My favorite part of looking back on the season is remembering the extraordinary plays that made their mark. In this edition, I’ll be taking a deeper focus on top goals. Friday’s story will be top plays overall.
Goals are one of the coolest parts of the game, and they’re even better when they’re scored in ridiculous ways. Sure Sergio Perkovic and Myles Jones have incredible speed on their shots, but neither of them made this top ten list. Here were the goals that impressed me the most, and a lot of them involved plays beforehand:
- Army West Point’s Connor Cook’s yard sale on Syracuse’s Mike Messina
Cook is 5’5″ and 163 lbs., while Messina is 5’9″ and 182 lbs. You’d think that something like this wouldn’t happen, but somehow it did. The ridiculous stick check by Cook was the first wow. But then right after, the underhand rip on Bobby Wardwell to tie the game at five in the third was the icing on the cake. Army had a short hold on the momentum, but they ended up falling to Syracuse in an early season matchup.
9. Johns Hopkins’ Wells Stanwick’s falling down behind the back vs. Virginia
Wells enjoyed his final season playing alongside his younger brother Shack this year. He also enjoyed a great run to his only Championship Weekend appearance. In the Blue Jays’ dominant win against Virginia in the first round, Wells was coming from x in the first quarter, being guarded against Davi Sacco. Sacco lost his footing, which made Wells fall down. Using his momentum, Wells decided to go behind the back and low on goaltender Matt Barrett. Shack had a behind the back goal of his own a short time later, and Matt Barrett had a game he would like to forget.
- Albany’s Connor Fields’ catch and behind the back vs. Notre Dame
It’s an Albany goal that Lyle Thompson isn’t involved. That’ll be what the program will be for Fields’ next three seasons in New York’s capital. He exploded as a freshman with a nation leading 66 goals on the season and was second in the nation with 3.47 goals per game. Not only was the goal pretty good, “how ‘bout the catch!”
- Albany’s Lyle Thompson’s backhand shot vs. Syracuse
(Start at 1:26) Lyle Thompson is the greatest player since Mikey Powell in the early 2000s. Some of his excellence has come against Syracuse, including this nifty backhand shot against Bobby Wardwell. Being guarded against Brandon Mullins, Thompson first did a spin move at X to get a slight advantage on Mullins, before pulling off the backhand shot on the opposite side of the net. He will certainly be missed next year.
- Syracuse’s hidden ball trick vs. Virginia
This was the first hidden ball trick of the year, and it took the entire field to make this happen. Defenseman Brandon Mullins got the ball, “gave” it to goaltender Bobby Wardwell, went up the entire field before giving it away to attackman Kevin Rice, with the Cavalier defense dazed and confused. Once the Virginia poles saw that Rice had the ball, there was no chance of stopping the shot. Take a look at Head Coach John Desko at the bottom of the screen. He had no clue what was happening, until graduate assistant and former goaltender Dom Lamolinara told him what was going on. The Orange dominated the Cavaliers in both of their ACC openers.
- Towson’s Justin Mabus’ ground ball behind the back vs. UMass
This was the best behind the back goal before Championship Weekend occurred. Mabus had the ball and looked to the guy coming towards the crease to give the Tigers the lead late in the CAA Championship. The ball deflected off of one of the UMass defenders then off the Towson player and went up in the air. Midfielder Ryan Izzo somehow missed catching the ball and a scrum ensued after he missed another chance at getting the ball. Mabus stayed with the ball and ended up getting the ball, only shooting a quick behind the back goal immediately after getting the ball, catching the goaltender off guard. That was the game winner for the Tigers, and Towson eventually beat High Point in a play-in game, before losing to Notre Dame in the First Round. Shame on you Izzo.
- Denver’s Zach Miller fake pass vs. Notre Dame
This is the first of two goals from the first semifinal game. Zach Miller is a vey talented attackman, and he’s got two more years before he graduates from Denver. Here, Miller is being guarded by Edwin Glazener and is rolling towards his right. Matt Landis slides to double team the sophomore as well. Miller fakes a pass, fooling both defenders. He then goes the opposite way and has a clear shot on goaltender Shane Doss and nails the top left corner of the net. Denver won the game in OT and eventually the National Championship. It wasn’t the goal that looked the best, but it was that fake that he threw that made this goal a beaut.
- Johns Hopkins’ hidden ball trick vs. Virginia
It was a bad year to be on the opposite side of hidden ball tricks in Division I. Virginia was the victim of not one, but two hidden ball tricks. This was against Johns Hopkins was even better than the first one against Syracuse. Wells Stanwick, who had the ball, and Ryan Brown touched each other’s heads and in the process gave Brown the ball. Stanwick did it again with John Crawley to fool the defense. While that was happening, Brown had the ball and gave it to a wide-open Shack Stanwick, where he put it in an empty net while Virginia goaltender Matt Barrett was concentrating on Wells Stanwick. The Blue Jays destroyed Virginia in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament.
- Denver’s Wesley Berg’s behind the back bounce shot vs. Notre Dame
This would have been the best goal of the year if not for something two weeks earlier in the First Round. It wouldn’t have been a goal if it weren’t for the big stick check on Notre Dame’s Nick Ossello by Connor Cannizzaro. The ball went up in the air and Berg caught it on the first try (unlike Izzo) and using his Canadian box background, shot behind the back and bounced the ball in between the legs of goaltender Shane Doss.
1. Albany’s Blaze Riorden goes coast-to-coast vs. Cornell
Coast-to-coast, the split dodge, the fake! Just watch the video and you’ll see why it’s the best goal of the year.
