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Funny the difference a year has made on this fan's perspective on Yale's upcoming first round matchup against a very good 13-4 Georgetown squad. Last year's first round game with UMass felt like Yale last-best chance to break the cycle of early round NCAA disappointments that had plagued the Bulldogs since Shay brought the program into Ivy League and somewhat national prominence. With that bugaboo out of the way, the upcoming matchup with the Hoyas feels in many ways like just another game, albeit with "lose and go home" implications. Of course I'll be rooting hard for the Bulldogs, but mostly because I like watching good lacrosse, and sporting events are always more fun to watch when one has Dog in the fight, at least up until the moment when in becomes apparent that one's Dog isn't going to be moving on.

What I will be looking for on Saturday is the intensity level Yale comes out with from the get go. This year's team, though full of talent, will have to be at its' best to make any kind of deep run this May. They will have to show improvement in a number of areas that have been pointed out on this thread all season long. Can they do it? We will begin to find out Saturday.

Good points calorie. As you know, Yale did win numerous ILTs and an NCAA game (vs PSU), so, I already felt the program had become quite prominent with little to prove. To me, the bugaboo was made up QK noise to keep Yale down in its lowly Ivy place. The fact that the Elis won it all last year was a bonus both satisfying and rewarding plus brought higher national prominence. As for this year's bracket, I do think the Ivy League got disserviced by being relegated to #4 and #5 seedings. Anyway, like you, I look forward to the game at Reese versus a tough opponent: high energy and better execution will be needed to move on.

Sting The Corner wrote: ↑Sat May 04, 2019 2:47 pm Ivy League is stacked with attack. I doubt coaches held anything against Gaudet (Teat was a unanimous selection despite some antics and a few subpar Ivy games.) I think Brandau has a better claim to All-Ivy than Gaudet, as does McCaleb on Brown neither of which were chosen. Sometimes there just aren’t enough spots to go around.
The late hit last night wasn’t pretty—but I haven’t associated dirty play with Yale in the past. Chirping yes, but generally clean. Every team has a guy who will occasionally go over the line doesn’t always reflect of the team culture.

What antics?

Back to Lacrosse talk, not...so another crappy weather weekend for lacrosse?

Weather? What I'm seeing for Saturday afternoon shows 0% chance of rain, partly cloudy, temps in the mid 60s: pretty perfect for lacrosse! Here we are at Friday, looking forward with great anticipation to the game tomorrow. On the old Laxpower boards, it was said multiple times that the Maryland Terps had an advantage in the tourney from having previously made the Final Four, knowing what it takes. Well, this Yale group certainly knows what it takes; executing and doing it again is another thing. And this Bulldog team is, without the likes of Reeves, Keating and Warner, a different animal... but I'd say still a very good team. How good? Well, we'll be finding out soon. GO YALE!

Two mantras Shay and staff seem to reiterate when talking about the success of the current Yale program are along the lines of "quick reset" and "rely in your fundamentals" which for me is another way of saying "stay in the moment". Implied by these mantras is that the each year's team has prepared all year for every game they play and every opponent they face. By now the coaches have provided the players with all the training impetus and drills and offensive and defensive schemes, as well as the exhortation of team unity that they felt were required to maximize this year's team's capabilities. Now it is up to those players to execute, to focus on the next ground ball to secure, the next slide that needs to be made, the next pass to throw with precision, the next open shot to be recognized and located accurately, as well as to quickly put behind them any errors that occur while attempting said execution such that the next effort is successful. The current coaches have shown an ongoing proficiency in getting each season's Bulldogs to play accordingly, which gives me a deeply rooted confidence that we will see more of the same tomorrow. Hopefully that will be enough to beat a very talented and deserving Georgetown team.

Survive and advance! Whew. What heart by Georgetown to battle back from a 9-0 deficit and make this a battle. I wish I'd seen Bucaro play more -- very special player.

Really terrific showing by the offense; amazing day at the X (TD of course but Joe Neuman doing a nice job when called on); good clean game with few penalties; and Starr with 16 saves on the day (including some great ones) and excellent clears. Georgetown really took care of the ball and Yale did not have a lot of caused turnovers, and defensively obviously had a very tough time with Bucaro (8 goals!). The two most important things: (a) Yale never let Georgetown get closer than 3 and did a good job stopping runs; and (2) the Elis won that NCAA game.

Hats off to the Georgetown Hoyas; a friendly wave to Jack the Bulldog; and it's on to the quarterfinals. Congratulations to the Yale players and coaching staff on keeping this excellent season going.

The announcers at the Georgetown v Yale game had wrong info regarding TD Ierlan setting an NCAA single game record with 31 wins. Hobart's Matt Pedicine won 32 faceoffs this year v Siena.

Well, when Yale jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead, I didn't expect the Elis to keep up that pace and win 56-0; but neither did I expect an almost nail-biting three-goal win. It really felt like a summer day, and it looked to me like the Bulldogs grew tired a bit more rapidly than in other wins. Yes, it was a win; and when everything else is said and done, that's what matters, Yale lives to play next weekend. I will give a shout out to Ocken for his goal, also to Jack Starr for his 16 big saves. Of course TD was amazing, but I also liked what Neuman did. Bucaro is amazing; I am glad Yale won't have to face him again!

Not exactly a defensive "tour de force". Starr was actually pretty good with 16 saves. Bucaro and Carraway are studs, but hopefully this was a season low point in terms of defensemen getting beaten combined with ineffective slides. Thankfully Y-Bulldog offense was sufficiently up to the task from the get go except for a make-me-nervous lull in the third quarter. Kudos to Morrill, Brandau, and Gaudet for their expectedly excellent production, to Lucas Cotler for a breakout 5 point effort, the rest of the middies as a whole for keeping the pressure on and Ocken for his very timely first goal of the season. What more can one say about TD ?

Well, there will be one Ivy in the final four. For the Bulldogs to be the one Yale will have to find a way to be two goals overall better (either offensively or defensively or some combination thereof) than they have in the two games they have already played against a very, very good and complete Penn team. I have no doubt everyone involved will be working their rear ends off this week to give themselves a chance to manage that feat. One has to wonder how Gallagher has managed overall to out perform TD at FOGO in the two games they have played given that TD has a considerably better FO percentage than Kyle does against everyone else they have faced. I suppose it goes to show that matchups are what they are as are habits and tendencies, but hopefully TD will find a way to change the equation somewhat as Yale's feed the crease offensive style can get dicey without a possession advantage. Anyway I expect the game to be a real slugfest, and hopefully the Bulldogs can come out with the same intensity they came out with today.

oldbartman wrote: ↑Sat May 11, 2019 5:13 pm The announcers at the Georgetown v Yale game had wrong info regarding TD Ierlan setting an NCAA single game record with 31 wins. Hobart's Matt Pedicine won 32 faceoffs this year v Siena.

That is a good catch by you. I wonder if the school reported it properly? The stat sheet for that game correctly has 32 faceoffs won, but the Hobart game notes incorrectly say 22. Or Maybe it was just that ESPN was working off the record book from the beginning of the year and made an incorrect assumption. Yale’s postgame notes/recap of this game vs. Georgetown do not credit Ierlan with a record, so ESPN relying on outdated info seems plausible.

I don't think the record was a matter of faceoffs won in the entire game but rather 31/31 in a row. There's a difference. Harvard game?

seriously? wrote: ↑Sat May 11, 2019 10:29 pm I don't think the record was a matter of faceoffs won in the entire game but rather 31/31 in a row. There's a difference. Harvard game?

The announcers did make it sound like it was most in a game, but perhaps they meant a tournament game and just spoke overbroadly? (It’s quite likely this was the most in the setting of the NCAA tournament.). The record set in the Harvard game was different — basically, it was most face-offs taken by someone who had a 100% winning percentage. The previous record was 25 for 25, and TD went 26 for 26.

IL calling it a playoff record.

Playoff record is correct. I wasn't trying to discredit Ierlan's amazing feet. He is the best FOGO in college. Though I would have enjoyed seeing he and Pedecine go head to head. Good luck against Penn next week.

oldbartman wrote: ↑Sat May 11, 2019 5:13 pm The announcers at the Georgetown v Yale game had wrong info regarding TD Ierlan setting an NCAA single game record with 31 wins. Hobart's Matt Pedicine won 32 faceoffs this year v Siena.

My question is, why do you keep sending your premier FOGO out when you've got a comfortable lead? Just to see how many times he can go out before he gets hurt?

DMac wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2019 6:34 am

oldbartman wrote: ↑Sat May 11, 2019 5:13 pm The announcers at the Georgetown v Yale game had wrong info regarding TD Ierlan setting an NCAA single game record with 31 wins. Hobart's Matt Pedicine won 32 faceoffs this year v Siena.

My question is, why do you keep sending your premier FOGO out when you've got a comfortable lead? Just to see how many times he can go out before he gets hurt?

At least as regards to yesterday, I don’t think they ever felt comfortable given that from the second quarter on Bucaro seemed to score every time he touched the ball. The lead was cut to 3 several times in the second half. Generally, yes, he takes a ton of faceoffs.

Yup, but even when Yale was up big early in the game TD still came out for every face off. I watched Desko completely destroy Ben Williams by doing this. He was the phenom when we first saw him, talk of the lacrosse world as far as FOGOs go. Whether up by 10 or down by 10 Ben came out for the face off. By the time he left Cuse he was so beat up and banged up that he was nowhere near the phenom FOGO he was when we first saw him, I actually felt sorry for him. I don't get why coaches work their premier FOGOs like rented mules when they don't have to.

DMac wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2019 8:20 am Yup, but even when Yale was up big early in the game TD still came out for every face off. I watched Desko completely destroy Ben Williams by doing this. He was the phenom when we first saw him, talk of the lacrosse world as far as FOGOs go. Whether up by 10 or down by 10 Ben came out for the face off. By the time he left Cuse he was so beat up and banged up that he was nowhere near the phenom FOGO he was when we first saw him, I actually felt sorry for him. I don't get why coaches work their premier FOGOs like rented mules when they don't have to.

Happened to Raffa at UMD. Take a look at the shoulder. That's gonna be uncomfortable for a very long time. Notice the hashtag in link.

Shay's tendency is to leave his primary FOGO in until a game is safely in hand unless he gets dinged up enough to need some sideline attention. Lacrosse being the game of runs it often is I'm not particularly opposed to this approach. An aspect particular to TD is he wins a very high percentage of his draws with his quickness and "pinch and pop" style which often allows him to avoid contact from both his FOGO opponents as well as physical abuse from their wing men. There have been games where TD has been forced into prolonged scrums and depending on the opponent Shay has shown a bit more willingness to insert backup Joe Neumann when that has been the case, though not to a significant extent.

On a side note Yale's upcoming game against Penn will likely hinge greatly on how well Ierlan does against Penn's Gallagher, who in total has actually outperformed TD at the X in the two one goal losses Penn has imposed on the Bulldogs this year .