Albany And Yale Are Headed To Gillette For The College Lacrosse Final Four
An unreal day of college lacrosse is in the books. In game 1 of the day between Yale and Loyola, we had All-American matchups all over the field. We had Ben Reeves vs Foster Huggins on one end of the field and then at the other end it was Pat Spencer vs Chris Fake. As you’ll see, the matchup very much lived up to all the expectations as both Reeves and Spencer were the best players on the field for each team.
Now if you’re anywhere in the northeast, you’ll know that the weather has been absolutely shit for roughly the 500 years. But especially over the last week. Today in Hempstead was no exception. The weather was shitty, the turf was slick, it wasn’t exactly ideal conditions for a lacrosse game and we saw things start to slow down a little bit in the 2nd half of this game. What slowed down especially was Loyola’s offense. This group started to get sloppy with the ball, they didn’t get Pat Spencer nearly enough touches, and they just looked out of sync for most of the game. Meanwhile, Ben Reeves continued to do everything for Yale’s offense, including getting his 100th point of the season.
He’d provide the dagger for Yale getting his 3rd goal and 6th point of the game on the empty net here to seal the deal for the Bulldogs.
Yale won 8-5, Reeves had 6 points. Not to be overshadowed but Loyola’s goalie Jacob Stover had at least 17 saves on the day. Kid was standing on his head in between the pipes for the Greyhounds and he’s the only reason why the final score was so close. But between Loyola turning the ball over so much, Yale absolutely dominating Loyola with their 10-man ride, and Ben Reeves putting up 6 points, it was too much for Loyola to handle and Yale is heading back to Championship Weekend for the first time since 1990.
So it’s been 28 years since Yale has been to the Final Four. Also making their way to Gillette next weekend is a team who has never been there before. But the Dane Train finally got over the hump today. There were obviously a ton of key players to make that happen but it all started at the faceoff X where TD Ierlan vs Trevor Baptiste lived up to every bit of the hype.
I don’t have the final numbers in front of me right now but I predicted that it would be a 55/45 split between the two with Baptiste slightly getting the better of Ierlan. I’m pretty sure that this one ended in a straight up tie which is just what you’d expect out of these two. And with Ierlan going 50/50 with Trevor Baptiste, that allowed Albany’s offense to get the possessions they needed to really get buzzing in this game. For the most part, it was Tehoka Nanticoke leading the way.
Here is a kid who came into this season with so much expectation on him. The #1 freshman in the nation. People had seen all of his highlights before. He had a few moments here and there this season where you could tell that he’s a freshman. But he showed up today and proved to everybody why he gets as much hype as he does. I mean this goal right here right before halftime was absurd.
Ridiculous hands in tight. So much strength to fight through some checks. Then gets that shot off with 0.1 left on the clock and it’s in the back of the net. Big time players show up in big time moments. This was a major moment in the legend of Tehoka Nanticoke.
Also helping out on offense for the Danes were guys like Jakob Patterson who often gets overlooked with so many people focusing on Fields and Nanticoke.
And even when he isn’t scoring, Connor Fields is still showing up with some ridiculous highlights.
This game was back and forth the entire time. Albany was leading for the majority of the game but every time they thought they built up their lead, Denver came storming right back. That was thanks to guys like Colton Jackson shooting the shit out of the ball all game, and Trevor Baptiste making sure he evened up that faceoff matchup after going down in a 0/4 hole early.
Real quick just want to give a shoutout to Trevor. The greatest faceoff specialist that college lacrosse has ever seen. He had an incredible career and it sucks to see it end. He’s got huge things ahead of him but still tough to see his days at Denver are done. With that being said, I couldn’t be happier for this Albany team if I tried. Every single one of these guys deserves this. Especially head coach Scott Marr who has been building one of the best programs in the nation up there through just being a cool as dude who guys love and want to play for.
Tomorrow we have Duke vs Hopkins at noon and then Maryland vs Cornell at 2:30. Yale and Albany are already on their way to Gillette. Only 2 spots left. Let’s get it.