The college lacrosse season is still young, even though it feels as if it is still winter, because you know, it still is. Regardless of playing in the snow and players, fans and coaches alike freezing their butts off to play a spring sport, the 2015 NCAA season has started and it has been one heck of a ride so far. Some teams are four games in while others are just starting their season and as a result, we are starting to see some incredible individual performances.
With that in mind, the seniors on each squad are making their last go rounds across the college lacrosse landscape before heading to the professional ranks. Here is a MLL team-by-team look to show how each team’s rookies have done so far in college lacrosse so far.
Denver Outlaws:
Nikko Pontrello has 17 points for Loyola. While he was shutout against Penn State, he has had at least three points in the other four games for the Greyhounds. Even though Lehigh has struggled so far this season, Dan Taylor has not as he has been unreal so far this season. He recorded five, nine, five and four points in his first four games of the season. Wes Berg only had an assist against Duke but has come alive since then as he has 10 points in his last three games including a hat trick in the loss to UNC this past weekend. David Dickson has struggled thus far in his senior season as he only recorded stats against Colgate where he scored two goals and an assist. Nick Ossello only has five points so far this season for the Fighting Irish but he is also 21-of-45 on faceoffs this season. He had his best faceoff day this yesterday against Dartmouth.
Charlotte Hounds:
Will Haus is a great two-way midfielder for Duke and has a goal so far this season. Defensively, he has 13 ground balls and three caused turnovers for the Blue Devils. Joey Sankey ranks eighth in the nation in points with 23 including six points over Johns Hopkins and two in a win over Denver. Kip Orban has been on fire for Princeton in 2015. He has recorded 10 points in the team’s last two games, both victories over Hofstra and Johns Hopkins. He had six points in the team’s overtime victory over the Blue Jays this weekend. Kevin Massa has continued to be one of the best faceoffmen in the nation as he has 32 ground balls and won close to 62 percent of his faceoffs for Bryant. Despite a bad game against Hartford, he has dominated the like of Yale, Colgate and Bucknell at the ‘X’. Tyler German has four point so far this season including a two goal effort against Drexel. Ryan Belka has 10 point so far this season including two goals in each of his first two games against Virginia and Albany. He also had six points against Villanova in a loss.
Florida Launch:
Lyle Thompson hasn’t had the season he had hoped for thus far in 2015. He had two points before leaving with an injury against Drexel. He returned to record four points against Cornell on Saturday, but it will be interesting to see if the injury he suffered continues to affect him for the rest of the season. Connor Buczek leads Cornell with 18 points including a hat trick against Syracuse and a five goal, one assist day against Albany this past Saturday. Chad Tutton has 13 points in 2015 including three point days against both Johns Hopkins and Denver. Joe LoCascio has seven points for Maryland which ranks him third on the team. In each of the team’s victories this season he has had two goals. Kevin Rice has 12 points thus far in 2015 including three points in each of the team’s last two games against Cornell and Army. He is just as important to the team’s offense as Staats is.
Boston Cannons:
Ryan Tucker has recorded at least two points in each of the team’s first three games. His best effort came against Drexel when he scored two goals and had two assists. John Glesener has posted at least four points in four of the five games that Army has played so far this season including a four goal effort against Syracuse. Wells Stanwick is second on the team in points with 16. His two best games have come against Villanova when he had two goals and five assists while he had four points in the team’s overtime loss to Princeton yesterday. Joe Nardella has had a very solid season for Rutgers. He has had an incredible year at the faceoff ‘X’ as he has won 69 percent of his faceoffs in 2015. He also has three assists and 41 ground balls.
New York Lizards:
Mike Malave has 15 points so far on the season. He had four goals against Princeton and seven points this past weekend in a loss to Georgetown. Conrad Oberbeck has 14 points for Yale in 2015 including a five-point performance in Yale’s upset of Maryland two weekends ago. Matt Poillon struggled in the early going for Lehigh but has picked it up in the last two games against Boston and Lehigh as he has saved a total of 31 shots in both games. For the season he has a 53.9 save percentage. Hakeem Lecky has 10 points thus far in 2015 including a hat trick against Cornell and five points against Siena. Ryan Walsh has 14 points for Colgate including a five point effort against Bucknell over the weekend to help Colgate to a 4-0 record. Michael Pellegrino has two points so far even though he is a LSM for Johns Hopkins. He also has 12 ground balls and six caused turnovers on defense.
Rochester Rattlers:
Jesse King is tenth in the nation in points with 21 points through five games. His best game came against Delaware when he had six points, five of which were goals. This past week he had four points ina narrow victory over Bellarmine. Jack Near is possibly the best two-way midfielder in the game and he has three points so far for Notre Dame. He also has one caused turnover while playing great defense at SSDM. Randy Staats has saved his best play for the big opponents on the schedule thus far for Syracuse. Against Cornell he had four points and against Army he had six points. It will be interesting to see how Virginia tries to contain him on Sunday. Mike MacDonald leads the Princeton Tigers with 19 points so far in 2015. He had nine points against Hofstra and five in the team’s overtime victory over the Blue Jays this past Saturday. Sam Somers has had a solid season so far for the Black Knights. He has played well against mediocre competition such as VMI, Jacksonville and Lafayette but struggled against Syracuse and Army. Regardless he has saved a 56.5 save percentage. Kyle Aquin had 63 points for RIT last year. This year, he has started a little more slowly. After being shut out by Stevenson, he had two goals in the team’s win against Ithaca over the weekend.
Ohio Machine:
Jimmy Bitter has been on fire for the North Carolina Tar Heels as he is second in the nation in points with 27 including five point efforts in wins over both Johns Hopkins and Denver. Ryan Izzo has two goals for UMass as well as two caused turnovers and six ground balls while providing great defense at the SSDM position. Brian Kormondy is the Blue Hens top scorer with 13 points so far this season including four points against Bucknell and two against Ohio State. Austin Geisler has a 53.4 save percentage in 2015 for High Point. Outside of his game against UNC, he has posted a save percentage above 52 percent in the other five games the team has played. David Planning has seven points on the season including a goal and an assist in the Buckeyes latest game against Bellarmine.
Chespeake Bayhawks:
Erik Adamson has nine points in three games for the Pios including a strong four goal, one assist effort in the team’s season opening win against Duke. However, he didn’t record a statistic this past weekend in the loss to UNC. Henry Schoonmaker has had a very quiet season for Syracuse having recorded only a point in each of the team’s first three games. With so many options on offense it isn’t surprising to see him start slowly. Matt Donovan has 15 points in 2015. He scored five goals in each of his first two games against Hobart and Binghamton before following up those performances with a three goal, two assist game against Albany this past weekend against Albany. Charlie Raffa has struggled so far for Maryland as he has only won 43.8 percent of his faceoffs in 2015. That is well below the 60 percent clip he operated at last year. Maybe the knee problems that bothered him towards the end of last season are still bothering him in 2015. Alex Love has 10 points for Hobart in 2015. He had his best game against Cornell when he went off for four goals against the Big Red. Love is a good player and should continue to put up big games this season. Tim Edwards has 11 points for Canisius. He had three points in each of the team’s first two games before recording two in each of Canisius’ last two games. He is the main option on the team and despite facing the opposition’s top defender, he is still putting up points. Tony Rossi has had a very slow start to the season as he only has two points, which came against Messiah. This comes after putting up 58 points last season for Stevenson. He should find his groove soon and be a main part of the Mustangs’ offense.
