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: Conference Chaos

• 🤝 Supporting Cast: Denver Handles Duke

• 🎯 Quick Hits: Will Schaller Saves Game

• 📈 On the Rise: Georgetown’s Kevin Miller

• ⏮️ The Rewind: Cornell Will Win it All

👀 The Headliner: Conference Play Chaos

The storyline that stole the show this weekend.

This weekend, we saw the #1, #2 and #3 lose to conference foes.

• #1 Maryland lost to Michigan 11-10 in 3OT

• #2 Penn State lost to #9 Ohio State 13-9

• #3 Army lost to Boston University 10-9 in OT

In addition to those teams losing in conference, we had eight one-goal conference games on the weekend.

• Navy beat Holy Cross 9-8 in OT

• Towson beat Stony Brook 13-12 in OT

• UMBC beat Albany 13-12 in OT

• #20 Dartmouth beat #16 UPenn 9-8 in OT

• Bucknell beat Lehigh 11-10

• Canisius beat Quinnipiac 10-9

• #15 Fairfield beat Drexel 12-11

• Lafayette beat Loyola 11-10

I’ve always said that conference play is when the real season starts, as contenders start pulling away from pretenders, but when the top teams in the conference can lose to a last ranked team in the conference, it makes for really fun lacrosse down the stretch.

Rankings and previous wins do not matter now - anything can happen. Expect the unexpected.

 🤝 The Supporting Cast

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

1. Denver Handles Duke 13-6

You wanna talk about two confusing teams? Look no further than Duke and Denver.

While Duke’s record was 8-1 heading into this matchup against 4-4 Denver, the Blue Devils weren’t exactly lighting the world on fire.

Outside of Bellarmine, they’ve only averaged a winning margin of ~3.5 goals. They beat good teams like Saint Joseph’s and Richmond, but did not win convincingly against teams like Air Force and Jacksonville.

And Denver had already lost games to Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Yale and Ohio State.

I get it, this was a neutral site game in Texas that had a wide range of outcomes, but we really didn’t learn much about this game other than once again, anything can happen in the 2025 season.

Like I said above, we’ll see how these two teams fare in conference play, but even then, results may vary. Analyze at your own risk.

2. Richmond Beats Georgetown 14-13

The Spiders responded after my rant last week.

I’ve been banging the drum for Richmond to be able to take the next step, which in my mind is win an NCAA Tournament game.

So while they haven’t achieved that yet, it’s still nice to see them beat a ranked Georgetown team with a strong offensive performance.

This was a fun game all around, and a very necessary litmus test game for both teams as they head into their conferences, which both are probably favored to win slightly.

🎯 Quick Hits

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

📈 On the Rise

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

1. Boston University’s Timothy Shannehan & Andrew Pape

Shannehan, the 2024 USA Lacrosse Magazine Northeast Player of the Year in high school, was expected to make an immediate impact for the Terriers and he’s delivered.

The lefty attackman is already leading the team in points with 39 points (20G, 19A), averaging ~5 points per game for the Terriers.

And I was super impressed with Pape, who had four goals in the win over Army, utilizing a variety of moves and being very assertive, something you don’t see from freshmen midfielders.

I’ve also been impressed with fellow freshman midfielder Mike Rooney, who hasn’t played since March 1, but was averaging two goals a game through the first five games of the season.

They aren’t freshmen, but attackmen Jimmy Kohr and Jimmy O’Connell have already shattered their previous single-season points records in starting roles. They are both very smooth, smart and great finishers on this team, and BU is sneakily one of the better offenses in the country.

2. Georgetown’s Kevin Miller

The 5-foot-9 freshman has been a steady force after being inserted into the starting attackline for the Hoyas.

Registering 6 points (4G, 2A) in the close loss to Richmond, Miller doesn’t blow you away with his athleticism, size or shooting prowess, but he’s just so efficient.

He’s shooting 41.9% on the year with 13 goals. He’s shown a very consistent overhand shooting stroke that usually cashes in, and has a shake to his game dodging up top or behind the net that is hard to defend.

He’s just a good lacrosse player.

 ⏮️ The Rewind

Looking back at my past takes at the midseason point.

1. “Cornell Will Win It All”

I’ve been saying this since the end of the 2024 season, and I still feel very good about it. CJ Kirst is the best player in the nation on the best attackline in the nation with Ryan Goldstein and Michael Long.

I wish sophomore midfielder AJ Nikolic wasn’t out for the season with injury, but propelled by this attack unit, a great first midfield and strong play from their specialists, it’s Cornell’s championship to lose at the moment.

Date Published: October 15, 2024

Current Confidence Level: 8/10

2. “Virginia Will Miss the NCAA Tournament”

There was plenty of backlash for this take, but I felt strongly about it because I feel like people were somehow still underestimating the impact of Connor Shellenberger and Payton Cormier.

In hindsight, your team will never be the same after losing a 4x First Team All-American and the current D1 holder for most goals, and it was a fact that people were honestly overlooking.

McCabe Millon and Truitt Sunderland are great players;they are nowhere close to Shellenberger and Cormier.

And then I was also very concerned with the Cavaliers midfield filled with unproven players outside of Griffin Schutz. Virginia has no margin for error after dropping games to Richmond, Johns Hopkins, Ohio State and Maryland, and will likely need to win out their ACC games to make the tournament.

Date Published: January 24, 2025

Current Confidence Level: 9/10

3. “Army vs Colgate Will Meet in the Patriot League Final”

It seemed we were bound for a Colgate and Army matchup in the conference final as both teams were absolutely rolling early on.

But as I highlighted above, conference play is chaos. Colgate dropped a one-goal game to Bucknell as Army did with Boston University.

Do I still think this would be the odds on favorite to be the Patriot League final? Probably, but you never know.

Date Published: March 4, 2025

Current Confidence Level: 5/10

4. “Sam King Will Win the Tewaaraton”

CJ Kirst is winning it, espicially after his 9-goal performance against Yale.

My other finalists in this previous prediction included King, Kirst, UNC’s Owen Duffy, Notre Dame’s Chris Kavanagh and UVA’s Ben Wayer.

Unless something miraculous happens, it’s Kirst’s.

Date Published: January 24, 2025

Current Confidence Level: 2/10

Read previous week’s here:

• Read Week 0

• Read Week 1

• Read Week 2

• Read Week 3

• Read Week 4

• Read Week 5

• Read Week 6