Unsettled: Intriguing Penn State Just Got More Interesting

Welcome to this week's edition of Unsettled, a weekly look at big stories, random observations and the numbers from the NCAA men's lacrosse scene. Check back each Sunday for the latest.

The most intriguing team in the country just got a lot more interesting. Penn State added Maryland to its list of 2026 victims — a list which also includes Princeton and reigning national champion Cornell. Of course, Penn State also has losses to Villanova and Navy, both solid teams, but not the Top 10 caliber teams the Nittany Lions have been beating.

Penn State beat the Terps, 10-6, with top offensive threat Hunter Aquino sidelined for the third straight game.

Penn State’s offense has cooled off the last two weeks after a 19-goal outburst against Cornell in the first game Aquino missed – just 18 goals in the last two games – but a bigger development may be the continued emergence of freshman goalie Preston Hawkins.

Hawkins was benched in Penn State’s season-opener, an 18-14 win over Colgate in which Hayes Schreiner came off the bench to get the win, but Hawkins has been steadily getting better. Saturday’s game was his best effort yet, a career-high 14 saves against just six goals allowed to push his save percentage to 50 percent for the season.

Most impressive was the work he did on Maryland veteran Eric Spanos. Spanos was returning from injury, but got some good looks – putting six of his seven shots on goal – but none got past Hawkins.

An Ohio native, Hawkins will return to his home state next Saturday to face Ohio State in a game in which goals are almost assuredly going to be at a premium. Ohio State has allowed just nine goals in its last two games, including Saturday’s 6-5 overtime win at Rutgers.

Penn State has won back-to-back games just once this season. They’ll need another strong outing from Hawkins to make it happen again.

Random Observations

The final score in Ohio State’s win over Rutgers (6-5) was far from surprising – the defense-first Buckeyes beat Denver by a 6-4 score the previous week. What was surprising is who finished the game in goal for the Buckeyes. Jack Allen came off the bench to replace Caleb Fyock to see the most meaningful playing time in his career. Allen made 10 saves while allowing just two goals in 39 minutes to earn the win. OSU coach Nick Myers told Inside Lacrosse’s Terry Foy that Fyock got dinged up in warmups. He played until giving up back-to-back goals in the second quarter.

Alex Marinier scored the game-winning in overtime and freshman Khalif Hocker continued his comeback from injury with two huge fourth-quarter goals.

Cornell reminded everyone that it’s still the champ until proven otherwise. The Big Red continued its mastery over No. 3 Princeton, beating the Tigers 13-11 – its seventh straight win in the series. Playing without faceoff weapon Jack Cascadden, Cornell relied on 15 saves from Matthew Tully and the continued excellent play from Willem Firth (2g, 3a) and Ryan Goldstein (3g, 1a).

Virginia will host the NCAA championships in Scott Stadium, the school’s football stadium, later this season. The Cavaliers have a lot to fix if they hope to be playing there in May, but UVa got a taste of the stadium – its first game at Scott since 2011 – and made the most of it with a 16-11 win over a dangerous Utah team. Jake Marek had a season-high 14 saves, including nine in the first half, and the Wahoos showed a taste of their explosiveness with seven third-quarter goals – including four straight goals in a span of 2:25 that broke a 7-7 tie. Truitt Sunderland scored six goals and Andrew Greenspan won 15 of 19 faceoffs.

Brady Wambach had a performance for the ages, but North Carolina still had to sweat out a 12-11 win over Army. Wambach won 21 of 27 faceoffs, had 16 grounds balls and scored a goal. At one point from the end of the second quarter to the start of the fourth, he won 17 consecutive faceoffs. Still, Army hung around, getting 17 saves from Sean Byrne and a hat track from Hill Plunkett. Plunkett’s third goal came with 45 seconds left and Wambach suffered a rare faceoff loss, giving Army a final chance, but the Black Knights were unable to get anything on cage.

Sophomore Caden Harshbarger and freshman Gary Merrill each had their first career hat tricks for the Tar Heels.

Colgate entered Saturday as the only team in the Patriot League without a league win. Boston University was the only team without a conference loss. Since this is the Patriot League, of course Colgate pulled the upset over the Terriers. The Raiders won 14-12 behind five goals and two assists from Hunter Drouin, including the feed on this crazy goal to close the scoring.

LEHRMAN SAVE 🤝 ERICKSON GOAL

📺: https://t.co/ndUTYKO472@PatriotLeague | @ESPNPlus pic.twitter.com/1oyFaQ0fbY

— Colgate Men's Lacrosse (@ColgateMLax) March 21, 2026

Duke and Syracuse got ready for next Saturday’s showdown in similar style on Sunday. Duke fell behind Denver 4-0 before a Cal Girard faceoff win and goal helped kickstart a seven-goal Blue Devil second quarter. Max Sloat finished with a hat trick as the Blue Devils hung on for an 8-7 win to stay unbeaten.

Syracuse fell behind Georgetown 3-1, but then exploded for eight goals in the second quarter of an 18-12 victory. Michael Leo tied his career high with five goals.

By the Numbers

100 • Career goals for Harvard’s Teddy Malone. His 100th put Harvard up for good in a 17-14 win over Dartmouth on Friday night.

15 • Goals for Navy despite missing two starters in a 15-9 win at Lafayette on Friday night. Mac Haley had three goals and three assists.

700 • Days since Johns Hopkins' last Big Ten win before beating Michigan 14-8 on Saturday. After going unbeaten in the B1G regular season in 2024, Hopkins did not win a league game last season. Hunter Chauvette and Chuck Rawson each scored four goals on Saturday.

6 • Goals for Siena’s Caden Olmstead in a 15-9 win over Manhattan. Siena heads to Marist on Wednesday for a key early-season MAAC game.

19 • Consecutive CAA wins for Towson after a come-from-behind 13-10 win at Stony Brook on Saturday. That’s the longest active conference winning streak in Division I.

8-0 • Richmond’s record – extending the best start in school history – after winning 21-7 at UMass on Saturday.

8 • Season-low turnovers committed by Penn in a 9-7 victory at Yale.

100 • Career goals for Loyola’s Matthew Minicus, including a fourth quarter tally in the Greyhounds 13-12 win over Bucknell.

217 • Career points for Utah’s Ryan Stines, giving him sole possession of the school record. Stines had a goal in the Utes’ 16-11 loss at Virginia.