Lacrosse

Duke and Denver will join Cornell and top-seeded Syracuse in the NCAA Division I men's lacrosse Final Four this weekend at Lincoln Financial Field. David Lawson scored his career-best fifth goal with 2 minutes, 16 seconds remaining to lift seventh-seeded Duke to a 12-11 win over No. 2 Notre Dame (11-5) in the quarterfinals Sunday in Indianapolis. In their seventh consecutive trip to the Final Four, the Blue Devils (14-5) will play Cornell at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Linc. Duke won the national championship in 2010.

First Team Position   Player   School   Yr.    Attack   Dylan Schulte   Seneca   Sr.    Schulte was one of the most well-rounded players in South Jersey this season, netting 56 goals and 52 assists. Attack   Owen Demmerly   Shawnee   Sr.    Demmerly netted 59 goals and 47 assists this season. He moves on to play for Goucher College after a stellar high school career in which he recorded 201 goals and 105 assists.

Washington Township is ahead of schedule, and so are the Tiernan twins. That's typical for the Minutemaids' sophomore midfielders. They always arrive faster than expected. "They have nationally ranked speed," Washington Township coach Sandy Stockl said. The Tiernans played a major role Wednesday as Washington Township built a big lead and held on for a 13-12 victory over Lenape in an Olympic Conference American Division lacrosse game. Although they combined for just one goal, the Tiernans made an impact with their ability to collect ground balls, race from end to end with the ball, and use their speed and quickness at the defensive end. "Our speed helps us out," said Megan Tiernan, the slightly faster, slightly smaller of the twins.

Player             School          Class             Major Karen Boyle        Rosemont          Sr.        Psychology Alli Dickey           Rowan             Sr. Mech. engineering Josie Ferri           Haverford          Jr.           Psychology Allison Furman       Ursinus             Sr.      Exercise & sport Jennifer James     Holy Family       Sr.

Tournament of Champions Semifinals Who: Moorestown (24-0) vs. Glen Ridge (21-3) When: Tuesday, 5 p.m. Where: Monmouth University Fast Facts: Moorestown, the Group 3 state champion, topped Glen Ridge, the Group 1 state champion, in the semifinal round of last year's Tournament of Champions, a game Moorestown won, 8-4. Other semifinal: Ridgewood vs. Chatham, 3 p.m. at Monmouth University....

Friday night's showdown in boys' lacrosse between No. 1 St. Augustine Prep and No. 3 Moorestown should be a good game. It also will be for a good cause. The 7 p.m. game at St. Augustine will be part of "Jack McGetrick Night" as the two lacrosse powers combine to help raise funds for a long-time lacrosse coach. McGetrick, head coach at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky., is battling prostrate cancer. There will be a $2 admission charge to the game, with all proceeds going to help with McGetrick's medical costs.

According to Bob Ruoff, executive secretary of District 1, boys' lacrosse is likely to become a sport sponsored by the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association. Last week, a proposal was made by District 3 officials at a PIAA meeting in Shippensburg. There were no votes against district playoffs in boys' lacrosse - an opportunity already accorded girls' lacrosse teams. "I think the time has come for it," Ruoff said. "Lacrosse is growing in numbers and popularity every year.

LACROSSE HAS largely been left out of the sports cinema pantheon. But never fear, LAX fans! You can finally experience your overwrought, life-lessons-via-athletics saga (complete with comely young stars) in the form of "A Warrior's Heart. " Kellan Lutz, proving why he is mostly eye candy in the "Twilight" franchise, plays Conor Sullivan, a West Coast-bred lacrosse player whose military dad moves his family across the country so Conor will have a chance of playing on the Naval Academy's team.

   The U.S. Lacrosse national convention is scheduled to be held at the Convention Center from Friday through Sunday.    The convention is billed as the largest professional development and networking event in the lacrosse world. Walk-up registration at the convention center will be available for $150.    Former Eagles defensive back and NFL head coach Herm Edwards is set to deliver the convention's keynote address at 7 p.m. on Friday. Four-time Super Bowl referee Jerry Markbreit is scheduled to speak at 5 p.m. on Saturday.

In just seven minutes, his team trailed by seven goals. But the coach's plan was working just fine. It was Bill Tierney's first game as coach at the University of Denver in 2010. He wanted the Pioneers to get a taste of big-time college lacrosse and they opened the season with a 15-9 loss at Syracuse's Carrier Dome. The freshmen who were on that Denver team are now seniors. On Saturday, the fourth-seeded Pioneers (14-4) will have a chance to show how far they have come when they meet No. 1 Syracuse (15-3)

La Salle's Matt Rambo was surrounded. There was a St. Joseph's Prep defender in front of him. There was another behind him. Another to his left, and another to his right. The senior attack simply drove through the tight defense to score the game's final goal Wednesday night and seal La Salle's 18th Catholic League boys' lacrosse title with an 11-6 win at Plymouth Whitemarsh. "He kept twirling and running and crashing into players until he fired it into the empty net," La Salle coach Bill Leahy said.

No.   Name   Pos.   Ht.   Wt.   Class   Hometown / Highschool 1    Chris Daddio    M   5-11   191   Jr.    Purcellville, Va. / Loudoun Valley 2    Kevin Rice    A   5-8   160   So.    Skaneateles, N.Y. / Skaneateles 3    Billy Ward    A   5-8   175   Jr.    Baldwinsville, N.Y. / C.W. Baker 4    Bobby Wardwell    GK   6-0   201   So.    Clifton Park, N.Y. / Shenendehowa 5    Joe Fazio    LSM   6-2   212   Sr.

ERIC GREGG knew exactly what he had brought back to his West Philly home. But everyone looked at it like it was something alien. Was it a tennis racket? A hockey stick? No, it was a lacrosse stick. Gregg had borrowed it to show his parents. That Christmas, Santa brought Gregg his own lacrosse stick. And so Gregg's love for lacrosse began, and later inspired him to introduce inner-city children to the sport. According to several surveys, lacrosse has been one of the nation's fastest-growing team sports for more than a decade, a trend that continued in 2012.

Unseeded but not quite an underdog, Cornell heads to Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday in search of its first berth in the NCAA men's lacrosse title game since 2009. The Big Red fell in the Ivy League semifinals before rolling to two NCAA tournament wins over Maryland and Ohio State by a combined score of 32-14. Coach Ben DeLuca said he's not quite sure if the winning margins will be an advantage in the final four. "We're coming in with a great amount of confidence and we draw upon the experience we had throughout the season," DeLuca said.

EIGHT AREA lacrosse players have been selected to play in the All-America Lacrosse Classic. The games will be played July 6 at Towson University. The girls' game will be played at 5 p.m. with the boys' game at 8. The boys' game will be televised on ESPNU for the eighth year. Here are the players selected (with their college in parenthesis): Malvern Prep goalie Matt Barrett (Virginia); La Salle midfielder Sean Coleman (Harvard); Episcopal Academy defenseman Kevin Gayhardt (Penn)

THE NCAA men's lacrosse Final Four will be held next weekend at Lincoln Financial Field, and the semifinals now are set. Unseeded Cornell will play Duke at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. Top-seeded Syracuse will play fourth-seeded Denver at 5 p.m. Saturday. The national championship game will be played at 1 p.m. Memorial Day. In yesterday's quarterfinals, Eric Law scored with 13 seconds left to cap Denver's big comeback in a 12-11 win over North Carolina in Indianapolis. Denver trailed by as many as six goals and was down five at halftime.