Late in the third quarter of Johns Hopkins’ 1995 NCAA men’s lacrosse semifinal loss to Maryland, Blue Jays coach Tony Seaman bent down and picked up grass by frustration.
And then he picked up some more.
In the history of the NCAA Tournament, perhaps no goalie has played better than former Terps star Brian Dougherty. He made 23 saves on 59 shots in Maryland’s 16-8 semifinal victory over Johns Hopkins, which featured two of the best forwards in school history, Terry Riordan and Brian Piccola. The Blue Jays fired 19 shots in the first quarter alone and Dougherty made 12 saves.
In the championship game a day later, Syracuse beat Maryland 13-9, but Dougherty also made 23 saves in that contest.
You see the picture. A team can ride a good goalie far into the tournament. As the quarterfinals begin this weekend in Albany, New York and Annapolis, No. 5 seed Penn State and Army West Point appear to have those players in Jack Fracyon of the Nittany Lions and Knox Dent of the Black Knights.
But the best is Notre Dame’s Liam Entenmann. The 6-foot-3, 192-pound senior is well-built and has a .569 save percentage, fifth best in the country. He is the proverbial wall.
“I think the best goalie from start to finish in this tournament this year has been Entenmann,” said ESPN lacrosse analyst Quint Kessenich, a former All-American goalie at Johns Hopkins. “Obviously Notre Dame plays great defense and they support us, so their goaltending stats are usually a few percentage points high every year, but he’s really good.
“He is tall, has a strong angle game and a very consistent mental game, can make the big save and has improved gradually throughout his career. He is very battle tested and handles the ball well outside the net. He is the sure value of the group.
Yet the buzzword is still “hot.” A goalie playing well this time of year has become vitally important once the shot clock is introduced in 2019. Instead of emphasizing faceoffs and blocks, teams had to focus on scoring.
“You can’t keep the ball for four minutes straight,” Kessenich said. “It puts a little more burden, a little more responsibility on the goalkeepers, which I think is the right balance for the game. It’s a much better game.”
Fracyon, a native of Annapolis, made 16 saves in Penn State’s 13-12 win over Princeton last weekend. Dent was just as effective, denying Maryland 16 times in Army surprises 16-15 win over No. 4 seed Terps.
Both survived substantial runs from their opponents. Fracyon has a .573 save percentage this season (third best nationally), compared to Dent’s .539 (12th).
“In his last five games, he’s been on fire,” Kessenich said of Fracyon. “He’s really light, extremely calm, I mean, calm. You look at him and it’s almost like he’s impassive. Usually he starts maybe a little slow and then he finishes his games. He closed out his last five or six games just by seeing the ball.
“The Army goalie played very well against Maryland. I love his aggression. He’s kind of like an old school goalie who really attacks the ball. He has these black high cleats like John Unitas.
Virginia guard Matthew Nunes, a sophomore, is also a throwback. He plays a lot like Kessenich, a guard who could make the shot but wasn’t afraid to take off and run. Nunes (.529 save percentage) is part of the reason the Cavaliers prefer the 10 man game, but opponents like Maryland started to figure it out last season.
Nunes, however, could be a “sleeper” when it comes to goaltending play in the rest of the tournament, as can Johns Hopkins senior Tim Marcille (.507). He carried the Blue Jays defense through the third quarter of the season, but has struggled recently.
“I give Timmy credit, I think he played well in February and early March,” Kessenich said. “In the last five games before Bryant, he was in a bad way, but if you put him on a shooting chart, teams were looking at him just fine from 5 and 10 yards with their feet set without a lot of defensive traffic on the path.
“I don’t blame that on him as much as the team’s total defense and I thought he played very well against Bryant in that first quarter when he made five stops on tough shots. He can be a little nervous if he trusts himself. His problem is that sometimes he tends to overthink it, maybe guess a little more instead of reading and reacting, but I think Hopkins has done some good job with him.
NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals
Saturday in Albany, New York
No. 2 seed Virginia vs. No. 7 seed Georgetown, noon
No. 1 seed Duke vs. Michigan, 2:30 p.m.
Sunday in Annapolis
No. 5 seed Penn State vs. Army West Point, noon
No. 3 seed Notre Dame vs. No. 6 seed Johns Hopkins, 2:30 p.m.
Television/Broadcast: ESPNU, ESPN+
