Rutgers men’s lacrosse captured victory in season opener against Lehigh

On Saturday, Rutgers men’s lacrosse (1-0) defeated Lehigh (0-1) 14-12 to capture their season opener.

On Saturday, Rutgers men’s lacrosse (1-0) defeated Lehigh (0-1) 14-12 to capture their season opener. Rutgers team captain Shane Knobloch and Rutgers Big Ten Preseason Player to Watch Jack Aimone recorded a hat trick in their first 2024 victory.

Rutgers Dante Kulas, Ross Scott, and John Sidorski contributed on the offensive end, each recording two goals in front of their home crowd. Also, Rutgers Tanner Germain and Ryan Splaine added to the scoring on Saturday, each logging a goal.

Rutgers goalie Cardin Stoller made his Scarlet Knights debut, recording ten saves on 40 shots faced, allowing 12 goals in a winning effort.

With their victory on Saturday, the Scarlet Knights have won 12 straight season openers and have won 20 of their past 22 season openers.

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Lehigh jumped out early, building a 5-2 lead after the first quarter. After falling behind, the Scarlet Knights went on a four-goal run to take their first lead of the day at 7-6. The Mountain Hawks tied the game at 7-7 with a goal in the remaining seconds of the first half.

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In the third quarter, the Scarlet Knights opened up the scoring to give them an 11-8 lead. Lehigh fought back but couldn’t get closer than 12-11. Scott and Aimone put the final icing on the game, with both players recording the final two goals to give Rutgers a 14-12 win.

 

Social media reacts to the Tar Heels’ 90-68 win over Lehigh

The North Carolina Tar Heels won their second game of the season, beating Lehigh 90-68. Social media reacts to the Heel’s win.

The North Carolina men’s basketball program hosted the Lehigh Mountain Hawks for their second game of the season.

After witnessing the football team’s double-overtime win against Duke with fans leaping barricades to celebrate on the field, the Dean Smith Center’s energy was on full display. The Heels looked to continue their new-look offense against the school that lives in the Blue Devil’s nightmares from the 2012 stunning March Madness upset.

Much like game one, UNC showed the ability to run in transition and knock down shots. On the flip side, Radford’s hot shooting touch must have stayed in the away locker room, with Lehigh keeping pace against the Tar Heel’s questionable defense.

However, unlike game one, UNC was able to create distance for themselves early on, reaching a double-digit lead 13 minutes into the first half. Fans also wanted to see if the Tar Heels would fix their turnover issue, which they did, only having 10 compared to the 11 against Radford.

Unfortunately, a struggle from last year reappeared with Lehigh bouncing back in the second half to get the score close. As Lehigh made runs to hang around, fans let out their displeasure. Others took it for what it was, just Lehigh making shots.

The comeback didn’t sustain long after Lehigh cut it down to three with UNC going on a 14-2 run to go back up double digits before hitting cruise control for the rest of the game. RJ Davis and Armando Bacot led all scorers with 22 each. Bacot tacked on 20 rebounds along with his scoring output, and Ingram shined with 14 points and seven rebounds.

It is safe to say after last night’s thrilling win against Duke, followed by another impressive outing by the basketball program, that it’s a great weekend to be a Tar Heel. Let’s look at how social media reacted to UNC’s 90-68 win over Lehigh.

Opinion: The beauty of March Madness is defined by underdogs

What is it about March Madness that gets fans hooked?

Every year in March, millions of fans are glued to their televisions and find themselves rooting for teams they have never heard of. Rooting for those teams as if they had followed them their whole lives.

This year, there were 20,056,273 brackets made on ESPN despite a 1-in-120 billion chance of a perfect bracket. What is it about March Madness that gets fans hooked?

The truth is that we all love an underdog story. People pull for Cinderella every tournament as they hope and pray the clock doesn’t strike midnight for those schools. Let me throw some teams at you: [autotag]Lehigh[/autotag], [autotag]Saint Peter’s[/autotag], [autotag]Oral Roberts[/autotag], [autotag]Florida Gulf Coast[/autotag], [autotag]UMBC[/autotag], and this year [autotag]Princeton[/autotag] and [autotag]Fairleigh Dickinson[/autotag].

These teams are a combined 15-15 in the NCAA Tournament since 2010. That doesn’t sound bad, but since 2010, there have been 868 tournament games in total. These seven teams make up only 0.03% of games in that time. The closest any of these teams have gotten to a national championship was Saint Peter’s, who went all the way to the Elite Eight last year. Princeton has a chance to tie that feat if it can beat Creighton this week.

What is it about the March Madness format that makes it so special? Why doesn’t that format work in other sports? I think it’s because the games are one-offs. The format doesn’t work in baseball and softball because the underdogs have to win a three-game series. It doesn’t work in football because there is too much parity.

This would be like lining Akron up against Georgia in college football. It wouldn’t work even in a one-off. It would be a cupcake game. They would lose by at least 28.

The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. The “one shining moment” that endures the test of time. You may not know who these teams are when they enter the tournament, but you’ll never forget their magical run in March.

That is the beauty of March Madness.

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Another Conference Cancels Fall Sports for 2020

It was the Ivy League last week and today it’s another conference that is cancelling all fall sports in 2020.

Last week saw big news on the college sports landscape as the Big Ten and Pac-12 announced plans to only play conference games during the fall sports season this year while the Ivy League took things a step further, cancelling all fall sports.

Now the Ivy League has company as another collegiate conference is axing all fall sports.

The Patriot League that consists of American University, Bucknell, Boston University, Holy Cross, Colgate, Lafayette, Lehigh, Loyola (Maryland), Army and Navy, announced Monday that they have cancelled all fall sports for 2020.

The league added that both Army and Navy are exempt from the cancellations.

Army plays football as a Division 1 independent while Navy plays football in the American Athletic Conference.

For now, Notre Dame is still scheduled to play Navy on Labor Day weekend but I feel safe in saying that is looking murky at very best, much like college football in general for 2020.