DOWN GOES LOYOLA. Towson Knocks Off The #1 Team In The Nation As The College Lacrosse Season Continues To Be Pure Chaos
If there’s one constant over the past few years of college lacrosse, it’s that you don’t want to be the #1 ranked team in the nation. I feel like getting ranked #1 means that you’re absolutely due for a loss at some point within the next week or so. The parity in college lacrosse is unranked and the standings never mean a damn thing once the games get started. Unfortunately for Loyola, they’ve been #1 for a couple of weeks here as they’ve been dominating everybody they’ve come across in the month of February. A 17-9 win over Virginia to start the year. An 18-12 win over Hopkins. A 13-7 win over Rutgers. Those are 3 straight wins to start the season against top 20 teams, and I don’t think they’ve ever played without the lead so far. That is, of course, until tonight when they travelled down the road to play against the #7 Towson Tigers. And when you’re playing against Towson wearing their throwback threads in Johnny Unitas Stadium, you can expect a whole lot of this to happen.
Brendan Sunday. What a saucy son of a bitch. The dive. The backhand finish. Just as filthy as it gets right there.
I said this going into tonight’s game but this was more of a “measuring stick” game for Towson than it was for Loyola. I think even with the loss, Loyola is going to be perfectly fine this season and we’ll see them playing Memorial Day Weekend. But for Towson? Well they’ve strung together some nice wins to start the year against Hopkins, Mount St. Mary’s, and Georgetown. But this was a game that was either going to sell people on the fact that they’re one of the best teams in the nation, or it was going to be a game that showed that they’re a solid team just not elite.
I don’t think I need to tell you this right now but after pulling out a 12-10 win over the #1 ranked team in the nation, Towson is for real.
It’s still only February. The majority of teams still haven’t even gotten into their conference schedule yet. But this college lacrosse season has already had everything you could ask for. Exciting games. Electric plays. Upsets galore. Multiple #1 teams getting knocked off. And we still have 89 days until Memorial Day. Buckle the fuck up.
Sidenote: Tough loss for Loyola, no doubt, but quick shoutout here is in order for Kevin Lindley. Kid put up 6 G’s on the night and aside from that nasty save from Tyler Canto, he was as money as it gets.
Sidenote #2: I was expecting some bigger things out of Hoodie Pat Spencer tonight, but if he’s going to end up drawing at least 4 defenseman to him the rest of the season then I think guys like Lindley are going to be putting up 100+ goals as the beneficiaries.
And the best part of all? We still have a full weekend of college lacrosse ahead of us. Let’s get it. I’ll see all you lax rats on Friday.