M Lacrosse Home Opener vs Drexel 3PM Today

Submitted by L'Carpetron Do… on February 19th, 2019 at 2:39 PM

Men's lacrosse hosts the Drexel Dragons at 3PM at the lacrosse stadium down on State Street. If it's not brutally cold or snowing go down and check it out! 

Michigan is 1-0 after opening the season with a 10-8 victory at Cleveland State. They dropped out of the rankings this week but that's more of a product of them not playing over the weekend and Syracuse and Princeton but picking up good wins on Saturday and moving ahead of M. 

Drexel won't be an easy out. They've been a middling program recently but has displayed a tendency to beat good teams over the years and they always seem to have a few decent players. They're coming off a one goal loss to High Point, the hottest team in college lacrosse so far in 2019 (FWIW, HP has beaten Duke and UVA already, pretty impressive).  

Michigan doesn't have any sure-fire Ws on the schedule this season and today is no exception. Here's to hoping they can take care of business and get the W. GO BLUE!!

(I think(?) today's game will be streamed here -  https://mgoblue.com/watch/?Archive=16103&type=Archive  )

Alton

February 19th, 2019 at 3:14 PM ^

Good start; 3-0 good guys.

Wait...High Point beat Duke & Virginia??  Whole seasons have gone by with Duke & Virginia not losing non-conference games, or only losing to Johns Hopkins non-conference.  That's insane.

L'Carpetron Do…

February 19th, 2019 at 4:20 PM ^

Yeah its crazy how many early season upsets there are now. THere's a lot more parity of talent than there used to be. UVA and Duke seem to drop an early one every year - same with Syracuse. Defending champs Yale also got knocked off the other day (although that was by Nova, a fairly established, legit program). 

Unfortunately, this hardly ever seems to translate to the end of the year. Tournament upsets are still super rare. 

twotrueblue

February 19th, 2019 at 3:28 PM ^

Noseworthy has a hat trick before the 1st quarter even ends! Big day for him as he reached the 100 career goal mark earlier.

Michigan is up 5-1 at the end of the 1st.

agp

February 19th, 2019 at 4:01 PM ^

Drexel is one of the schools I always feel should be better. Proximity to high end talent in Philly burbs, solid school, good urban location. Plus I'm a sucker for dragon mascots.

twotrueblue

February 19th, 2019 at 4:35 PM ^

Bryce Clay, a freshman out of Forest Hills Central, just scored his first career goal for the Wolverines to make it a 12-9 lead in our favor. 2:30 left in the 3rd quarter.

Wolverine Devotee

February 19th, 2019 at 5:03 PM ^

15-14 Michigan, we win the faceoff and call timeout. Less than 2 minutes left in the game. Hang on guys.

mlax27

February 19th, 2019 at 5:23 PM ^

Gotta say, I'm not a fan of the shot clock change.  Feels like I'm watching a summer ball game.  Guys not valuing possession and letting it fly from all over.  And O middies playing (bad) defense.

There could be a big trend towards 2 way middies and the teams that figure that out may gain some advantage in the near term. 

L'Carpetron Do…

February 19th, 2019 at 5:28 PM ^

That's exactly what I was thinking - 2 way middies are going to become a thing again.  And teams might have to field 2 and maybe 3 legit lines of midfielders.

It seemed a few times Mack/Buckanavage didn't know the clock was winding down. And I think a few guys were tired and made sloppy plays on passes/ball possession/ground balls that led to opportunities for Drexel.

twotrueblue

February 19th, 2019 at 5:30 PM ^

Well that was a blown opportunity. They had a 3+ goal lead for most of the game. Now they'll have to rebound against Jacksonville on Saturday. Good news is that game is on CBS Sports Network at 11:30 AM.

Wolverine Devotee

February 19th, 2019 at 5:35 PM ^

We were up by a zillion against Cleveland State and they stormed back and only lost 10-8, we were up 15-11 in this game.

Very concerning

twotrueblue

February 19th, 2019 at 5:39 PM ^

Given that our poor play is in the second half, my guess is our depth is just not there yet.

In addition, defense has never been a strong suit for Michigan, so we're just gonna have to wait and see whether or not Conry can turn the defense around.

L'Carpetron Do…

February 19th, 2019 at 5:37 PM ^

Michigan is gonna want to have this one back. They led the whole way but couldn't slam the door shut. They came up with a GB with 23 seconds left in regulation and a lead and couldn't clear it and they had a handful of opportunities and shots in OT/2OT but couldn't capitalize. Noseworthy had a good shot off a crazy bang-bang play but Drexel's goalie made an absolutely incredible save to keep them alive.

Hopefully Drexel will turn out to be good and have a strong season. Otherwise, this is a tough loss for M - one they let get away. The good news is: they seem to be able to score a lot which will make them a fun team to watch. But, they'll have to figure out this shot clock and really clean up their play on GBs and in unsettled situations. 

Well, this might be a good loss for them and hopefully they can get it together for Jacksonville this Saturday. GO BLUE!