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| The Yale Bulldogs defeated Penn State, 21-17, and will face No. 3 Virginia on Monday in hopes of winning their second straight national championship. |
PHILADELPHIA—The Bulldogs have an opportunity to defend their 2018 national championship on the final day of the 2019 college lacrosse season. Eleven different players scored goals, including seven from rookie Matt Brandau, and Tewaaraton Finalist TD Ierlan won 28 face-offs and scooped 20 ground balls as the Yale Lacrosse Team defeated No. 1 Penn State, 21-17, in the national semifinals today at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Elis (15-3) earned a national championship game
appearance against No. 3 Virginia (15-3) Monday at 1 p.m. by jumping out to an
early lead, withstanding multiple offensive surges from the nation's top
scoring team and then cruising to a four-goal victory.
"I'm really proud of our guys for fighting through this
season and putting themselves in a position to go to the final four, and they
won a game and now we're in a position to defend it," said Yale Head Coach
Andy Shay. "We're going to try to attack these guys [Virginia] and do our
best on Monday."
A record-breaking start helped the Elis take a 10-2 lead
into the second quarter. The team in blue jerseys broke its record for goals in
a quarter when seven different players tallied as Yale notched nine of the
first 10 goals. The Bulldogs were buzzing out of the locker room, finding the
net on their first three shots and five of the first seven. Ierlan captured 10
of 13 on the X in the first to ignite the offense.
"I think it [all the different scorers] speaks to our
depth," said Shay. "We also have high-character kids who are okay
with other people having a little bit of the spotlight. They'll share the ball,
and whoever is on the end of the chain that gets the goal, they're just happy
we scored."
Not all the Yale scoring was coming off face-off wins.
First-year defenseman Bryce De Muth came off the bench to cause a turnover and
grab the ball, leading to a Joseph Sessa (4 points) bouncer to make it 6-1.
Not all the Bulldog scoring came from the starters. When
Brandau went out with an injury, senior Brendan Rooney stepped up and converted
a nice pass from Luke Eschbach in the third quarter to give the Blue a 15-10
lead. Much to the delight of his teammates and Yale fans, the rookie attackman
returned to score 4 goals in the fourth quarter and help close the deal.
Not all the Eli highlights came on the offensive side of the
field. Sophomore goalie Jack Starr came up with consecutive saves in the fourth
quarter with the game still in the balance, while classmate Brian Tevlin (2
points) caused three PSU turnovers. In addition, senior defenseman Robert
Mooney had 3 ground balls and a pair of caused turnovers.
Today was also another great day for junior attackman
Jackson Morrill, who had 3 goals and 2 assists while serving as the offensive
catalyst. He scored 52 seconds into the game, setting the tone for the historic
run.
"I think it does a lot of good things for us,"
Morrill said about his team's fast start. "We started moving the ball
quick and we knew Penn State could come back any moment. We knew it wasn't done
after the first quarter, so we tried to keep going at it one possession at a
time. I think we did a good job of that today."
Virginia, which last faced Yale in 1991, beat No. 3 Duke
13-12 in double overtime in the first semifinal.
BULLDOG BITES
The Elis handed the Nittany Lions their only losses in 2019…
Jackson Morrill passed Jon Reese '90 on Yale's career points list today with
his 5 points. He now has 204 in three seasons… Yale has won 7 straight NCAA
Tournament games… Matt Brandau's 7 goals are a school rookie record, surpassing
his 6-goal total earlier this season… Yale has met UVA once in the national
tournament, a 10-9 double OT win for the ACC school in 1988… Jack Tigh (4
points) and Matt Gaudet (2 goals) also had solid showings today... With today's
performance, TD Ierlan broke his own single-season win record and now has 375
this spring. He also smashed his own ground ball record from 2018.
—Staff Reports
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