Duke Lacrosse 2018

[Wolfman2610]

The past few days bared witness to the United States beating up on some weaker competition en route to obtaining a perfect record in pool play, winning their pool, and all but ensuring themselves a berth in the World Championship finals.

On Monday, the U.S. posted an 18-2 victory over Scotland....Ned Crotty scored two goals, while Jordan Wolf went 1 [goal] and 3 [assists], and Matt Danowski added an assist.

The Hopkins graduate, Ryan Brown, went crazy again with the ball in his stick, scoring six more times...Tom Scheiber had a more balanced six-point game, scoring three and helping on three...Drew Snider (2 and 1) and Marcus Holman (2 goals, 2 assists) also had multi goal showings.

Yesterday, England was the victim of the onslaught, with the Red, White, and Blue surrendering the first goal, but then responding by scoring the next 13 straight on their way to a 19-2 triumph.

Crotty had his best statistical game of the tournament on Tuesday, scoring two goals and tossing a pair of dimes to complete the four-point outing....Wolf and Danowski did not bury any in the back of the net themselves, but they combined for five assists with the former having two and the latter a trio.

Former Tar Heel, Holman, led all goal scorers with five, and Brown reached 20 goals overall with a four rocket day...Snider had a second consecutive two-goal appearance, and John Haus (Maryland '13) broke out with a hat trick.

The Red, White, and Blue had Wednesday off while they waited for their semifinal opponent to be determined....They now know that they will play Australia, who won 9-6 over the host country, Israel...When the two countries met the first time last Saturday, the Americans dominated to the tune of a 19-1 drubbing.

 

[Wolfman2610]

I owe an apology to the Australians....In a game that was considerably closer than I predicted, the United States did win to advance to the World finals, but had to work a lot harder than anyone could have imagined.

Tied 2-2 at the end of the 1st quarter and with the Red, White, and Blue, leading just 7-4 at the break, it was a 7-1 last 40 minutes that ultimately allowed the U.S. to create separation in their 14-5 semifinal triumph on Thursday afternoon.

All three former Blue Devils had scored goals in the game for the United States, as Matt Danowski scored once and assisted on another; Ned Crotty found the back of the net for the third straight contest, and Jordan Wolf had a goal and two helpers.

Marcus Holman led all goal scorers with a hat trick (all in the 2nd half) and also added an assist to finish with a four-point day.

For the first time all tournament, Ryan Brown did not notch a hat trick, settling instead for just a pair of BBs to raise his event-leading total to 22 in six games.

Cornell legend, Rob Pannell, had two goals and an assist....

And coolest of all, Michael Ehrhardt, fired two goals as a long pole defender!!!!

Trevor Baptiste (9-of-12) and Greg Gurenlian (8-of-10) combined to win nearly 80 percent of all face-offs.

The United States will go searching for their first World title since 2010 when they play co-favorites/defending champions, Canada, early (3am ET) Saturday morning.....The Canadians made a statement in their semifinal game, applying a 15-4 beating to the third-seeded Iroquois Nation.

Canada and the U.S. played an instant classic this past Sunday, with the stars + stripes scoring in the last 90 seconds and then fighting off a man-down situation late in the game to hang on for the 11-10 win.

 

[Wolfman2610]

MISSION COMPLETE!!!! COACH "DINO" LEADS US TO THE WORLD TITLE!!!

The United States dethroned Canada 9-8 early this morning when Princeton graduate, Tom Schreiber scored his third goal of the game with :01 remaining in the fourth quarter.....Named the Most Outstanding Midfielder for the quality of his performance throughout the tournament, the former Tiger compiled 21 points (13 goals; 8 assists) in seven games.

Ryan Brown logged his sixth hat trick of the tournament, scoring once in the first half and twice during the final 40 minutes to end the tournament as the USA's top goal scorer/points leader with 25 goals/25 points.

Two of the three prominent Duke grads on offense would also notch multiple point games in the finals, as Matt Danowski scored 1 and assisted on another, while Ned Crotty dished out a pair of helpers....Jordan Wolf, who led the trio in total points accumulated for the tournament with 19 (8 goals, tied for the team-lead with 11 assists) would be kept off the stat sheet....Danowski finished the event with 16 points (6 goals, 10 assists), and Crotty recorded 10 points of his own (6 goals, 4 assists).

Another ex-Blue Devil, Will Haus, who has not gotten the attention he deserved was apart of a shutdown U.S. defense that only surrendered an average of 5.3 goals/game and managed to hold the dynamic/explosive Canadian offense to their two lowest outputs in earning the sweep of the two meetings....Haus, along with Kevin Unterstein (Hofstra), and Joel White (Syracuse) all tied for 2nd on the team (not including FOGOs) with 13 ground balls collected for the tournament. They, along with Outstanding Defensive Player/Overall Tournament MVP selection, Michael Ehrhardt (Maryland; 26 goals balls) formed an impenetrable curtain.

Trevor Baptiste won 9-of-12 draws in the finals to bring his comprehensive stat line to a mind-blowing 67-for-89. His 75 percent success rate ranked him 1st overall among all face-off specialists....


FULL BOX SCORES/STATS