FOXBOROUGH – Considering the conditions on Friday and early Saturday, the NCAA championships being held at Gillette Stadium all weekend have been fantastic.
The most fans since 2002 attended the women’s semifinal games on Friday night and on (at times) a beautiful day Saturday, 31,524 fans enjoyed the two mens’s semifinal games, with Cornell beating Penn State in a thriller 11-9 and Maryland methodically taking care of Syracuse 14-8.
Sunday will be a great day too, with the the women’s title game between Florida and North Carolina at one, the D2 men’s game with Adelphi and Tampa (4:00 p.m.) and then Tufts facing Dickinson looking to repeat in D3 at 7:00 p.m.
Northwestern head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller is a Hingham native and was a bit overwhelmed being in Foxborough after stunning BC with a 6-0 fourth quarter in brutal conditions on Friday night.
“It’s a little surreal for me being in the Patriots press conference room being from Hingham,” she said. “It feels unbelievable to have a long weekend at Gillette Stadium. Really grateful for the people that are hosting. Harvard University and just all the people from the NCAA that are making this event special.
“I think it’s a really unbelievable thing for the men and the women to be together at a stadium like this. I think it brings a lot of attention to our sport at a critical time in college athletics. I’m just really grateful to be a part of it in my hometown.”
The tailgates were firing early on Saturday morning. Laxachusetts kids were everywhere and got their moment to shine with a stroll around the field during the second game. Youth teams from all over the region – some lucky enough to get on the big video boards – were all lax bro’d up. Penn State easily took the best tailgate/representation award with a plane flying overhead throughout the day and a banner attached that read ‘We Are Penn State.’ Ultimately – as expected – Syracuse and Cornell fans dominated the lower bowl and corners of Gillette Stadium and it should be a sea of red again on Monday. A ton of orange and blue-wearing fans took the opportunity to pack the beer and food lines during a brief monsoon in-between the first and second game.
Merchandise stands were constantly full throughout the day, with kids looking to take home a hat (they were actually sick), hoodie or t-shirt from the latest and greatest time that New England was the center of the lacrosse universe.
Late in the second game with the seats mostly cleared out, a few kids were tossing a ball back and forth with their sticks in a true ‘this is what you want to see at this event’ kind of moment.
As for the action on the field, the first game was simply a display of what Cornell has done all season to earn the top seed, pulling away when they needed to do so.
After an oddly all-defensive first quarter – led largely by former Lincoln-Sudbury standout Matt Dooley – the Big Red took a 1-0 lead with just nine seconds left in the opening frame. Things quickly opened up with Penn State outscoring Cornell 5-3 in the second for a 5-4 halftime lead.
The Nittany Lions managed to completely shut down the top player in the country CJ Kirst (0 points), but Hugh Kelleher (hat trick) and Michael Long (2 goals) led the way in a six-goal third quarter. The Big Red had six other players score as well. The defense and goalie Wyatt Knust (9 saves) held Penn State to one goal in the quarter and took a 10-6 lead to the fourth. FOGO Jack Cascadden (16-24) played a big part in that too.
Goals from Liam Matthews (4 total with 3 assists) and Ethan Long (3 assists) cut it to two with 11 minutes to go and the large number of fans in all white were back into it. Two minutes later, Matt Traynor brought the Nittany Lions within one.
It was lockdown time from there for Cornell.
Knust came up big and another goal for Kelleher with 5:08 lift on a dish from Long made it 11-9. One more stand in the closing seconds and a mobbing at the net as time expired sent Cornell to the championship game in search of the program’s first title since 1977.
“Incredibly proud of our group,” said Cornell head coach Connor Buczek. “They stayed the course today. They played through 60 minutes. Even though there was pockets of that game that weren’t as pretty as we’d like, it’s about just surviving and advancing right now.
“Really proud of the ground ball effort most of the game. Our execution in the little details – specifically the ride and the clear – and really defensively, closing the door when we needed to get out offense going, find our footing and then playing together. So, incredible effort by our group and excited to have the opportunity to continue to compete on Monday.”
Game two was a fairly dominant display by John Tillman’s Maryland Terrapins. Boston native Jimmy McCool did make 12 saves for the Orange, but Tillman has his team back in the title game for the fourth time in five years and ninth in the last 14. The 18-0 season in 2022 was capped off with a win in that championship game against Cornell.
Eric Spanos (4 goals, 1 assist), Daniel Kelly (2 goals, 1 assist), Bryce Ford (2 goals) and five other goal scorers handled things on offense with long, drawn out possessions, while the defense made life extremely difficult for the Orange all day. Syracuse attempted 39 shots, but only 23 were on net as the Terps kept Joey Spallina off the scoresheet aside from a late assist with the game well in hand.
Maryland led 3-1 after one and 8-2 at the half after a suffocating second quarter.
Former Norwell star FOGO John Mullen – one of the Orange’s most important pieces of the puzzle – went 10-24 at the X, but did have a goal, opening the fourth quarter with a win, sprint to the cage and finish to make it 11-6.
Turnovers and an inability to create good looks inside led to the easiest 14 saves of Maryland goalie Logan McNaney’s career, squeezing the life (juice?) out of the Orange in a no-doubter for the majority of the 60 minutes.
“If anybody doesn’t know, they’re back,” Tillman said of Syracuse. “They’re really good. They’ve done a great job with that program. We knew it’d be tough today. They’ve been lighting up the scoreboard and just doing an awesome job, but, certainly proud of our guys.
“Excited to have two more days together. Obviously, a lot of work to do to play a really good (Cornell) team, but just proud of the effort today, the unselfishness. It’s kind of what these guys have done all year. We have great players, super dedicated and I couldn’t ask for a better staff.”
Whether it’s the Big Red or Terps pulling it out on Monday, the 2025 NCAA Championship Weekend – the sixth in Foxborough since 2008 – has been another smashing success and proof that the game continues to grow throughout New England.
Great job by everyone showing out this weekend, 2028 should be a blast again.
