Merry delayed Christmas everyone, it’s been awhile since my last post and I’ve got a lot to cover this week. With only a couple of weeks left before the kick off to the season I wanted to take a look at who, when, and where this season big games are.
First off some of you are probably wondering why a number of teams only have half a schedule list on MCLA.com, well part of the is because for the MCLA to recognize the game both teams have to approve the game and then it will attached to exist schedule on the website. This is extremely annoying seeing as four of the top five teams, from Lacrosse Magazine’s official pre- season poll, don’t have a full complement of games, at the moment at least. Hopefully the teams can get their schedules finalized and up on MCLA.com.
Now on to the big games this season, first and foremost I’d like to say that there are a lot of intense rivalries that I won’t be mentioning more because I will be hitting the best games at the best time of year and because there are so many of the those heated rivalries.
NDSU vs. Western Oregon: Sunday March 24th at Dacotah Field in Fargo, ND
When these two teams met in 2011 out in Oregon the Wolves from Western Oregon came out on top in a 15-13 slog in the rain. It was an intense and exciting game and created a nice rivalry that the two teams are chomping at the bit to renew after a year away from each other. Western Oregon has become one of the most vilified teams in the MCLA do the how their fans conduct themselves on the many forums around the internet. It will be great to see these top 20 teams go at in the cold tundra of Fargo.
Grand Valley State vs. Davenport: Wednesday March 27th at East Grand Rapids High in Grand Rapids MI
What can I say about this game other than epiciness continued. GVSU and Davenport will meet up once again, now this will be the first that teams will not have a chance of meeting up later on in the season but after seeing what the two did in a charity game this fall I can say that this will be one of those games that you will not want to miss.
St. Johns vs. Dayton: Saturday March 23rd at Techney Prairie and Field in Norhtbrook, IL
These perennial National powers meet up again and it will pit the Defensive machine of the Johnnies against the Offensive Machine of the Flyers. Now the Flyers have won the 6 of the 7 meetings and three of those were to end the Johnnies seasons. Along with that history underlying the game there will be probably the best match up of the season between Will McCormick (Dayton) and Steve Johnson (SJU) both are probably the best at their positions and will make for an intense battle.
Liberty vs. SCAD: March 2nd at SCAD Field in Savannah, GA
With the young upstarts from Liberty cracking the top 20 in the pre-season and SCAD being a perennial power on the national stage this sets up for a great game and clash of that will probably have reverberations felt all the way into the post season. Liberty may be a newer program but they are definitely not short on talent or work ethic. SCAD has made to the National Tournament for last three years and will look to return again with the National Tournament in their back yard.
Wash- St. Louis vs. Missouri Baptist: Tuesday April 2nd at an undetermined site
I have spoken extremely highly of both these teams in the past and I will continue to do so when they set up to play each other late in the season. This game like the Liberty/ SCAD game will probably set up which team makes it to the National Tournament. This game just looks great with both teams being a lot alike and also only separated in the polls by on spot and probably around 10 votes.
With these games and so many more this season that will have an impact on the National stage I cannot wait to for this season to start and get rolling. If anyone has more games that are poised to big wave makers let me know in the comments and I’ll let you know what I think. Also Laxx.tv (along with ILWT) will have all the best games on their site this year, so go and watch them.
