Is 2010 the year of the offense? It seems like it so far.

Some scores from this weekend: Princeton 17 & Hofstra 14, Maryland 15 & Georgetown 13, Denver 17 & Albany 13, Duke 16 & Penn 11 and Syracuse 12 & Army 7.

This many high scoring games in February is a good sign for the rest of the season.

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Part of it may be that a lot of top goalies graduated last year: Dan Loftus from Duke, Doc Schneider from UMass, Jordan Burke from Brown, Joe Pike from Harvard, and Jake Myers from Cornell. On top of that, teams seem to be loaded on offense with tons of talented attackmen, many of them Canadians.

Perhaps the personnel changes are leading coaches to play to their offensive strengths in 2010. It is a little early to know for sure, but let's hope the high scoring games continue all season.

The LAXnews Rock-it Pocket NCAA Men's D1 College Lacrosse Ranking is as follows:

1. Syracuse (2-0) The Orange beat Army on Sunday. They have the attack, the defense and the goalie. Their midfield is unproven, but I doubt it will be a problem. No matter what they do next week against Virginia, you can all but bet the Orange will be in the Top 5 all season.

2. Virginia (2-0) Virginia beat Mount St. Mary's mid week and Stony Brook this Saturday. They will show a lot more about where they are as a team when they play #1 Syracuse next weekend. Their midfielders dodging against the Syracuse short sticks will be a key.

3. Carolina (4-0) Carolina pounded Navy this week to remove any doubt that they belong in the Top 5. Good news for the Heels? Gavin Petracca is now feeding even more than Billy Bitter. The two combined for 8 assists against Navy. Got to like Carolina to make a run in the ACCs and the NCAAs.

4. Hopkins (2-0) Hopkins beat Delaware mid week and edged Siena by 1 on Sunday. They have a great Freshman class to go with some key veterans, but so far have looked like they are playing 'early season' lacrosse with lots of missed passes. Hopkins needs to step it up with Princeton up next--a game that will tell us a lot about who belongs in the Top 5 and who will be at the top of the Top 10.

5. Notre Dame (2-0) Notre Dame handled Penn State on Sunday and head to the big stage next weekend against Loyola in The Face Off Classic. The Dames have the goaltending for sure, holding Duke to 7 last week and only allowing 8 this week.

6. Cornell (1-0) The Big Red beat Hobart in the Dome on Sunday night. Cornell looks like much more of an attack oriented team than the midfield team they were last year.

7. Duke (2-1) The best attack tandem in lacrosse--Ned Crotty and Max Quinzani--led Duke to a 16-11 win over Penn. Duke plays Maryland next, a game they need to win to show they are a Top 10 team. If they lose, there will be even more questions about the Blue Devils. This is a team to keep an eye on, that's for sure.

8. Maryland (2-0) Maryland had a great comeback win over Georgetown to show they are for real. The Terps got balanced production with 11 different goal scorers. Will Yeatman had the most with 3. They go to the big stage against Duke in the Face Off Classic next weekend.

9. Princeton (1-0) Game 1 of the Chris Bates era at Princeton? A win. Princeton is a more run and gun team than they were under Tierney. Coach T's stomach would have turned if Princeton was in a game where 31 goals were scored. Let's hope Coach Bates lets his players run all season and the ones after as well.

10. Hofstra (0-1) With snipers Jamie Lincoln, Mike Denapoli, and Jay Card (pictured above, wearing #20) on offense, it was no surprise that Hofstra scored 14 goals at Princeton. The mild surprise was they gave up 17. The goaltending is a bit of a question with Andrew Gvozden playing the first half and Rob Bellairs playing the second half when they gave up the lead. Still, Hofstra is a top 10 team and played like it on Saturday giving Princeton a run.

11. Loyola (2-0) Loyola beat Quinnipiac by 6. The 'Hounds face Notre Dame next weekend in a big game.

12. Harvard (1-0) Harvard downed Canisius by 10. They play Georgetown mid week and then have Holy Cross on Saturday. They have a balanced and talented team and are poised to challenge in the Ivy.

13. Georgetown (0-1) G'Town had a lead on Maryland, but could not hold on. The Hoyas have the offense, but their defense is suspect in allowing Maryland to come from behind and to score 15 goals in the game. Still, this could be a top 10 team if they can play like they did in the first half on Saturday more often.

14. Bucknell (2-1) Bucknell has to be the favorite in the Patriot with early season action showing that Navy, Colgate, and Army are all not as good as they were last year. Bucknell beat Towson on Saturday--their second win to go with an overtime loss to Duke--an impressive 3 game start to the season.

15. UMass (2-0) The UMass game against Ohio State was called off due to weather and travel issues. The Minutemen face a good Yale team next and will need to shake off the 13 day break to win.

16. Navy (0-2) Navy lost badly to Carolina. They have the defense and goaltending, but miss Tim Paul on attack--the Navy offense is sputtering without him.

17. Brown (0-0) Brown starts their season next weekend against Hofstra.

18. Delaware (1-1) Delaware lost to Hopkins in a let down after their win over UMBC. One interesting note: Pat Dowling coming over the head on the Hopkins short sticks says a lot about him and the Delaware defense. The Blue Hens have talent and should have been ranked higher to start the season.

19. UMBC (1-1) UMBC lost to Delaware last week, but beat Rutgers this week. They lost their top two midfielders from last season, but are still a strong team that will be in the mix.

20. Denver (1-2) Denver beat Albany this week after a loss to Syracuse last weekend. It will take some time to get all the way there, but Bill Tierney's team seems to be a force even sooner than expected.

Dropping Out of the Top 20:

Albany, Bryant

Teams to Watch:

Lafayette, Stony Brook, Robert Morris

Player of the Week

Bucknell's Tim Brandau scored 6 goals and had 2 assists to lead Bucknell past Towson. Brandau, pictured below wearing #1, also had 5 ground balls--the most balanced day of any player in college lacrosse this weekend. His performance earns him Player of the Week Honors.

Must See Lacrosse Next Week:

Harvard at Georgetown on Wednesday--This is a 'bounce back' game for Georgetown. After the loss to Maryland, the Hoyas will be fighting for a win. The challenge for Harvard is being able to D up the big, strong midfielders for Georgetown. Georgetown should win it, but you never know how they will play and Harvard has been rising the last couple years. Expect a good game.

Princeton vs Hopkins on Saturday--Need another game to highlight Princeton's new high flying style under Chris Bates? This is it. In fact, the change to 'run and gun' at Princeton will switch this match up a lot from what we have seen in the past. No more Bill Tierney taking the air out of the ball and having his team play slowly and deliberately. In fact, it should be Hopkins being more controlled than Princeton this time around.

Maryland vs Duke on Saturday--Duke's big, physical defense will take on an experienced Maryland attack that have seen significant playing time since they were Freshman. At the other end of the field is the great Duke attack led by Crotty and Quinzani.

Syracuse at Virginia on Sunday--This is the marque match up of the season so far--#1 against #2. The result will put the winner in the drivers seat at the top of the ranking for the next few weeks, if not longer.

Land's Picks:

(3-1 this past week and 3-1 overall for the '10 season; 20-11 in the '09 season; 20-9 in the '08 season)

Georgetown over Harvard

Princeton over Hopkins

Maryland over Duke

Virginia over Syracuse

The LAXnews Readers Voted...

and over 60% chose Denver Goalie Zander Buteux as their pick for top performer last weekend. Buteux, pictured below wearing #12, made 17 saves against Syracuse last Saturday and 17 more against Jacksonville last Sunday, great performances in his first two career starts. This weekend he saved 11 shots against Albany. Just a Sophomore, Buteux appears headed for a great season after seeing action in 5 games last year as a Freshman.

Lacrosse Line
Compiled by John Dunn

Albany by 2 at Delaware
Cornell by 2 vs Army
Bucknell by 1 at Navy
Maryland by 1 vs Duke
Carolina by 3 at UMBC
Notre Dame by 1 vs Loyola
Ohio State by 1 vs Penn State
Princeton by 1 vs Hopkins
Georgetown by 4 vs St. Johns
SBU by 1 vs Towson

Thank You

My most sincere thank you possible to Rich Donovan for his input into this week's College Beat Column.

The College Beat column and the LAXnews Rankings are brought to you by Rock-it Pocket