times already. I think you're right.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

I think you're right, especially because Pace is a very, very, very good team, and their offense is very good with guys like Camp and Xavier. They are very good. And to be able to shut Xavier down to one goal.

unknown 22:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

I mean forget Danny's only a sophomore, you know. He's still learning, but he's good, man. He's a big boy. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

So I mean, Adelphi, Kyle Steinbach, three goals. First game back for him. Remember, we thought he wasn't coming back, and he even DM'd was like, I'm coming back, boys, can't wait. Right. And now this is the first game back. So hats off to him. First game back, three goals against a team like Pace. Logan Tucker, two goals, two assists. Eamon Hall, two goals, one assist. And Braden Donovan, two goals, one assist. On the pace side, Ryan Kemp had two goals and one assist. So and then several guys had had one goal for them. So it was uh it was Delphi, just like I said, I the lot of players had some good stats on the offensive side, but we talked about I think the defense was the difference there. All right. I've got two peach belt games I want to talk about. One more in specific because I got to watch the whole thing, and that's Flagler UAH, Alabama Huntsville. Did you watch any of that game?

SPEAKER_02 23:21

I did not.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Danny, Alabama Huntsville wins this 17-15, and it was somewhat of a game of runs, once again. Flagler in the first quarter was not winning face-offs, and they had no answers for the Charger Cutters early on. And UAH went up 4-1 with 5-09 left in the first. Flagler gets uh two goals back and it's 5-3 after one, and then it's 9-8 flagler at half. So Flagler comes back, they keep the momentum after three, they're up 13-11. You're like, okay, this is the usually what we see. This is what I expected. I thought Flagler was going to win, even though I knew Alabama Huntsville has a very good team. Uah scores five goals in a row in the fourth to go up 16-13 with 601 left. And there's been some, there were some great goals. Jake Schram for UAH with a great diving goal to give UAH this lead. I mean, it was Sports Center top 10 type of goal. It was really, really good.

unknown 24:29

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

And at that time, Flagler only had had two offensive possessions in the fourth by six minutes. Two offensive possessions. Um, but you know, they they fight back. Um, they get it within two with 229 left, but Alabama Huntsman wins a face-off, and Shram finds Pete Fabrizio with 124 left to make it 1714 and go back up by three. McCusas scores a BTB from uh Trace McDonald pass to cut it to 1715 with 54 seconds left. This is when it gets even more interesting. You're like, okay, maybe there's a chance UAH gets two 30-second penalties with 44 seconds left.

unknown 25:14

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 25:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

So Flagler's up six to four, you know, in in personnel on the on the man up, but they couldn't deliver. And let me tell you, it got chippy out there. It was chippy. This is a peach belt game that both teams wanted. First game in conference play. And but UAH, they pulled it out. I think the difference may have been shots on goal. UAH had seven more than Flagler 28 to 21. And the reason why I say that is Flagler's goalie, Nate Lair, had 11 saves to Tommy Pierce 6.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

How many shots on goal? How many shots did he face? So that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

Shots on goalie faced 28 versus the 21-4, just enough of a volume above to make that 17-15 difference.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

Flagler's a scrappy squad, man. But tell you what, we're gonna meet again in the peach belt in the peach belt tournament.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

But hit so that's what's funny. I would have I would have picked, if we were picking last week, I would have picked Flagler for this game. And this next game, Monte Valo against Lander, I would have picked Lander. Montevallo wins 1916.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

I wouldn't have guessed that either. I brought I probably would have picked Lander as well.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

They went up big, Danny, in this game and held on. They scored, Montevelo scored five goals in each of the first three quarters to go up 15-7. 15-7 against Lander.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Yeah, it's tough to dig yourself out of that one.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

Lander scores nine goals in the fourth quarter.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

Oh my lord. But the Falcons games.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

I'm telling you, the Falcons scored four in the fourth. That's all they needed to do. What a game. Yeah. And get to some of these stats. So turnovers. Lander had 15, Montevallo had 33. And there was one quarter. I think it was the fourth quarter where Montevallo just had a whole bunch of them. But face-offs, talk about making the the difference. You flip it now. Lander had eight face-off wins to Montevallo's 30. So I mean, there's a there's those are the two things that almost make it. And the game's 1916. So those are the almost the they even each other out on those stats. Crazy stats when you look at the difference in them.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

Those are crazy stats for sure.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

Montevallo, uh Zach Labarge had five goals. Matthew Boas had four goals. Trevain Hunter, three goals, four assists. Nice days. And then Lander, Kyle DiCrespino had seven goals and one assist. He had five goals in the fourth quarter. That's quite the day. I'll tell you the battles that that the these four teams, we talked about this in the conference preview. Shorter leaves this year from the from the peach belt. They're down to four teams in the peach belt conference. These four teams, every game, conference game, you've got to watch.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

Yeah, it means so much to them. It really means much. What's gonna happen next year? You know, what are they gonna have to do?

SPEAKER_00 28:44

I well they go to automatic qualifiers, they won't get an automatic qualifier. They're gonna have to get two other teams in their conference to get an automatic qualifier, or they all join another peach belt. Yeah, so join another. I would love to say the peach see the Peach Belt stay and they find some other teams. I think that would be awesome because it's just we talk about it all the time. You know, though these teams, they're not at the a Delphi, Lenore, Ryan level. They're even they're probably even maybe a step or two below that. But when they play each other, it is damn good lacrosse, it is tough lacrosse, it is scrappy lacrosse. No team wants to lose, and you see that in most conferences, but when you got these these four teams are so close to each other in in play and ability, it's just you just don't know what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02 29:39

I couldn't agree with you more. When you said, you know what, they're competitive, it's competitive lacrosse. We're getting after it. Yeah, they may not be at the same level as the uh you know the the Tampas and the limestones of the world and the Adelphis of the world, but they still play damn good with Frost. And those games mean a lot to these kids. It is especially especially conference games, Kev. Conference games mean a lot. So you know what? And it means a lot to every conference team, and they go out, they want to win that at least that conference game.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

And their fans at these Peach Belt games are fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

Yeah. We've been watching the Peach Belt since its inception, and we remember I remember their first uh championship game, how many people there, and they were screaming and going nuts, and yeah, they love their lacrosse down there. They really, really do. You know what? I like you, I would love to see the peach belt stay around. These two, these four teams, they're like really close together as far as talent is concerned and coaching, and they're really the parody in that conference is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

Can you imagine them at a tournament? One coach each from the peach belt, all going for the same guy, same few guys to try to recruit. Not that it totally happens, but I could just see that they're you know, they're it happens all the time.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

Who gets to that kid first, you know? You know, who gets that biggest piece of pie, you know what I'm saying? But you know what, they're all friends, they all yeah, yeah, you know, they talk to each other programs, yeah, and they support each other. Yes, they do, yeah. Yes, they do. You know, they support each other down there, and and it's just I love the conference. Again, I just hope it stays around. And uh I love watching Peach Belt competition. They really do get after it, it's really competitive across, like you said. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 31:33

Let's move on to another conference, and another conference I think could be somewhat of a crapshoot of who wins it, especially after you saw how this game ended. And that's the GLVC and U Indy against Rockhurst. Rockhurst pulls it out in overtime 9-8. Upset alert. Upset alert. I'm telling people right now if you only have a few minutes to watch a game, go on GLVC network, find this on demand, go to the last three minutes of the game. It'll switch as far as momentum in a minute and a half.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

I watched this game. I thought it was a really, really well-played game by both teams. Yep. I thought it was a defensive battle. Both defenses played very, very well, made it difficult for both teams to score goals. It was a low-scoring game, 9-8. It went into overtime. It was it was a barn burner, as we like to say, you know. It was, it was, you know, it's GLBC action, and you know, we haven't spoken much about Rockhurst at all.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

No, and here's my last note I wrote in here. They're a very quiet nine and two, and five and oh in GLBC. They lost their first two games. Well, three and oh in conference games. They played two others, but three-o technically in conference. They lost their first two games to Tampa and St. Leo, and then they went on a 9-1, nine-game straight win winning streak. But lost since, no? No, crazy, crazy. But and and here's what's in it, you're here's what's interesting about this. I actually was watching this game. Uh I think it was the uh it was I was watching uh, I think the St. A's Bentley game, and I had this one on my my tablet on the side, and I'm watching both going back and forth, and I'm seeing this game go back and forth as far as who's in the lead, who's not, you know. Rockhurst let it half 3-2, and then you indie answers, and they're up 5-4 after three. And then you see, I saw that you indie was up by two with 136 left. They were up eight, six. And I'm like, okay, I don't need to watch that game anymore. It wasn't until the next day, Danny, that I realized Rockhurst scores two goals, one at like 55 seconds, and then another one with seven two seconds left to tie the ball game and go to overtime. And that that second goal, so Rockhurst scores with 51 seconds left to get it within one. They win the ensuing face-off, but they turn the ball over after the clear with a loose ball. The ball the player just kind of lost control of the ball. UND picks it up, but then Casey Carlson's low pass is not picked up by the defender. And Rockhurst gets it back out of bounds. They call timeout, seven seconds left. Hawks call timeout. Ricky Bloom brings it in from the left wing, and no one really picks him up. And he scores about 12 yards out with two seconds left. So now you go to overtime, Rockhurst wins the face-off, and McConnell shoots the game winner in a transition unsettled goal. I never would have expected Undy, especially after a defensive battle as it was, to be that out of position on defense. I'm almost, I don't know how to explain it. I mean, I'm what I'm not an X and O's guy, but like it's almost like in psychologically, you're like, oh crap. You know what I'm saying? I mean, the momentum was on Rocker's side.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

Yeah, pretty much. But there was like there's like a five-minute period in that fourth quarter where you indie, the momentum went to them. And when Tristan Schaefer, when Tristan Schaefer buried one, and they led by two. With a minute and 36. I was like, okay, this is a big face-off. This is a big face-off. Rockhurst won the face-off. Who won that face-off? And Nate Adamson buried buried it. And we were tied, like, what, what? Like, what? What just happened here? You know, it was pretty, it was a pretty good ending. Um uh Jonah McConnell for Rockhurst, four goals and the game winner. And the game winner. Linus Toward, we talked about him last week, two goals. Uh, Ricky Bloom, Nate Adamson, Tyler Smith, each added one. Uh, for you, Indy, Justin Williams had two goals and an assist. Nathan Lamb had two goals and an assist. Kisten Schaefer had one and one. Uh, Dylan Braddock, Owen Braddock, each added one. Um 39 shots to 39 shots. Yeah. 18 turnovers to 19 turnovers.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

Dead even stats, practically.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

Nine cause turnovers to five cause turnovers. 12 face-off wins for Rockhurst, nine face-off wins for Undy. Four EMOs for Rockhurst. Big. Two for UND. 45 ground balls for Rockhurst to 30. I mean, talk about as even a game as you could possibly get.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

And then look at the goalie play. The goalie play, Brock Alila, 14 saves, 8 goals against, and Casey Carlson, 12 saves, 9 goals against. Both had really good games. Above 50%. Well above 50%.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

Tell you, man, Casey Carlson might, he might have a shot at like an all-American this year. He just plays really well. He's been just he's been very impressive to me this year. Yeah, but but Rockalila was pretty damn impressive in that game, too. Wait, Rockhurst is undefeated in GLVC right now. And they're gonna we're gonna be the one seed for that tournament. Well we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 37:56

That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_02 37:58

Something crazy happens.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

They have not played Lewis or Maryville yet. And Maryville has, you know, both those teams have to play Rockhurst too. It's really interesting. That's why I find this is gonna come down to the wire, I think, and on in seeding for the tournament.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

And you ending, you know, losing that game, you know, might hurt them in southern region play on NCAA time. Yeah. You know, because they were on a little roll there. They were looking good, they were playing well. We didn't give them much credence in the beginning of the season, you know. And they were proving us wrong. Yeah, and and they've been playing well like the last month or so. They really played well. I feel like Carlson and Gold is really playing phenomenal, lights out. And uh this was a surprising, surprising win to me. And I was surprised.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

Uh, we have never spoken to Coach Kevin Kelly, but I am sure he wants to remain deadly silent as a team. Let no one think what they can do. They're nine and two.

SPEAKER_02 39:01

Yeah, yeah, man. Nine and two. That's it's impressive, Rockhurst. I mean, and with that win over you, Indy, man, that's a big win for Rockhurst.

SPEAKER_00 39:13

It is. Remember, they were I think they were co-champions, and they won it last year. They were co-champions for the season. So we should not not expect it from them. I just thought it was so tough when we were going through it. Who did they lose? It was tough to tell. A lot of turnover, but they have a big roster. Guys are stepping up. Guys are stepping up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:35

All right.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

Good for Rockhurst. Good game, guys. Good game. Another great game, another overtime game. Florida Southern, Emory Riddle. Florida Emmy Riddle pulls it out 15-14 in overtime. Another one where they had to come from behind. Did you watch this game? I watched a little bit of it, yeah. I caught like the end of it. So Florida Southern was outscored by Emmy Riddle 6-1 in the second quarter, but then they flip it around in the third and they score seven goals to Emmy Riddle's one. It was 12-9 after three, Florida Southern. And then Isaiah Hines of uh Emmy Riddle strikes first blood in the fourth the inch closer to make it 12-10. But the Mox answer to keep the three-goal lead uh with 12-11 left. They trade goals, uh, and then uh Emmy Riddle gets it within one. Uh they score two in one minute ten seconds to get within one, and then there's an unsettled goal to tie it in the end, and so then they go to overtime. So they were down with a few minutes left, three goals, and they score three to bring it to overtime. And then Emory Riddle starts starts with possession uh in overtime, but after a few wide shot attempts, uh the shot is saved. Florida Southern gets their chance, they clear the ball. Coach Ward calls a timeout, but after the timeout, the mocks turn it over with 237 left. And then uh Emory Riddle brings it down, and Pete Abbas scores from the right right wing to give them their first ever win against Florida Southern.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

Yeah, yeah. Hey, Emory Riddle. Um, Coach Jez had those boys very poised. Yes, but they were very poised, they didn't get crazy when they were losing, they kind of just kept chipping at that stone, playing solid lacrosse, just playing high IQ lacrosse, Kev. That coach has done wonders there in a very what couple of weeks, really. Yeah. You know, he's just it, yeah. Come on. What what look at what Emory Riddle has done since Coach Jez has been there. I mean, he's just, I mean, he lost to Anderson and Flagler in the beginning of the season, and he lost to Belmont Abbey by one.

SPEAKER_00 42:14

Everybody like I said, if you watch, they're on it, they're on a new trajectory. I think it's starting to, I wouldn't even say buy into him. I think the players probably bought into him quickly, but it's just understanding what he's doing. And I think part of it is like what you said, keeping their poise in a game like this. Florida Southern is a damn good team. Really good team. They've got a lot of weapons. Michael Simone uh in goal, they've got Ride and Robin showed, they've got everything on offense and defense. Jacob Chiz at face off X. I mean, they're they've got everything they need, and they just stuck with them. But here's what's interesting flip this around. We always talk about Mercy being the Cardiac Kids. The Mox are the Cardiac Kids of the South, Danny. They have five one goal games this season, starting with their win over Wingate, first game of the season. Two of those games were in overtime.

SPEAKER_02 43:21

It's just crazy. Coach Ward's getting some gray hairs, man. Getting some gray hairs. No one likes them one goal when with those coaches, man. It just plays on them, man. It takes a little piece of their life away. But, you know, like again, you said Florida Southern's a great team, but what I saw out of Emory Riddle, I saw a team that, you know, personified their coach a little bit. Looked like they've been there. They kind of played poised, yeah, can play rushed, didn't, you know, try to do things that they couldn't do when they got down. They just kept chipping away at that stone. And you know what? Isaiah Hines, he's a really good. Good player for Emmy Little. He had five five goals and three assists. Coleman Jacobs had four and two. He had a really good game. Pete Abbas had three and one. Christian Hoffer, two and two. Reedka, six saves. And Geringer came in in the second half. And uh they switched goalies in the second half, and he had five saves. He let one in right away, and then he was like really good for the rest of the game. Uh Frankie Morrissey, 11 for 31 at the face-off dot for Florida Southern. Uh Tommy Frank had four goals. Bryden Robichad two and three. Caleb Cook, two and one, Brendan Glassford, two and oh, Yammo, Nolan Ty, McClusker, each added one. Mikey Simone, like you said, eight saves out of 23 shots on goal. It's pretty good. That's a pretty good day. Uh Jacob Chiz was phenomenal again, 18 for 21 at the dot. And Luke Hendrickson was four from 11. They combined. So Florida Southern loses a tough one. And Emory Riddle seems to be trending upwards, and they go to 2-0 in conference play.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

So now you look at teams in Sunshine State like Emory Riddle and Florida Southern. Not Florida Southern, Emory Riddle and St. Leo. Playing teams like Florida Southern and the other big boys, Florida Tech, Rollins, Tampa. Can they do some upsets? Are they going to get in the tournament? It's it's really interesting. That's another one.

SPEAKER_02 45:31

Emery Riddle faces the gauntlet now. Yeah. Because they have Tampa coming up, Florida Tech, Rollins, and St. Leo. So three out of the next four games are all ranked, all ranked opponents. Yeah. So if they can be competitive and get one out of those, you know.

SPEAKER_00 45:51

Right. Right. I think that's what they want to see. They want to make these games close. Give themselves a chance, just like they did against Florida Southern.

SPEAKER_02 46:00

I'd like to see them play against that St. Leo team. That's going to be Yeah. That'll be a that'll be a good game, Emory Riddle and St. Leo. Yeah. Because I think they're both vying for the same spot in that Sunshine State Conference tournament. So I like what Jez is doing there, man. I like what he's doing there. Now the thing is how how are you going to get recruited because you're going to need a special kind of player at Emory Riddle because it's an aeronautical school. Yeah, an engineering school. You know, does it does it lower the pool of players? You know what I'm saying? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 46:40

There's other schools in Division III, RIT always at the top. They're an engineering school. They've got a lot of different majors. My son went there. They got a lot of unique majors. I'm sure, I'm sure there's other majors also at Emory Riddle that can pull in. It's not just pure engineering that you can get it. But that is the you want to go to Emery Riddle because of their aeronautics and their engineering. Same thing with like Florida Tech, right? You're going there mostly because of the tech part, not because of their history major or their economics major. So be interesting to see. Yeah. All right. Um another classic game, Danny. Always, always a classic matchup. Mercyhurst against Seton Hill. Number 15 against number 13. Mercyhurst pulls it out 13-12. Did you watch this game?

SPEAKER_02 47:30

I did not, but I uh I want to watch it. You know, I want to go on demand because there's a they're always great games, those two teams.

SPEAKER_00 47:38

Here's what I would say. First of all, snow and rain at Mercyhurst. Never got the field covered with. I mean, it was mainly snow, I mean mainly rain, but you could see in the camera shots now and then it looked like sleet a little bit, just not fun weather. And it kind of was a game of runs that Mercyhurst, excuse me, Mercyhurst started, and Seton Hill could not close at the end. Mercyhurst goes up 3-1 after one. They were playing really well, they were playing fast and moving the ball really well in that first half. And they go up 5-1. But Seton Hill, and this is what's funny about this. Seton Hill's goalie was making stops, but the Lakers were getting like rebounds and scoring. So some of it was you can't always say it was luck, but it was just kind of interesting. It was like almost like you would think, okay, they got the save. Seton can come back. No, there's a rebound score. But Seton Hill fights back, and after being down 5'1, they make it 5'3 at half. So they start to come back. Mercy Hurst breaks it open to begin with in the second half. But once again, Seton Hill fights back and it's 11-8 after three with Mercy Hurst in the lead. And then Cage Williams of Seton Hill, he opens a scoring in the fourth to make it 11-9. My question right then is can they get it under two? This is where they were having trouble. And they did. Braden Lock there gets a pass in the middle and puts it in the back of the net to move it to within one. But Ethan Lanymore with a no-look finish makes it 12-10 with 1048 left. Lanymore scores again with 727 left to make it go back up to three goals. So there's a few mini runs. And then Seton Hill starts scoring. And they get it with a Colin Soccer goal to within one with 20 seconds. So it's 1312. So basically two minutes left, and they're within one. And you're thinking, here we go. Seton Hill had the ball with 33 seconds left after a Mercyhurst shot clock violation, but they just couldn't capitalize. And that's how it ended. That's another one, you know. It was it's interesting. So here's the the bottom line Mercyhurst was always in the lead. Always in the lead, and always seemed like it was two goals. And Seton Hill was just about climbing up, gunning close, and then they then Mercyhurst would score again, you know. So you almost I think if you're uh a Mercyhurst fan, there's probably moments during that game think, okay, we got this. And then a few minutes later, Seton Hill brings them within one. It was it was another classic uh matchup between these two. Um Mercyhurst, uh Ethan Lanymore had three goals, two assists, Chase Petke, two goals, two assists, and Colin Tardiff, two goals and one assist. And then the Seton Hill side, Carter Green, two goals, two assists, Colin Soccer, three goals, and Wade Brunell, two goals and one assist. So really close game, really fun to watch. Um, I I would recommend looking at it if you get a chance because it's typical bad weather.

SPEAKER_02 51:03

Yeah. You know what? The whole Northeast, like the last two weeks, has just been horrible. Rain and just a lot of games and rain and snow and sleep. But you know what? Mercy Hearst is six and three, Seton Hill is six and three. Mercy Hearst now holds that little edge in conference. They hold that little edge in conference. I think Seton Hill's still a really good team. Um, I think they'll probably meet each other again in the conference tournament again. It looks like let's see if Seton Hill can pull off a win next time because they seem to be just on the losing end, you know, too many times to Mercy Hearst.

SPEAKER_00 51:41

Well, that was it last year, but two years ago it flipped, right? So I think this year, like we've seen in the NE10, like we've seen in so many other conferences, there's teams that are so close to each other and know each other so well. Right, throw all the records aside. Like it's gonna be a close game, and it it could go one and one. You know, it's it's never gonna be a total blowout. Like it's never gonna be like I one team wins three uh three games that year. It's gonna be close.

SPEAKER_02 52:11

So like you said, they know each other, they play each other often enough, and yeah, always a good game between those two guys.

SPEAKER_00 52:21

The last game I have on the on the list here, Danny, is Saint A's against Bentley. Did not see that game, Kev. There's too much going on this weekend. St. Anselm pulls it out 17-8. I never would have guessed that. Bentley beat them, as you remember, beat them in their first game this year, but it was a non-conference game, and this counted in the conference records.

unknown 52:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 52:55

And what's interesting is they both start off, they both had carbon copy goals on both sides with a dodge from Ecton a wraparound goal from Creese to make it 1-1. After one, St. A's is up four to two, and Jackson Tinsley, the Falcons' goalie, is keeping it close for them because I think there's a lot of good ball movement on St. A's side. They got a lot of different things. Finally, it just broke out. St. Ansem took over control in the second quarter with checks, with rides to win the ball back, with face-off wins. They went on a 6-2 run to make a 10-forward half. In fact, Danny, Saint Ay's outshot Bentley 31 to 14 in the first half.

SPEAKER_02 53:48

Jeez.

SPEAKER_00 53:50

So uh it was just one of those games where St. A's basically won every quarter in the goal scoring. It was 12-5 after three. Bentley scores first in both the third and the fourth quarters, but Saint A's always matched it, and they always, you know, seem to just get a little bit farther ahead. And then by the fourth quarter, early in the fourth quarter, they had a seven-goal lead, and they were content to bleed that time down on every possession, you know, with a seven-goal lead. And so that's how it just became. Um, and and to be honest, in that after Bentley's first goal in the fourth, they really couldn't generate anything on offense, even on man up. They just couldn't do it. And it was it was just almost a clinic by St. A's during this whole game, which you would that's what kind of surprised me because Bentley beat St. A's. Bentley's a very good team, and St. A's just took this whole game over, controlled it both on the offense and the defensive side.

SPEAKER_02 54:53

Yeah, and they and they dominated the face-off because Cam didn't have the greatest game. He was only at 39%.

SPEAKER_00 55:00

Which is another thing that surprised me.

SPEAKER_02 55:02

Yeah, yeah. You know, and he had a great game. He was 15 out of 22 for almost 70 percent. When they put Quinn Gannon in, he was three for five, he was 60 percent. When they put Evans Belane in, he he won his face-off one for one. So um at least had four kids going to take face-offs. Uh, you know, so Cam was seven for eighteen, Falton McKinnon was two for seven, uh Neitis was zero for two at the X, and Jake Tyska was zero for one. So there's a big difference right there. You know, St. A's was getting a lot of offensive possessions. And you know what? They're an offensive-oriented team, Kev, St. A's. They're an offensive-oriented team. They they they they score and they can score in bunches, and they have a lot of different guys that can score too. Yeah, yeah. You know, you just can't like lock yourself on Larson because then Lombardi's gonna get one, or Davis is gonna grab one, or Andrews, the other Larson, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:02

Right.

SPEAKER_02 56:03

Like you just can't lock on one, so pick your poison with uh with St. A's. I think St. A's are a really good team. I think they're gonna be in the NCAA's, I think they're gonna be tough in the NE10. You know, I think they're gonna be a tough out for any team that plays them. I agree. I agree. The following segment of In the Creed is sponsored by Laxjobs.us. Find LaCross Jobs, find lacrosse people. Laxjobs.us is the number one source to browse and post lacrosse job opportunities on the web. If you're looking to work in lacrosse, at laxjobs.us, you can browse across job opportunities, upload a resume, create a Twitter profile, and be seen by hundreds of potential employers. You can sign up for email job alerts as well. Are you looking to fire lacrosse people? At laxjobs.us, you can post a job to be released to a network of qualified job speakers. And the best part is that laxjobs.us is completely free to use. Our goal is simple. Fill lacrosse roles with lacrosse people. Visit us today at laxjobs.us and follow us at laxjobs underscore and join our community of professionals, laxjobs.us. Find lacrosse jobs, find lacrosse people, laxjobs.us.

Games to Watch

SPEAKER_00 57:30

All right, Danny. Time to turn to the games to watch this week. Since we missed last week's episode, we typically try to even put in Wednesday games that are gonna be out before the next episode drops. We weren't able to do that. So what's interesting is there are a lot of good games tomorrow night. We're recording this Tuesday, April 2nd, Wednesday, April 3rd. There's just a plethora, if I can use an SAT vocabulary word for you, a plethora of great games tomorrow. So let me start off with one that I think is really, really interesting, and that's Assumption against St. Michael's.

unknown 58:13

St.

SPEAKER_00 58:14

Mike's is five and two. Assumption beat Robert Wesley, and St. Mike's did not. This is a critical NE10 matchup for conference play. Absolutely. It's a huge matchup for that.

SPEAKER_02 58:29

Assumption is gonna be a game. Quite the team this year.

SPEAKER_00 58:33

Who would have none? Who would have thunk, you know? Well, we talked about it. We talked about what we thought at St. Mike's thing. They can they do what they did last year and bring back the magic? And they are. But the sleeper team really in the NE10, you've got to point to assumption.

SPEAKER_02 58:48

Yeah, 100%. So that is a cool game that's definitely got big uh implications there. Yep. And uh looking for that Lemoyne spot, you know? Yeah, looking for that open any 10 spot now, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:01

Yep. What else? What teams are there's other games that this Wednesday, what do you got? Yeah, can you hear me? Yeah. Okay. Uh what other games on the on tomorrow are you looking at?

SPEAKER_02 59:18

Well, uh a top 20 matchup. Uh number 20 St. Leo faces number 18 Florida Southern at St. Leo. I think that's a big Sunshine State conference game. They're both ranked. They're looking for conference spots, proceeding. This is a big game in the Sunshine State Conference.

SPEAKER_00 59:38

Right, and Florida Southern coming off that loss to Emory Riddle. Yeah, they don't want to lose again in the Sunshine State Conference. And St. Leo is playing really well.

SPEAKER_02 59:48

Yeah, they lost till two weeks ago, and then they came back and won last week. So I think that's gonna be one of the better games this week. Too bad it's tomorrow, and then we're not gonna know about it so I know. I know.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:03

Well, and here's another one. Talk about teams that are doing well in conference, but aren't doing that well overall. Belmont Abbey against Barton tomorrow night. Belmont Abbey is six and five, but they've won five in a row. Barton is five and six. Both are three and oh in conference, just like Mount Olive. This game is at Belmont Abbey. This is critical because I think both of them are gonna want a matchup against Mount Olive, too. Because they've got to play them going forward. This is a big game in the conference. I like the Crusaders tomorrow in that one. Belmont Abbey at home. I I think it's a pick'em game. I don't, I just don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:48

I you know, and then and then Barton has North Greenville on Saturday. That's another, another big Conference Carolinas game for both squads.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:57

Conference Carolinas has been very tough to pick. Gauge, gauge, right? Gauge, yes, perfect word. Another uh another SAT vocabulary word. You you got it right off the bat there, my friend. I got another one. Walsh Malone. Battle of Canton in the G Mac. Malone is 3-0 in conference play. Walsh is at 2-2, but Malone's never beaten Walsh. Of course, this is their second season, so they only have one real game to go into. But that and these are two young coaches trying to match wits with Slater against Campbell. This is gonna be a good game. I like Malone in this one. They've been playing well, actually, really well. Yeah, they have. They have. I think this is they have a good shot at beating Walsh this year. But Walsh beat them pretty handily last year. Like uh at least by 10 goals in last year.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:58

Last year, the new chapter. New close the book on last year. We open up a new chapter this year. Now that's always, you know, that's that'll be a good game.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:07

Battle of Canton.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:08

I love it. The Battle of Canton. We don't talk about that too much either here as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:14

Well, any other games tomorrow you're looking at? No, that's about it. It's kind of like a light week. I've got one one Bentley Pace tomorrow night. Yeah, that's a big game. They both do not want to lose two in a row in conference play. Top 20 matchup, number 13, Bentley, number 11 Pace. Yeah, so all those games by the time this podcast comes out will already have been decided. So let's move on to games later on in the week that won't have been decided to give our listeners something to look forward to. Friday, 5 April, I've got CMU against CUI. It's the battle of the RMAC initials, Danny. Colorado Mesa against Concordia. Colorado Mesa owned them their last game. So, like, I'm just wondering, what did Concordia learn from that? What are they gonna do? Interestingly, Concordia has to follow up this game with a game against Westminster on Sunday. So they go from Grant Grand Junction, Colorado to Salt Lake. This is the travel tribulations of the Armac.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:27

Yep, yep. And CUI's gonna have a tough weekend because both of those teams are really, really good. Yeah, I totally agree. What couple of games? And Westminster has been playing really well. Oh, yeah. Okay, what other games are you looking at? That's it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:44

All right, let me let me let me run through some other ones for you, okay? Um Thomas More, Davison Elkins. It's a new program versus a rebuilding program, both in the GMAC. Thomas More is at 0-7, not starting off too well in their first season, understandably. Davison Elkins is four and seven, but really they've beaten a lot of the new programs like Virginia State, Holy Family. They lost to Tiffin, though. So can what can Thomas More do? I think it'll be interesting to see what Thomas More can bring against David and Elkins. Here's some other big games in my book. Lander Flagler on Saturday, April 6th. This is the championship rematch, Danny, from last year. Both lost last week to Peach Belt Foes. And like we talked about just a second ago in the Bentley Pace game, neither one of these teams wants to go 0-2 in conference play. That's gonna be a really good game. And then the other one I've got is Lewis Maryville on Saturday. This is another rematch. Meryville won the first one. This one's now at Lewis. Maryville is a good game for both. Maryville's at 8-2 and 1-0 in conference. Lewis is in 7-3 and 1-0 in conference. So the records are damn damn close. With Rockhurst beating you Indy, this is the match to stay even with the Hawks. Now the Hawks are 3-0 in conference. So they're not going to be total numbers, but to be undefeated to go up against Rockhurst. Big, big game. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:23

You know, we're in the heart of conference play now, Kev. You know, a loss here, a win there could mean a spot, a seating difference, a home game. It means a lot. These these teams, now it's conference play, and it's got meaningful conference games. So it's going to be a good one. I agree with

Game of the Week

SPEAKER_02 1:05:42

that one.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:24

All right, Danny, let's talk about our game of the week for this week. And the one we picked is number 18, Florida Southern, against number six Rollins.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:39

You know, um Florida Southern coming off that stinging loss, but has been playing well. The uh the Cardiac Kids of the South, right? One goal games. You know, Rollins losing the other night. Um, you know, just this is uh a big, big, big game in the SSC. It really is. And it's a game that Florida Southern can win.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:07

Yes. Yes. They gotta play St. Leo like we talked about. They play them tomorrow, they play them Wednesday. And actually, Rollins is playing Lynn on Wednesday. So they both have games before they meet up on Saturday. Neither one can look beyond their Wednesday matchup, though, in the Sunshine State Conference. So they're gonna have a quick turnaround to play each other. They are playing at Florida Southern, correct? Uh correct. So that gives them a little bit of advantage there in their own home turf. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:53

Mikey Simone's got to come up big and Jacob Chiz at the dot. You know, it gives him a real legitimate shot.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:02

It does. Michael Simone does have to have a big game against their their offensive firepower of Rollins with John Stone, Hansen, Mikey Berkman. And then, and he's got to match the saves of Shahikadorian.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:19

Yeah, it's not going to be an easy one, but it's a game that's winnable because they have Jacob Chiz. If you can win face-offs and get offensive, you know, uh Florida Southern moves the ball well. They're deep at midfield, they got good attackmen. They're a good squad, man. I just I wouldn't take them lightly.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:38

I you can't. Because look at we've seen Rollins in several games this year let teams stay in the game. Look, yeah, look a little tight, right? Yep. Yep. Like they haven't played a full a full four quarters like they did against a Delphi when they beat them. Right, exactly. And if you give Florida Southern a quarter, if you give them some time, they can do go for runs. It happened against Emory Riddle. It can happen. And against other teams, they've gone on runs. So it's gonna be a good game.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:13

Yeah. Florida Southern's been going up and down a little bit. They went up to 12, 14, 16. They've been banging with that loss uh, you know, a couple of weeks dropped them to 18. But you know what? This should be a good game and a good game uh of the week pick for us.

Shout Outs

SPEAKER_00 1:09:32

All right, Danny. Time for shout-outs.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:37

What do you have? Well, Kev, I only have one shout-out. Um this is a good one. It has to go out to Willie Greco, Attackman, Wingate Bulldogs, who stepped into number two all-time assist man in Division II. So it's a remarkable, remarkable thing. And I got to talk to Willie's dad. Um, and I said to him, I said, you know, can I can we go on the record for the podcast? And he was like, sure, absolutely. And uh such a humble man. He is, he's a great guy.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:17

So, you know, the first thing I said, I had to both both Willie's parents are are great, great people.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:22

I don't really know them that well, yeah, to be honest with you. I think this was maybe the second time I've actually met him, you know. And he's he's quiet, kind of stays by himself a little bit. And uh I went over and we started talking, and I said, uh, let me ask you a question. I said, and this is gonna be on the record for the podcast. So and uh I said, how does it make you feel as a dad to know that your son has been doing what he's been doing on the lacrosse field, setting records, setting NCAA records, attackman of the year two years in a row in Division II, just like just the accolade, one after another after another. How does that make you feel? And Kev looked at me and he had like a smile that was a humble, but like I had that smirk to him. He's like, it feels pretty damn good, he said. But he said it humbly, you know what I mean? Like he said it humbly. Yeah, and I said, Well, what makes Willie so good? What did he do? Because you guys come from Georgia, and Georgia's not really a hotbed for lacrosse. And he said, Well, originally him and his wife were from guess where? Long Island. Long Island. He moved to Georgia, and both him and his wife both started a Boys and Girls Youth League in Georgia. So they took their Long Island lacrosse routes with them down to Georgia and helped start a youth program down there. That's awesome with his wife with the girls and him with the boys. Now, Willie's got an older brother, and his older brother, and um uh and Mr. Greco told me it was mostly indoor kind of stuff, you know, kind of box lacrosse at that time. And I was like, well, really blown away. Because now it's box lacrosse in Georgia, you know. And he said, you know, Willie just he just excelled at the game right away from a very young age. And and I said, Well, what makes him different from everybody else that you he said to me about his work ethic? He said, at a young age, Willie was the last one on the field and the first one on the field. You'd always hear boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. What was that? Willie playing wall ball, 8 30, 9 o'clock at night, you know, Willie outside, you know, shooting at the net, Willie going for runs, Willie hitting the gym. He said he was the hardest worker out of all of the kids that he coached, and his older brother, too.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:08

He said he, you know, he's well he has a twin sister, too, that plays at Linenwood or played. I don't know if she's uh playing there this year. I don't know if she graduated or not, but talking about two talents.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:20

Yeah, and you know, and just to be able to talk to him about his son and all the accolades, and it was just a really nice conversation with Mr. Greco. He's a really nice guy. I had no idea that they're originally they were from Long Island. So now you start to see the the the correlation of lacrosse and then coming from Georgia, and then if you watch Willie Greco play, if anybody watches him play, it's a thing of beauty, folks. It's a thing of beauty.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:48

His vision is the best in Division II, I think. Doesn't make mistakes and his his passes are so damn accurate.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:58

He's just he's just a phenomenal player to watch. I've been watching him. This is his fifth year, been watching him since he's a freshman. And when he was a freshman, the first couple of games, he was just dishing out dimes. I was like, who is this kid? You know, where is he from? And he's from Georgia. What? You know, Georgia. What this kid is amazing. So um again, I got to go at the little norrine game and uh saw some of the kids and some of the parents after the game. And uh Willie Greco came right over to me. Hey, Mr. Moran, how you doing? Shook my hand, and I was like, Willie, you just you're an amazing player, man. It's you're just so much fun to watch. And he was like, Thank you. He's such a humble kid. So my my shout out goes out to Willie and his mom and dad and sister and family, just just a great family and a great lacrosse family.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:52

Really great shout-out. I've got only one myself, and that's to our fans. I know we shout them out almost every week, but they always deserve it. You know, when I we had to cancel the the podcast in the episode last week. I wanted to let everyone know that would listen because I've been there before and I listen to a podcast and it's a weekly podcast and it's not out, and I wonder why it's not out. So I wanted to put something out. I didn't know what to say, and I also didn't want to just say we're not having the episode. I wanted to give some reason. The best I can come up with is a family emergency. The outpouring of prayers, well wishes, and thoughts astounded me. It's it really is a community.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:36

We're reaching people, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:38

And I just want our fans to know that they they lifted my spirits during that time.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:43

So we have some good, we have great listeners, we really do. Kevin to add another one. My my good buddy Gerard Del Grosso texted me personally, was wondering what happened because his wife Jeannie is an avid listener. And when we didn't have a podcast and it was a family emergency, he might he thought it was on my side. Yeah. And he sent out a text. And uh thank you, Gerard, for uh sending that text. I I explained to him what was going on, but um, his wife Jeannie is an avid listener, listens every week. Their kids at limestone uh falling out and winning games and getting ready to go to a national championship, I think. So again, Kevin, you have a lot of people I care. They know what you do for Division II, they know what you do for this podcast, and it's only it's only you know good people reaching out and uh sending their well wishes.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:40

Well, thanks for that. And I just want to say that's a wrap. It's a wrap, yeah.