Yesterday, I attended the lacrosse doubleheader featuring the men’s and women’s teams of Syracuse and Georgetown.

The worlds of men’s and women’s lacrosse have been coming together little by little over the last few years as protective equipment, restraining lines, and sophisticated offenses have overspread the women’s game.

But there is one rule in the women’s game that was taken out of the men’s game decades ago: “When a whistle blows, all players must stop in place.” This does not include the goalie, unless she is out of her crease.

That’s what happened yesterday to Syracuse goalie Amber Pardee-Hill in the third overtime period. When the team created a turnover after the draw, a poor pass back for a goalie clear bounced towards the end line.

Now, here’s when an old rule met a new rule. Pardee-Hill chased the ball, but could not get to it before it rolled out of bounds. With the new hard boundary rule of 2006, the result of the play was a turnover. Pardee-Hill was stuck in her position while the nearest Georgetown player was brought four meters in from the point where the ball went out of bounds.

That player was none other than Coco Stanwick, the former Team USA U-19 captain. And the situation in front of her was that her offensive running mate, Brittany Baschuk, was at the top of the fan all by her lonesome with a yawning cage in front of her.

It was all over in about two seconds after that.

I wonder if the so-called “freeze tag” rule will be eliminated in the near future because of situations like this. After all, goalies are going to always go after loose balls behind the cage, even at the risk of being caught out of their creases.

But if you get rid of the rule, there are going to be more ramifications. First, there is going to have to be some creative administering of penalties for non-cardable major fouls (check inside the bubble, etc.), since a four-meter penalty for the one player committing the foul will be no penalty if her teammates can scramble inside the defensive 35-yard line. You might have occasion for 1-minute or 2-minute non-sub penalties (which, given the new 3-minute penalty for a fourth yellow card, may dovetail nicely).

Second, the arc and fan for free position shots will become chaotic and there is going to have to be a free-throw like lineup. I envision that ever flaggable foul inside the 12-meter arc is going to eventually be “shooter’s choice” of hashmark, with opponents one and three hashmarks away, and teammates at two and four hashmarks away, and every other player having to clear the arc with no player lining up at the goal line extended.

The way I see it, when it comes to rulemaking in a many sports, sometimes one change can open a Pandora’s box where a host of unforseen events and tendencies ensue. And it is very difficult to reverse the changes once the first one is made.