NCAA Lacrosse

Last game of the weekend is on right now. And in the D1 final, loyola(MD) is beating Maryland 6-3 in the third ( a bit of a surprise). All the other traditional powers went by the wayside fairly early.

It's on ESPN

Final— Loyola 9- UMD 3

Or Eric Lusby 4- UMD 3, depending on how you count. Loyola scored The last 7 goals of the game.

Lusby scored a record 13 goals in the tournament.

It's Loyola's first trophy.

Geez, and others, you’ve got to see this movie I saw last evening – it’s called “Crooked Arrows,” and it about Lacrosse, for god’s sake!

Oh sure, it’s corny, but it’s enjoyable.

Who knew? Apparently lacrosse is America’s oldest sport, played by the six nations of the Iroquois confederacy going back a thousand years or more. The movie is borrows liberally from every sports movie ever made, but it somehow works.

The Sunaquat, a team of Native Americans, becomes a worthy underdog rooting interest , matched as they are against snooty prep schools, each more wealthy and arrogant than the next. I saw it in British Columbia, but I think the movie gets nationwide release in a couple of weeks, and it’s in Portland now.

I played for one of those snooty teams( though mine was a snooty public HS) and used to go up to the Onandaga reservation each year to pick out new sticks from the guys who made them and play the local kids as part of Preseason training. This was back when the sticks were hickory like the ones the Braves are holding in your photo.
They are holding what looks like regulation Women's sticks, btw.

We normally beat them, but every year we got so many bruises we couldn't walk for a week. The rest of the season was a piece of cake.

Lacrosse is called "the little brother of war" by the Six Nations and the Ojibway/Chippewa, and is the only sport I can think of that won a battle.

In 1763, about 1000 Ojibway and Sauk braves started playing a game outside fort Michilamackinac at the start of Pontiac's rebellion. I think it was the King's birthday or some such celebration. British troops came out to watch, whereupon the natives stormed through the open gates and took the fort without a shot being fired. The native women smuggled some weapons into the fort and about 15 Brits were killed outright, and 5 were ritually tortured to death.

The Mohawk word for Lacrosse is Tewaaraton, which again, means " little brother of war"
Some tribes also call it Baggataway ("they bump hips") and it was also called the Creator's game.)

The top award in Lacrosse is the Tewaaraton Trophy, given to the best men's and Women's player each year. The award was announced yesterday.

This year, the men's award went to Peter Baum from Colgate, who scored a record 67 goals and 97 points this season. (In Lacrosse, you get one point for a goal or assist) What makes this notable is that he played high school ball right here for Lincoln High and is the first recipient from West of the Mississippi. He is only a Junior.

Congrats to him, and to the progress in Oregon Lacrosse. When I moved here, no one played.