Lacrosse

Occasionally, the call could be heard coming from the Moorestown sideline: Keep him left. Don't let him go to his right. "They thought I couldn't do it," Jake Dean said. "They were forcing me left all game because they thought I couldn't score with my left hand. But I did it. " Out of a timeout with 3 minutes, 48 seconds left in double overtime, Dean sprinted down the left wing toward Moorestown goalie Dan Willis. And with his left hand - his supposed weak hand - the Shawnee midfielder beat one of the state's top goalies, giving the Renegades a 4-3 win over heavily favored top seed Moorestown in Saturday's South Jersey Group 3 boys' lacrosse final.

Just hours before taking the field Friday, both Maryland and Syracuse waited as North Carolina dismantled traditional powerhouse Northwestern to earn a spot in the NCAA Division I women's lacrosse national championship game. The No. 4-seeded Orange, however, were not as fortunate against the top-seeded and undefeated Terrapins. Maryland defeated Syracuse, 11-10, in the second semifinal at Villanova Stadium, surviving a second-half surge by the Orange. "We're really excited to have the opportunity to compete for a national championship on Sunday," said Maryland coach Cathy Reese.

Even as her team held a commanding, eight-goal lead over Northwestern with about 10 minutes remaining, North Carolina midfielder Abbey Friend never felt a trip to the NCAA Division I women's lacrosse championship game was secure. Given the Wildcats' resumé - seven national titles in eight years - the third-seeded Tar Heels didn't relent in an 11-4 victory on Friday night in a national semifinal at Villanova Stadium. With the win, North Carolina reached its second championship game in program history.

Syracuse men's lacrosse coach John Desko did not talk much about his team's title drought during the season. He knew he did not have to. The Orange return to the final four this weekend for the first time since 2009 when they meet Cornell on Saturday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field. For the nation's premier program, four years may have felt like an eternity. "The seniors have been very strong leaders all year long with their team on and off the field," Desko said. "Making good decisions, and they use it as an incentive.

As the North Carolina bus inched its way through traffic on the Blue Route toward Villanova Stadium in the rain late Thursday afternoon, no one thought to ask Margaret Corzel if she knew any shortcuts. That's a pity, because she probably could have helped. This weekend's NCAA Division I women's lacrosse Final Four is a homecoming for several players. But few can make as strong a claim as Corzel, a redshirt sophomore defender for North Carolina. Corzel grew up 10 minutes away in Berwyn, and played in high school at Merion Mercy.

With sticks in their hands, the three Conestoga youth lacrosse teammates sat, nearly a decade ago, in the green seats of Lincoln Financial Field's Section 101. Playing lacrosse in college was not even a thought then, Brian Dailey said. So as Dailey, Tanner Scott, and Jamie Ikeda watched Duke lose to Johns Hopkins in the 2005 NCAA final, they had no idea they were glimpsing into their future. Now Duke teammates, the three will return to the Linc on Saturday afternoon when the Blue Devils face Cornell in a national semifinal at 2:30 p.m. "We definitely dreamed about it," said Ikeda, a freshman defender.

SYRACUSE men's lacrosse - one of the nation's most recognized collegiate lacrosse programs - is making its 27th appearance in the Final Four, set for this weekend at Lincoln Financial Field. The top-seeded Orangemen (15-3) defeated Yale, 7-6, in last weekend's quarterfinals and will face fourth-seeded Denver (14-4) in tomorrow's second semifinal. "We are excited to be back in the championships with only four teams left," Syracuse coach John Desko said. "The whole community is buzzing.

Johns Hopkins senior defenseman Tucker Durkin , from Huntingdon Valley and La Salle College High, was named a first-team all-American on Thursday. Durkin earned second-team honors as a sophomore and first-team honors last season. He led a Johns Hopkins lacrosse team that ranked third nationally in scoring defense (7.79). Drexel's Robert Church and Ben McIntosh were named honorable-mention all-Americans. Church led the Colonial Athletic Association with 3.8 points per game.

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.