B1G 2019 Lacrosse // Scrimmage Weekend Recap

Last Tuesday I brought you a preview of the 2019 Big Ten Lacrosse season. This past weekend three B1G lacrosse teams had scrimmages/exhibitions to start getting into the rhythm of the season which officially starts in two weekends. Rutgers had a scrimmage against Villanova on Saturday 1/19, Penn State against Lafayette on Saturday as well, and Ohio State against Hill Academy, a Canadian Prep School on Friday, 1/18, and then a Saturday scrimmage vs Robert Morris.

Five out of the six Big Ten Lacrosse teams have scrimmages and exhibitions this upcoming weekend, 1/26, which include Michigan at Hobart, Rutgers vs Albany, Penn State vs Army, Johns Hopkins vs High Point, and Ohio State vs Duke. Interestingly, Maryland is the only Big Ten team that has zero scrimmages or exhibitions leading up to their season opener compared to the rest of the conference. The Terrapins start their season vs Bucknell on February 2nd.

So with regards to the scrimmages themselves, it was really difficult to find actual stats, especially for Rutgers and Ohio State, but I’ve gathered that all three teams did well. Ohio State’s and Penn State’s were open to the public, Rutgers’ was not.

Rutgers

This Tweet below with video from the Rutgers Lacrosse account shows some highlights for RU coupled with a lot of cheering. Additionally, according to Twitter, sophomore attackman Tommy Coyne had a “strong performance.”

Penn State

Thanks to Penn State’s student newspaper I was able to get a good glimpse into how the Nittany Lions performed. Penn State had an absolutely dominating victory winning 22-8 over in-state foe Lafayette. A surprising star was apparently Freshman attackman TJ Malone, who was not expected to stand out given the strength of returning starters for Penn State that I touched on last week. So it seems Penn State is in a good place with both old and new talent. The old talent still performed well with attackmen Mac O’Keefe and Grant Ament playing solidly for the little bit of the first half they were in. Penn State’s Saturday scrimmage was all offense with little scoring by Lafayette, so we didn’t really get a complete view of their defense. Next week when Penn State plays Army, the defense will likely be tested further.

Also this is reeeaally cool looking. I love this sport.

Ohio State

Info on Ohio State’s TWO scrimmages was the most elusive of the three.... I have no idea how they actually did or who stood out. But I’m sure they did well since they are ranked #17.

Well there you have it! B1G Lacrosse is brewing. As I promised last week, you’ll get at least 250 words worth of lacrosse every week. This post is 452 words.