Well here it is the men's lacrosse final four is just about a day away. This year a lacrosse champion will be crowned in Baltimore, where the final four belongs. Having the lacrosse final four in Baltimore is what Army Navy means to Philadelphia, the Red River Shootout at the Cotton Bowl, the College World Series at Rossenblatt Stadium etc, it just belongs in Baltimore. Yes I know to expand the sport of lacrosse the final four will be at different sites, and I do understand that, but there is something special about crabs and championship lacrosse. Anyways on to the teams coming to Baltimore this weekend. Out of the four competing two were expected to be there two were not. Lets start with the unlikely matchup between unseeded Notre Dame and 7th seeded Cornell.
The Fighting Irish come in with a record of 9-6 during the regular season. Notre Dame is kind of like the Philadelphia Flyers, not to impressive of a regular season nor was the schedule. The Irish did have a key 11-7 win over Duke in their first game of the season which could play key if both the Irish and Blue Devils win on Saturday. But despite not to impressive of a regular season, Notre Dame got into the dance and proved why they belong by beating Princeton at Princeton 8-5 in the first round and then one week later went back to Princeton and beat the 3rd seeded Maryland Terrapins 7-5. For me Notre Dame faces a tough test in Cornell, the Big Red were one goal away from raising the championship trophy last year so the Irish better bring the fight in them and that'll have to go through the midfielders of Grant Kerbs, Zach Brenneman and David Earl who has 6 goals in two games this post season. If Cornell decides to focus in on Earl more it will be up to Kerbs and Brenneman to support him on offensive end of the ball. On defense, Scott Rodgers will have to remain hot in between the pipes for the Irish and the defensive unit overall well have to play well if Notre Dame wants to stay in Baltimore a little longer.
For the Cornell Big Red, they went 13-5 this season, got killed by UVA in March by a score of 12-4, lost another one goal game to Syracuse 8-7 and split the series with Ivy League foe Princeton. Cornell is the most dangerous team out of the four here this weekend. Duke and UVA played a much more tougher schedule, Duke and UVA have more talent top to bottom some of you may say. But the one thing that Cornell has that neither UVA, Duke or Notre Dame have is motivation. The Big Red were one goal away from beating the Syracuse Orange for the title last year and you do not think that this team will be extremely motivated? When they are this close once again this year. Even if Cornell had a team of all sophomores who are no names I would still pick them because they this close to winning it one year ago. Ryan Hurley who had a 5 point day in there win over Army last weekend will once again be the main offensive man for Cornell as he as been this whole season in scoring 40 plus goals. Cornell also has Rob Pannell and Scott Mock that can score for them also. Cornell wins this matchup 8-6.
Now on onto the game at 6, top seeded UVA vs 5th seeded Duke in a rubber match of the season series as Duke defeated the Cavaliers in Charolettesville 13-9 and one week later in the semi finals of the ACC tournament the Cavs took down the Blue Devils 16-12 on neutral ground. Some people believe that this game should be played on Monday instead of on Saturday and rightfully so there will be a lot of stars on the field Saturday evening in Baltimore. From likes of the Bratton brothers on UVA to Max Quinzani and Ned Crotty for the Blue Devils. If the defenses do not show up for this game, the score may look more like a Ravens game is being played instead of a lacrosse game.
UVA has a record of 16-1 and was ranked number 1 for most of the season. The Cavs had an easy time with Mount St. Mary's but then ran into some competition with Stony Brook in the quarterfinals, but pulled out a 10-9 win on Long Island last weekend. What has made UVA so successful for the past years is Shamel Bratton and Rhamel Bratton combo. And they are deadly as they have combined for 11 points in two games this seasons with Shamel doing the scoring and Rhamel dishing out the assists. What about just focusing on the Bratton brothers defensively? Sure go ahead the Cavs have a deadly attack man in Steele Stanwick who has 6 points in this years playoffs and Brain Carroll who has 6 goals during the playoffs. One red flag for UVA is that they only won 5 out 23 faceoffs last weekend, faceoffs can play key if the game turns into a face paced 15 14 game.
Duke has a record of 14-4 with losses to Maryland, Notre Dame, rival UNC and UVA. The Blue Devils have also won 12 out there past 13 games. Besides Max Quinzani on offense the Blue Devils will look to Ned Crotty who has 14 points this postseason for offensive help against UVA's star defensemen Ken Clausen and Ryan Nizolek. Duke also has there fair share of defenseman with Parker Mckee and Tom Montelli who will most likely be matched up against the Brattons and or Carroll. The key for a Duke win in this game will be to limit the Brattons scoring and dominate the faceoffs. If Stony Brook had two more offensive players they would have beaten UVA. Duke is in the same situation as the Phoenix Suns, the Suns know that they are not going to stop Kobe Bryant they just have to limit is scoring. That is what the Blue Devil defense will have to do against the Brattons. But I think the Brattons will have a big day against Duke's goaltenders UVA wins 12 10.
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