Week 2 Betting Review, Plays of the Week, Week 3 Picks

Editor’s Note: Guest post by Hayden King

Last week, I won 66% of my bets going 10-5.

That puts the year record at 36-15, still at ~71%.

Recapping my Week 2

The 10 wins of the weekend came from: Cornell, Delaware, Michigan, Loyola, St. Josephs, Boston, Maryland, Air Force, Vermont, and Virginia. Cornell was a bit of a surprise here as I projected them beating Albany by 10+. Albany came out hot though and gave them quite a game, losing by 2 for a 12-10 finish.

As for losses, Bucknell and Georgetown are dead to me. I’ve bet on them two straight weeks, and each of them have been underwhelming. Georgetown is teetering with disaster early in the season and better hope their early losses are to end-of-season Top 10 opponents.

Also, I wrongly took Hobart over Lehigh, stating I thought Lehigh’s offense was too basic to compete with Hobart. I was very wrong. Although Hobart took an early lead, I forgot how important Mike Sisselbeger is, and this offense showed they can compete by pulling off the comeback. Won’t doubt Lehigh again.

I also lost picks with Manhattan beating Navy, and Army beating Rutgers. Both Manhattan/Army played well, and Navy/Rutgers significantly slid down in my personal rankings. Navy scheduled some weak opponents early, so it will be interesting to see how their season pans out.

The final point that needs to be addressed from week 2: I told you Cuse wasn’t back. I have them losing to UNC this weekend as well. However, Spallina is starting to show out which is a good sight to behold.

Highlight Plays of the Week:

New section that I’m going to try and keep up through the season, the best plays of the week. For each week, I’ll pick 3-5 of my favorite plays/goals from the week. Let me know which are your favorite! 

First up, I have Chad Palumbo of Princeton lacrosse with this beautiful little shovel goal on the inside. Chad’s a player I’m very excited about and you should be too. If you don’t know him, check out his High School highlight tape and you’ll see plenty of beautiful crafty finishes like this one: 

Next on the list is Kavanagh’s beautiful BTB feed in traffic.

I said it at the start of the season, but this team is VERY good, and a must watch every week. Could Pat and Chris share the Tewaaraton in May?

We’ve been waiting for something like this next goal since we heard the news that Dante Trader would be playing Terp lacrosse in the Spring.

His athleticism is insane, and you can tell how well he recognizes spacing: 

This next play is possibly one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen from a goalie in ANY sport. Playing man down is hard enough, as you’re often taking open shots with time and room.

Making FOUR saves in less than 20 seconds while man down, well that’s just insane:

Last but definitely not least, we have a beautiful BTB from Thomas Greenblatt of Binghamton.

The BTB is nice, but the angle he releases it at makes this goal worthy of some recognition:

I’m purposely leaving out the Spallina goal, assuming most people have already seen it.

Must Watch Games and Who to Pick

Lehigh @ Cornell:

Cornell won when they played Lehigh last year 9-5. That game was at Lehigh, but this year the Mountain Hawks will be headed to Ithaca to play the Big Red’s first home game of the year. I love Cornell in this matchup, but I don’t expect a lot of goals to be scored. Be careful betting the over.

Notre Dame @ Georgetown:

As I mentioned, Georgetown is dead to me and we’re only in week 3 of the season. They’re in a free fall right now, and I don’t think life is going to get any easier for the Hoya’s. 

They’ll be facing off against Notre Dame this week, which if you haven’t been able to see Notre Dame yet, I think they’re going to be in for another rough week. Both Kavanagh’s are already playing at Tewaaraton level, and the transfers they acquired are all playing exceptionally. Check out my previous blog for why they’re an attractive future:

Also, if you trust history: Notre Dame beat Georgetown last year.

Maryland @ Princeton

The most important game of the weekend will be on Saturday when Princeton faces Maryland. Princeton just obliterated Monmouth 22-9, and Maryland is coming off a nice beating of the Orange. Princeton also has a midweek win over Manhattan, but came out very flat to start the game.

I love Maryland in this game, and I think it’s going to be one of the more valuable picks of the week. Lines aren’t out yet so we will have to see. Maryland beat Cuse mostly due to their dominance at the faceoff X. I still think their offense will struggle against better defenses and teams that pressure their faceoff strength.

The Tigers seem like they’re still figuring out their faceoff situation, securing a little more than 50% of their faceoffs. However, they’re balanced on defense, have a good goalie, and have plenty of offensive firepower. I think this is going to be a very close game, and if the Terps can keep the faceoff pressure on, I think they’ll come out with a W.

Full Weekend Picks

1. Air Force over Stony Brook (Friday at SB)
2. Richmond over Towson (Friday at Richmond)
3. Army over Mercer (Saturday at Mercer)
4. Cornell over Lehigh (Saturday at Cornell)
5. Notre Dame over Georgetown (Saturday at GTown)
6. Hopkins over Utah (Saturday at Utah)
7. Yale over Penn State (Saturday at Yale)
8. St. Joseph’s over Providence (Saturday at St. Josephs)
9. Hobart over Colgate (Saturday at Colgate)
10. Penn over Duke (Saturday at Penn)
11. Loyola over Rutgers (Saturday at Loyola)
12. Maryland over Princeton (Saturday at Princeton)
13. Harvard over Bucknell (Saturday at Harvard)
14. Virginia over Ohio State (Saturday at Virginia)
15. Delaware over Vilanova (Sunday at Delaware)

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