Rookies are making their impact on every team. Some teams are playing rookies more than others, but across the board, more and more rookies are playing every week. Let’s take a look back to last weekend.
The weekend began with Boston’s 9-8 overtime win at Chesapeake to officially clinch a playoff berth. A pair of rookies each scored a goal, John Glesener (Army West Point) and Wells Stanwick (Johns Hopkins), Stanwick in the second quarter and Glesener in the third. Rutgers alum Joe Nardella made his MLL debut in the victory, scooping a pair of groundballs. On the other side, Callum Robinson made his professional debut for the Bayhawks, tallying one groundball, as did Henry Schoonmaker of Syracuse, who scored Chesapeake’s first goal. Patrick Harbeson of Virginia scooped a pair of groundballs while Chris Hipps of Duke had three.
A pair of Syracuse alums helped pace the Rochester offense in a dominant 18-10 win over Charlotte last Friday night. Randy Staats scored twice while Kevin Rice had one goal. Mike Poppleton of Johns Hopkins won 15-of-30 faceoffs with four groundballs. Joey Sankey of North Carolina led Charlotte with three goals, his third-career MLL hat trick and first since his second-career game. He’s now up to 30 points in just eight games. Will Haus of Duke scored a goal while Matt Clarkson of Colgate scored his first-career goal in just his second-career game. When all was said and done, rookies scored half of the Hounds’ 10 goals.
Sankey’s UNC teammate Jimmy Bitter posted four points (three goals, one assist) to help lead his Ohio Machine to a big 14-9 win over New York. Perhaps the biggest impact by any rookie all weekend was faceoff specialist Greg Puskuldjian, who won 16-of-26 against all-world faceoff man Greg Gurenlian. Entering the game with nearly an 80 winning percentage, Gurenlian won almost every early faceoff, but Puskuldjian responded to finish the game winning 62 percent of the time. The Adelphia alum has played a key role in Ohio’s surge, winning 55 percent of his draws on the year (162-of-294). Matt Bertrams of Albany also saw action for the Machine. Several players also saw action for New York, including Conrad Oberbeck of Yale who made his MLL debut and scored the game’s final goal in the fourth quarter. Ryan Walsh of Colgate had two goals as well.
In the weekend’s final game, first-year player Mike Bocklett tallied an incredible 10 points (five goals, five assists) in Denver’s 20-14 win over Florida. David Dickson of Bucknell and Erik Adamson of Denver posted a goal and assist apiece. After two huge games, Lyle Thompson of Albany came back to earth a bit for the Launch. The Albany product still scored a goal and dished two assists. Connor Buczek of Cornell had four points, including a two-point goal. Duncan Clancy of Jacksonville played for the first time since May and scored a goal for the fourth time in five games played this season. Casey Ikeda of Maryland and Pat Frazier of Loyola each scooped a groundball while Mark DiFrangia of St. John’s and Nicky Galasso of Syracuse also saw action.
