Lax Punk

Originally published on LaxSpot.com on 5/9/08

Quarterfinals:
Duke over Ohio State
Johns Hopkins over North Carolina
Syracuse over Notre Dame
Virginia over Maryland

Semis:
Duke over Johns Hopkins
Syracuse over Virginia

Finals:
Duke vs Syracuse - Winner TBA!

Cuse has had a great season, but so has Duke.  This game will be high scoring.

D2 Mens:
First Round (May 17th): 
Lemoyne over Bryant
Limestone over NYIT

Finals:
Lemoyne vs Limestone - Winner TBA!

D3 Mens:
First Round:  It already happend on Wednesday but Punk would’ve picked all the winners.  OWU, Bowdoin, Springfield, WNEC

Second Round:  
Cortland over Springfield
Middlebury over Bowdoin
Ithaca over Williams
Saint Lawrence over WNEC
Salisbury over OWU
Haverford over Cabrini
Washington over Lynchburg
Gettysburg over Denison

Quarterfinals:
Cortland over Middlebury
Ithaca over Saint Lawrence
Salisbury over Haverford
Gettysburg over Washington

Semis:
Cortland over Ithaca
Salisbury over Gettysburg <–Punk flipped this from his 4/30 picks

Finals:
Cortland vs Salisbury - Winner TBA!

Yes for the third straight year these two powerhouse state universities will face off in the D3 finals.  Punk expects to see lots of tight shirts and gold chains on one side and shaggy hair and madaras shorts on the other.  A standard NY vs MD battle.

Now time for the ladies.  Gotta love the ladies!  I think their sticks are better than guys after watching some top teams play this season.

D1 Womens:
First Round:  
Northwestern over Notre Dame
Vanderbilt over Princeton
Towson over Syracuse
Virginia over North Carolina
Maryland over Temple
Georgetown over Duke
Boston U over New Hampshire
Penn over Colgate

Quarterfinals:
Northwestern over Vanderbilt
Virginia over Towson
Maryland over Georgetown
Penn over Boston U

Semis:
Virginia over Northwestern
Maryland over Penn

Finals:
Virginia vs Maryland - Winner TBA!

Upsets, upsets, upsets.  You heard it here first!

D2 Womens:
First Round:  
Adelphi over CW Post
West Chester over Limestone

Finals:
Adelphi vs West Chester - Winner TBA!

D3 Womens:
Second Round:  
Salisbury over St. Mary’s
Rowan over Catholic
Gettysburg over Middlebury
Hamilton over Colby

F&M over Babson

W&L over Amherst

Cortland over Union

Semis:
Salisbury over Hamilton
TCNJ over Cortland

Finals:

Originally published on LaxSpot.com on 4/30/08

Punk has been laying low for the most part as of late. I got to go to a great show this past week featuring Trever Keith from Face to Face. He played his new solo album but announced that Face to Face is back together (well part-time anyway) but is planning on touring again starting this summer. It is a must make show for anyone who is a fan, or is into any type of music!

So there is a big weekend coming up to decide the seedings in all divsions. I can’t give any brackets, because that would take too much thought tonight. But if the Final Four weekend was upon us, here are Punk’s picks. On Sunday, May 4th, we’ll have a better picture of what to expect.

Most of D1 is pretty much set. Will there be a Delaware this year, who knows. Duke had a handle on UVA in the ACC finals until the 4th quarter, but with that potent offense, they should cruise into the Final Four. In D2 will most likely be the norm. D3 however, watch out for Cortland. They are putting up numbers and I don’t think that anyone in D3 can stop Ryan Heath. Gburg may just put a stop to Salisbury’s streak of finals appearences.

D1:
Duke
UVA
Syracuse
Georgetown

Champion: Duke

D2:
Lemoyne
Limestone

Champion: Lemoyne

D3:
Gettysburg
Cortland

Champion: Cortland

Face to Face - Disconnected

Originally published on LaxSpot.com on 4/1/08

Wow, some shake ups in the polls over the past few weeks.  Punk is surprised by Cuse and MD thus far.  After the dismantling of UVA by MD, just think how good this MD team could be in a year or so after these freshmen get some big game experience.  (Like UVA, Duke, etc don’t count). 

Two teams that have Punk perplexed are Towson and UMass.  I can understand UMass having some trouble due to the brawlers, etc, but what’s up with Towson? 

Punk posted a poll prior to the season and now its time to re-evaluate.  Punk was right with JHU not being #1 his original poll.  It’s tough to pick those 10-20 because they beat on each other all season.  The top 10 is the place to be.  So here is Punks Top 10 with 11-20 in no particular order and two surprise votes because Punk likes to cause trouble.

1.   Duke
2.   Syracuse
3.   UVA
4.   UNC
5.   Maryland
6.   Cornell
7.   Georgetown
8.   Navy
9.   Norte Dame
10. UMBC

Johns Hopkins, Hofstra, Princeton, Drexel, Loyola, Stonybrook, Harvard, Delaware, Salisbury, Lemoyne

Originally published on LaxSpot.com on 3/15/08

Everyone knows Samuel Powers. aka “Screech”, aka “The Screechmeister”, aka “The Screechster” but few knew about his glory on the field as a decoy playing the role of a 4th clearing middie. Punk was at the Bayside Hall of Fame recently and found the information to be startling and it all turns out to be quite tragic.

It turns out that before the gang all suddenly moved one summer to their sunny destination in California with a strikingly similar school, they attended middle school in Indiana at John F. Kennedy JR High School which had a co-ed club lax team coached by Miss Bliss who came across the sport from one of her deadbeat boyfriends. As a coach, she wanted to give everyone on the team a fair shake. So to get the Screechster on the field she revolutionized the game as we know it and came up with the clearing middie position.

Screech’s playing time caused a lot of problems at JFK. Mikey quit the team because he got into a heated battle with Miss Bliss because he had to sit for Screech while Lisa and Nikki got to stay on the field. Zack didn’t seem to mind as long as Milo padded his ground ball stats.

When the gang moved to Cali, they tried to get a club team going to play the game they love. But Max, the owner of the best burger joint and hangout in town spent all the sponsorship money he had set aside on new magic items such as a top hat and a squirting flower. The boys and girls were crestfallen. With new transfer hunk and star athlete Albert Clifford Slater, they surely had a chance to beat Valley, but now we’ll never now.

Not having lacrosse in their lives turned out to lead many in the group and at Bayside to make bad decisions. Jessie turned to speed pills to cope because there’s never enough time and began dancing. Zack went on to drink and drive and crash Lisa Turtle’s moms Mercedes. Mr. Belding disowned his brother after bailing on a team trip to go rafting. Some of the girls that were going to play on the team turned to cheerleading and began rapping their cheers….”bebbebebbeeb go Bayside”. And finally and most tragic, the All-American girl next store Kelly Kapowski changed her name to Valerie Malone and became easily the most promiscuous girl in the 90210 zip code.

Originally published on LaxSpot.com on 3/12/08

Just rockin out at work here…it’s Social D time.We had yet another great weekend of lax and things are only going to get better as the weather warms up.  Besides that, Punk can start wearing the hammock without being too cold. 

The lacrosse classic a couple weekends ago was a good time except the frigid weather.  I didn’t even make it to Flogging Molly later that night due to the adult beverage consumption.  I saw the Lax Spot folks there hitting on every girl that walked by.  I guess that’s how they roll?

Big win for the Flyin’ Dutchmen last week.  Pride is just a lame name and Punk refuses to say it ever again.  JHU had a tough week with a tight one against UMBC as well.  Punk thought Loyola was going to have a turn around year, but they just balled up and took steel tipped kodiaks to the teeth for about 60 minutes against the Dukies.  Their pride was out the window after the opening whistle and it showed.  If you’re playing big time D1 ball, you should wear that heart on your sleeve all day, not just out at the bar trying to pick up chicks and start fights at CVPs.  Okay, I said pride again but they looked ridiculous and had HUGE heads after a few wins.   

I would update on my Fantasy NLL team, however the good networking folks have placed a block on the site here at work.  Maybe I’ll take some time from being rad to check it later.

The Pogues are playing tonight in Baltimore with the Pietasters.  Always a treat to see the Pietasters as they put on a fun and energetic show.  Grab your keys in one hand and your beer in the other..drink! drink! drink!

Originally published on LaxSpot.com on 2/27/08

Men’s College Lacrosse is in good shape thus far in this cold 2008. Last weekend, at least here in Baltimore we got two games on regular TV (Loyola v Towson, MD v Gtown).  I was told that ESPN U had the JHU v Albany game on also.   Not too shabby if you didn’t want to freeze your butt off.

From what I personally saw, and I know it’s Week 1 for most teams, Towson is in for a long year, Gtown will turn things around and the Terps could be in for a real fun year with those freshman.  That one kid Grant Catalino is a big boy who has 7 goals already.

What is up with Virginia?  They should be mopping the floor with teams such as Drexel and Stonybrook but they didn’t.  At least they came out on top and also took down Vermont this week as well.

As far as who is “The Team” right now, it’s too early to say.  I like North Carolina winning some games.  It’s about time they turn around that program.  If not, send Haus to my office, cuz he’s fired.

In D2 action, Bryant spanked Adelphi.  I don’t know how Adelphi is supposed to be this season, but this is something out of the ordinary in D2.  I know of all the hype over Bryant with Pressler there, but thats a wollop of a win, 16-7 starting out 6-0 for the Bulldogs.

The main D3 story has to be that Salisbury barely held off Lynchburg for a 10-9 victory and according to Gull Fan, it was the first time that the Gulls were blanked in a quarter since a 3-2 OT win vs OWU in 2001.  Punk was there.

And finally, I think that there’s nothing better than a lax-playin chick as I saw quite a few last weekend at various lacrosse functions.   I guess I have a soft spot for a nice gal that can lax it up.  Does that make me a laxtitute?  If so, I’m okay with that and feel free to label me.

Originally published on LaxSpot.com on 1/30/08

Punk’s preseason picks are so much more reliable than the other “sources”.  What do they know?  We’ll see.  I don’t care who won last year, they’re not #1 to start out in the Punk Poll. 

1. Virginia
2. Duke
3. Georgetown
4. Johns Hopkins
5. Princeton
6. Maryland
7. North Carolina
8. Cornell
9. Syracuse
10. Notre Dame
11. Navy
12. Towson
13. Loyola
14. Albany
15. UMBC
16. Hofstra
17. Ohio State
18. Delaware
19. Bucknell
20. Drexel

Originally published on LaxSpot on 1/27/08

I don’t know how I can top that All-Time Best of The Wire team post.  Man that show is great.  I watch a week ahead on On-Demand so i won’t ruin anything for ya this week. 

So apparently I messed my NLL fantasy team up by not starting a D-man.  I will have to get on the wires and get a good transition guy.  I’m 0-1 right now and when the site updates, I’m sure to be 0-2 when they re-tally.  I have a good group of guys and I messed it up.  Way to go Punk!

Here’s the guys on my roster:  A good group, I messed up.  I guess my dominance from last year is over.  I’ll rebound just wait.

So punk hit up two shows last week which is crazy because I haven’t been able to hit up any shows lately.  The first was a total pop-punk show with The Queers at the Ottobar in Baltimore near JHU.  Punk had a great time sporting his GIANTS jersey in front of those new england pop-punkers.  They rocked even though Joe had a bum voice from playin so many shows over the past few weeks.  I was upset that I missed The Leftovers because the Giants celebration was going on and it took a while to get to the show. 

On monday I hit up the sidebar in baltimore to check out a great local rock n roll band, Lazlo Lee and the Motherless Children.  It wasn’t too crowded, but as always they put on a good set.  Goin out on a Monday is always tough even for punk.  This gettin old thing sux.

“Don’t Play with the Dead”

 

Originally published on LaxSpot on 1/11/08

Punk likes to watch The Wire.  What a great show!  Unlike HBO’s other hit series, The Sopranos, things actually happen in this show and it hasn’t dragged on for years.  Since they’re in Baltimore, you know that they all have to play lacrosse.  If they could only learn to play together, they’d be a sick team.

This is my All-Time starting team for The Wire Lacrosse Club who plays their games out of Clifton Park.

Sgt. Jay Landsman

Frank Sobotka

Ziggy Quick and versitile feeder from the X.

Det. William “Bunk” Moreland A Garbage Man on the crease, Bunk loves to use the big booty to shield off defenseman.

Senator Clay Davis This trash talkin attackman has a rocket outside shot.

Marlo Stanfield Always looks good in the newest lax gear.

Chris Paltrow The do-it-all middie who gets the dirty work done.

James “Jimmy” McNulty If sober, Jimmy can use his moves to score.

Omar Little Omar loves to swing the lumber and spends a lot of time in the box.

Thomas “Herk” Hauk Punishes anyone around the crease and hates sprints.

Howard “Bunny” Clovin He got the nickname “Bunny” from his sick checks.

Joe “Proposition Joe” Steward Prop Joe’s size makes it tough to score.

Randy Wagstaff Reduced to waterboy for snitchin on Bunk’s stat changing.

Bubbles Hilarious on the sidelines.

Contains some bad language…so beware.

Originally published on LaxSpot on 1/2/08

Punk is a fan of all types of music, but what’s the deal with marching bands?  While watching the bowl games this week, I’ve discovered a new pet peeve; and thats the out of date gear that they are forced to wear. 

The feather in their weird hat is does not make anyone feel good.  And what’s up with the strap at it’s chin on the hats as well!?  Seriously?  They have to wear these cheesy looking jackets made of polyester.  They should really update the band attire.  

Living in Baltimore, you can go to a Ravens game and see these folks dressed up all silly too.  I know that there’s a tradition behind it, but why make a kid in the band look silly.  For crying out loud, it’s tough enough to play an instrument.   Don’t get me wrong, these folks are extremely talented.  But dressing up like a clown probably doesn’t make it much easier.

The tuba guy should have the story, “This one time, at band camp…I duct taped down the conductor until he promised us some new threads.”

I guess that I’m glad that the marching band isn’t a big thing in lacrosse.  If you’re going to bring an instrument (which is highly recommended because its cool) please do so.  Just leave the silly outfit at home.

Your generation don’t mean a thing to me!
-Generation X