On the Run - Week 3

Welcome to On the Run. Here's what you need to know about what happened in college lacrosse this weekend, plus some little things that I loved. Quick and easy to read while you're on the run!

Today’s writeup in a snapshot:

• The Headliner: Harvard Beats Syracuse

• Supporting Cast: Ohio State Rolls UVA

• Quick Hits: Binghamton Lands on SC’s Top 10 Plays

• On the Rise: Standout sophomores for Duke & Harvard

• Best of the Rest: Important things not covered above

👀 The Headliner: Harvard Upsets Syracuse

The storyline that stole the show this weekend.

Syracuse won in the following categories on Saturday:

• Faceoff battle (28-32 for 87.5%)

• Total shots (50 compared to Harvard’s 40)

• Clearing percentage (90.4% compared to Harvard’s 84.4%)

• Ground Balls (40 compared to Harvard’s 24)

And still lost.

Not taking anything away from Harvard, because they played a great game and made many timely plays, but if you replay this game over again 10 times, Syracuse wins probably 8 or 9 of them.

So for that reason, I’m not worried about the Orange.

Many people on Twitter are getting after Syracuse for the loss, which I can understand given the massive expectations Syracuse has for this season, but at the same time it’s February. Lotta ball left.

And it’s not like they lost to an unknown; if you’ve been paying attention, Harvard is a damn good lacrosse team.

Sam King was my pick to win the Tewaaraton Award (this is probably CJ Kirst’s to lose, but who cares, it’s a fun prediction) while Teddy Malone, Jack Speidell and Harvard’s midfield unit are really good. Freshman goalie Graham Stevens has been playing beyond his years and had many clutch saves on Saturday.

Harvard is a good team, but they also were probably a little lucky to win. Both things can be true.

The Crimson won only four faceoffs, yet scored 15 goals, cashing in on about 50% of their possessions (they had ~30 possessions compared to Syracuse’s ~50).

If you look at the statistics, you would assume Syracuse won by a few goals at the very least.

But that didn’t happen, and it’s why we love lacrosse.

 🤝 The Supporting Cast

The things that weren't maybe the star of the weekend, but still important.

1. Ohio State Dominates Virginia

My concerns with UVA have been well-documented if you’ve been following my season previews and previous editions of On the Run, specifically the lack of secondary scoring.

That came to the forefront on Saturday.

McCabe Millon was held off the stat sheet while the Cavaliers only had three players tally points in Columbus, and it was their top three players outside of Millon in Griffin Schutz, Ryan Colsey and Truitt Sunderland.

Again, let’s not take away from the victors in Ohio State.

After losing their opener to Utah, the Buckeyes have rattled off five straight wins.

While the competition hasn’t been what they’ll see in the Big Ten, I’ve been impressed with how their offense have integrated their graduate transfers, which were their top three point-scorers on Saturday:

• Shane O’Leary (UMass)

• Ryan Donnery (Quinnipaic)

• Griffin Turner (Hofstra)

And then when you have goalie Caleb Fyock settling into the starting role after some rotation early in the season with Henry Blake, and Bobby Van Buren looking healthy (and dominant) after last season’s injury, the Buckeyes are heating up quick.

2. Cornell Jumps On Denver Early

The Big Red stormed out to a 10-1 lead at the half and cruised to a win.

CJ Kirst had 6 goals on six shots and is looking every bit like the Tewaaraton Award frontrunner we thought he would be.

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Ryan Goldstein had 6 points (1G, 5A) while Michael Long, Hugh Kelleher and Willem Firth had multiple points in the win.

Defensively, the story of the game was goaltender Wyatt Knust, who had 13 saves and a 72% save percentage.

This Cornell team is just good.

3. The 12pm Lacrosse Witching Hour

What an electric witching hour we had on Saturday.

The 12pm slate on Saturday included:

• Duke vs Michigan

• Johns Hopkins vs North Carolina

• Georgetown vs Notre Dame

• Princeton vs Maryland

UNC got off to a roaring start, scoring three goals in the first minute.

After scanning over the other three games, the game that was the most exciting was easily UNC vs JHU, so I zoned in on that.

Watching Dom Pietramala catch fire was something to behold for the Tar Heels.

But Russell Melendez kept answering punch after punch with goals of his own, including this rip on the power play.

When I looked up, Georgetown had come storming back after Notre Dame jumped on them early. I got to see Jordan Faison tally his first goal of the year in the 4th quarter to put the Fighting Irish up three.

While Maryland vs Princeton was a great game, the Terps controlled most of the game as Logan McNaney made save after save and Maryland got contributions from its second midfield in Aidan Aitken and Jack Schultz.

Meanwhile in Durham, Andrew McAdorey had two straight goals from X to tie it up for Duke and send it to overtime against Michigan.

I turn to the other screen and JHU/UNC is tied up before Ryan Levy, Pietramala and Caden Harshbarger scored three straight to take a two goal lead.

BUT HERE COME THE HOYAS. BACK TO THE MONITOR.

I watched for a few minutes before Chris Kavanagh iced the game for Notre Dame with a strong move the front of the cage to put the Fighting Irish up two.

The Fighting Irish and Terps wrapped up their wins, so I turn back to Hopkins vs UNC as I wait for overtime in Duke vs Michigan.

Quintan Kilrain brought the Blue Jays within one before Michael Gianforcaro made a big save on Melendez with about a minute left to seal the deal for the Tar Heels.

Then McAdorey scored the winner. On the same exact move.

I missed a lot of the finer details of these four games in this writeup. I know that. But these two hours are why we love the sport. I get people wanting to stagger game times, which I agree with, but man this was awesome.

🎯 Quick Hits

The weekend's standout plays, hustle moments, and everything in between.

1. Binghamton’s Liam Ferris Between the Legs

#4 on SportsCenter Top 10 Plays. The fact that this was with five minutes left in the game rocks.

2. Duke’s Jake Wilson with the Yardsale

3. Hofstra’s Trevor Natalie wins it in OT

📈 On the Rise

Spotlighting players and teams who are setting themselves up for big things ahead.

1. Mac Christmas (LSM - Duke)

The sophomore has 4 goals in four games in 2025, stamping his mark as one of the nation’s best offensive poles.

2. Jack Speidell (Attack - Harvard)

We knew the sophomore could score goals, but I was impressed with Speidell’s versatility on Saturday, scoring a goal on the dodge and dishing two beautiful assists.

3. Drew Bogardus (Attack - Hofstra)

The freshman had 7 goals in an overtime win against St. John’s, putting him at 15 goals already on the season. A sharpshooting lefty, Bogardus is one to watch moving forward.

4. Thomas Ricciardelli (Goalie - Notre Dame)

The sophomore won the starting job in South Bend and doesn’t look to lose it anytime soon after a 16 save performance against Georgetown.

5. Kasey Heath (Goalie - Lehigh)

Lehigh is 0-4, but Heath deserves some recognition, averaging 15.75 saves per game and keeping the Mountain Hawks in a lot of contests.

6. Noah Snyder (Attack - Marquette)

The freshman had five points (3G, 2A) against Cleveland State and could look to be a big part of the Golden Eagles’ offense moving forward.

🏆 Best of the Rest

We’ve covered most of the stuff that happened, but what slipped through the cracks?

• Colgate routs Villanova 16-5

• Penn State handles Navy winning 13-7

• Albany bounces back against Drexel winning 16-9

• Richmond squeaks by Lehigh 9-8

• Saint Joseph’s beats Towson 11-6

• Emmet Carroll makes 14 saves as UPenn beats Delaware 10-2

• Brown beats crosstown rival Providence 7-6

• Rutgers beats Loyola 10-6

I hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of On the Run and be sure to subscribe!

Read previous week’s here:

• Read Week 0

• Read Week 1

• Read Week 2