Last night the Langley Thunder blew out the Brampton Excelsiors, 11-3. The Thunder have been an underdog all playoffs, surprisingly topping Victoria and New Westminster, but after this barrage it is time to take them seriously.

Alex Turner led the way for Langley was three goals, while Rob Van Beek and Athan Iannucci had two a piece. Jarrett Toll, Kyle McEwen, Andrew Potter and Jamie Lincoln also scored in the affair. Brodie MacDonald saved 28 of 31 shots on net for the Thunder. Langley attacked Brampton with a 46 shot effort where John Edwards made 35 saves. Anthony Cosmo could not play in this game, and he may miss the entire series due to a work commitment in Ontario.

For the Excelsiors, Zack Greer, Jarrett Davis and Dave Campbell picked up the lone goals. All three of the points were scored in the first period, before MacDonald put on his clinic. He continues to lead the Thunder to victory, and they are now three wins away from winning the Mann Cup.

Game two is tonight at 7:45 pacific time, 10:45 eastern time and can be watched on theboxrocks.com. The game will take place in Langley, the host city of this year’s Mann Cup.

Orange, CA – Chapman is pleased to announce the promotion of Ryan Berger to the position of offensive coordinator and the hiring of Jason Leneau as an assistant coach. Both coaches assume their duties immediately and will be instrumental in preparing for the 2012 spring season.

Atlanta, G.A. At the conclusion of the Georgia Tech Lacrosse team’s fall meeting last week, two student-athletes have been tabbed as team captains for the 2011-2012 Georgia Tech men’s lacrosse team by a vote of their teammates. Along with the captain position’s, new officers have been elected by their peers, Head Coach Ken Lovic announced today.

By Paul Weiss, CollegeLAX Contributor

Over the past week and half twitter has exploded with team meeting dates and times.  Every team gets together with the hopes of winning a National Championship, or at least, doing better than the previous year.  For some it will be end in victory with others in defeat, figuratively anyway.  As teams finalize their schedules, the discussion of D1 teams playing D2 teams came up.  I am not surprised as the separation of the two divisions seems to be argued every year, and I weighed in in “Between a Rock and a Hard Place.”

It would seem games across divisions wouldn’t make sense in anything but a scrimmage format.  It isn’t like many NCAA D1 teams are playing Salisbury and vice versa.  This issue to me is relatively simple and straight forward.  The downside for the Division I team far outweigh the upside.  Here are the reason

What is the REAL benefit?

Playing better competition?  Maybe, but is it really?  A team could funnel that money to go play a higher level Division I team or host that high level Division I team.  There is some value from the teams competing in a scrimmage to help enhance a better team chemistry, sets, etc. (all the things worked in a scrimmage) but outside of that, to make it a game “that counts” doesn’t add any value.

Polls and At-Large bids

Perhaps I am being crass, but I don’t believe a loss to a Division II team would not affect a Division I team’s tournament status.  Utah played Westminster last year, winning 8-7.  When the selection committee was looking at Utah’s at large hopes, it is doubtful they were discussing their win over the Griffins.  If they were, it was likely to compare the winning score to that of BYU’s which was 16-3.  For a team who might be in the hunt down the stretch, it doesn’t make sense to risk the even chance for this to be a potential obstacle to an at-large bid.

Injuries

What happens if your best player gets injured?  In a game that would essentially be a learning tool for your team it makes no sense to risk injury to a team’s best players.  Of course they can get injured in any game, including a game against a perennial cellar dwellar, but at least all of those games truly “count” towards getting into the National Championship discussion.

Recruiting

Recruiting is one of the number one things an MCLA program can do to enhance its program.  In the eyes of recruits, losing to a Division II opponent is only going to hurt the team, not help them.  Some might argue this doesn’t matter, but it does.  You don’t think teams like Chapman, FSU, etc. who play NCAA programs don’t recruit using the fact they won as a tool?  They would be silly not to.  The ability to have wins over a programs competing for similar athletes matter.

It may not be a popular response, but the fact remains, teams must look out for their best interest.  It seems this is a pretty strong case of why the teams should not play in anything more than a controlled scrimmage.

Next Week,  MCLA Division I Pre-Season Top 25 is coming out.

By Paul Weiss, CollegeLAX Contributor

The Boston Terriers have been on the rise.  The program has always had a respectable PCLL record, but have never been a true threat to go anywhere.  In 2007 the team finished 7-7 overall, 4-5 in conference.  They lost to Connecticut, New Hampshire, Boston College, Northeastern, and Rhode Island while netting wins over Connecticut and a bunch of current PCLL Division II teams.  To further the cause for concern, the Terriers lost to Northeastern by a score of 25-4 and Boston College 14-2.  Each year the team has gotten a little bit better and scored wins over Boston College & Northeastern in the 2008.  The program continued to strive forward and last year lost one goal game to New Hampshire, Central Florida, and Boston College but scored victories over Georgia Tech, Auburn, and Pittsburgh.  It is clear, the Terriers were on the rise.

For Immediate Release

Pittsburg, PA (08/31/2011) - The University of Pittsburgh Men’s Lacrosse team is proud to announce the hiring of three new assistant coaches for the 2011/2012 season:

James McCready joins the PITT coaching staff for the 2011/2012 season after concluding this playing career at Canisius College of Buffalo.  In high school, James earned 4th varsity lacrosse letters at Iroquois High School, and was named the teams most valuable offensive player in 2005 and 2006 while earning second-team all-Western New York Accolades. James was recruited to play at Ohio Wesleyan University, and transferred to Canisius where he helped to win the MAAC tournament in 2008, and was named to the MAAC all-academic team from 2009-2011.  Most Recently, James coached theU13 EMW Lacrosse team in the summer of 2011.

Ben Petchel joins the PITT coaching staff for the 2011/2012 season after coaching at Peters Township High School for two years.  At Peter’s Twp, Ben was the Head JV Coach and Varsity Offensive Coordinator and helped lead the Indians to a 23-16 record over his two years.  Ben played college lacrosse at at Seton Hill University where he was a three-time Captain and Offensive MVP.

Mike Washington joins the PITT coaching staff for the 2011/2012 season after finishing his playing career at Seton Hill University. Mike is also purusing a PhD in Analytical and Organic chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh.

Coach McCready and Coach Petchel will be working with the Panther Offense as they try to keep building the offense in this upcoming season, while Coach Washington will be working with the midfielders, long stick midfielders, and the transistion game.

For Immediate Release

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Zach Higgins and Alexis Buque both were members of the Jr. A Lacrosse Whitby Warriors this past summer in which they competed in the Canadian Lacrosse Association. On August 28th they led the Warriors to the 2011 Minto Cup Championship in which they captured the crown with a 12-7 vicotry over the Coquitlam Adanacs.

The Minto Cup is awarded annually to the top Canadian Junior Men’s Lacrosse team. The 2011 championship is the first for the Whitby Warriors since 1999.

After falling behind in the best of three series, 0-1, the Warriors posted 5-4 and 12-7 victories to capture the Minto Cup crown. Both Zach and Alexis saw time in the net for the Warriors with Higgins posting both wins in the best of three championship series.

Higgins posted a 3-1 record in five appearances at the tournament with an 85% save percentage. Buque appeared in three games for the Warriors posting a 2-1 record with 66 saves.

Zach and Alexis were both members of the 2011 MCLA National Championship and will return to DU for their senior and sophomore seasons in 2012.

My first night in Germany is in the books, and what a night it was. I’ll be the first to say, that much traveling in 2 days is too much. I have no idea what time it is here or at home, all’s I know is that I got about 4 hours of sleep last night and it wasn’t enough, so after I write this I am going back to bed.

In the waning seconds of the MLL championship game on Sunday, Casey Powell injured his knee. As he limped off the field, questions about a torn ACL arose and then possibly about his career being over.

Corey McLaughlin from Lacrosse Magazine said that this could have been the last game we ever saw Powell play. There is still a lot to happen before we know if that is true or not, but if it is, what now?

First off, the Boston Blazers from the National Lacrosse League would be in trouble. With the season starting in January, they would have to re evaluate their roster now and maybe look into the draft a little differently. They might have to put their defensive worries aside and look at offensive players now.

The Hamilton Nationals have to decide whether to protect him for the expansion draft. Do they hold another player instead? Or do they protect Powell, who looked like his vintage self on Sunday? If his career is over, they have no reason keeping him, so they would leave him off.

Also, how does this affect USA lacrosse? Aside from Paul Rabil, Powell has been the face of American lacrosse players since he first started playing pro in 1999. How bad would USA fall off in competition against Canada in world tournaments?

We will still not know until later this week, but if Casey Powell’s career is indeed done, then lacrosse lost one of it’s best players and maybe right now, one of the faces of our great game.

The Hamilton Nationals are a young and hungry team. The Denver Outlaws are chokers. Those are the cliches we keep hearing going into MLL Championship Weekend. The Nationals want it, but do the Outlaws? Can they put their past behind them?

Casey Powell provides maybe the X factor maybe in the entire MLL for the Nationals, adding to their already good offense. Cody Jamieson, Jeremy Boltus and Kevin Crowley have made the Nationals one of the most dynamic teams in Major League Lacrosse.

However, the Outlaws have defeated the Nationals two times, but they are both different teams now. The Nationals have gotten hot, while there are some concerns with Denver. Mid season they fell into a four game skid, including two losses to the Rochester Rattlers, their only two wins on the season. They were able to win some late games to become the #2 seed, but they still have question marks.

With Jesse Schwartzman the Outlaws certainly have the advantage in goal, though Scott Rodgers has played pretty well for the Nats. On offense, it might be a toss up. The Nationals have the potential to be the best but you cannot deny names like Brenden Mundorf, Brian Langtry and Drew Westervelt.

Who will win, the up and coming team, or the team that has competed for years but has never saw the championship?

For Immediate Release

St. Louis, MO (August 24, 2011) - The Missouri Baptist University Men’s Lacrosse Program is excited to announce that they will be hosting the 2012 St. Louis Invitational March 15-19.  The teams in attendance are comprised of teams including: 2011 National Champions Davenport University and 2009 and 2010 National Champions St. Thomas University.  Other teams accepting the invitation are: North Dakota State University who finished at number 8 in the national polls, Kennesaw State University who finished at number 17, and Northern Colorado University who finished at 25 in the Collegelax.us Coaches’ poll.  The Invitational will be hosted by Missouri Baptist University (#14) and Missouri State University (#21).

By Paul Weiss, CollegeLAX Contributor

Last week I wrote a column about why MCLA teams should recruit.  It got a less than thrilling response.

I was surprised MCLA teams were not more interested in engaging in conversation about recruiting and the effects it will have on your program.  Naturally, I thought more MCLA coaches would have read my column and emailed me or tweeted me.  As it stood, I either have very few readers or they just did not feel a need to comment.  While recruiting is not a controversial or volatile topic, it is probably the most important step that more programs must take to reach the upper echelons of the MCLA.

BALTIMORE, Aug. 24, 2011 — US Lacrosse’s men’s game leadership has announced its end-of-season man of the year, coach of the year and assistant coach of the year awards in more than 36 states and the District of Columbia. Combined, the three awards recognize 230 ambassadors of the game who have demonstrated significant contributions to the game in their area and beyond.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Denver, Colorado (August 23, 2011)- North America’s only radio show dedicated to the sport of Lacrosse returns this Thursday in a joint venture with www.collegelax.us.   Lacrosse Talk teamed up with CollegeLAX when they were approached by CollegeLAX to get back on the air.  “We saw an opportunity to expand the CollegeLAX audience,” founder Sonny Pieper stated.  Pieper continued,” More importantly it was a way to help grow the MCLA.  Our partnership with Lacrosse Talk and InLaxWeTrust, gives us avenues into the professional lacrosse game, as well as the youth and High School game, which in turn ought to help provide more exposure for the MCLA. “

For Immediate Release

Storrs, CT – The University of Connecticut Men’s Lacrosse program is proud to announce the hiring of Paul Scordato as the program’s new head coach. Coach Scordato brings with him to Storrs over 30 years of coaching experience ranging from the youth level to NCAA Division II.

A native of Westchester, NY, Scordato was a two-time captain and first team All-County defenseman for Lakeland/Panas High School. Upon completing high school he attended the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, where he studied Marine Engineering and was a two-time captain for the Buccaneers Men’s Lacrosse program, as well as team MVP and conference MVP his Senior year.