Top Attack Lines in NCAA This Season

Posted By on March 31, 2014

This year college lacrosse features some superb attack lines, here are some of the most impressive…

 

Albany – A conversation about the top attack groupings in the country can’t be had without first discussing the Great Danes. The Thompson line is headed by Lyle Thompson, a first team All-American in 2013. Lyle has 21 goals and 55 points this year, and had a nation high 11 points in a game against UMass. He is followed closely by his brother Miles who has totaled 50 points this year and compiled an impressive .723 shots on goal percentage. Against Harvard Miles put away 8 goals. Lyle and Miles lead the nation in points per game with 6.88 and 6.25 respectively. No other player in the country averages above 5.89 points per game. Miles and Lyle’s cousin Ty finishes out Albany’s first line and has found the net 19 times this year. In total we are talking about 73 goals, 108 points.

 

Johns Hopkins – The Blue Jays feature Ryan Brown, Wells Stanwick and Brandon Benn. Brown has totaled 27 goals this season with his game high coming in a loss against Syracuse where he torched the Orange for 8 goals. Brown has a great ability to snipe from long range. Stanwick came into last week fourth in the country for assists per game, and has managed 23 on the year. He has a .667 shots on goal percentage, and has 12 GBs. Stanwick can be found on the crease in most games, looking for the easy goal and he is good at sneaking around through the back door on defenses. Benn rounds out the line with 19 goals and 5 assists, 4 of his goals coming on man-up opportunities.

 

Duke – As one of the best scorers in Division I, Jordan Wolf has put up 49 points through 11 games, and leads the Blue Devils with 33 goals. He has an excellent .707 shots on goal percentage as well but is bested by Josh Dionne who holds a .763 percentage. Dionne has 26 goals in just 10 games. Dionne and Wolf love working from behind the net and do a great job of cutting up around the crease. Christian Walsh follows up his line-mates with 12 goals and 11 assists, but had 5 goals against Harvard Saturday. The turnover game is the Duke attack’s weak spot, the starting line has given up a combined 39 turnovers.

 

Virginia – After a 6-0 start, UVA has stumbled recently with losses to Notre Dame, Cornell and Maryland. They have three games left including matchups against UNC and Duke. The first line attack has 109 points on the year, led by Mark Cockerton. The Ontario native is approaching his 2013 records, but currently has 32 goals and 11 assists. More importantly, Cockerton flaunts 2 game winners. However it is James Pannell who has had the most important game winner, when he scored the overtime winner against Loyola backup Pat McEnerney. The number 5 incoming recruit in the class of 2012, and brother of famed Cornell attackman Rob Pannell, has 30 goals and 5 assists in his sophomore year. Owen Van Arsdale is the third attackman on the line and although he only has 9 goals, the third year starter has a team high 22 assists.

 

Cornell – With the number two scoring offense in Division I, Cornell is a force to be reckoned with. Ontario native, Dan Lintner is third in the country with 3.56 goals per game. He has 32 on the season, coming on just 67 and boasts 8 man-up goals. Sophomore Matt Donovan has had a breakout season with 22 goals and 14 assists while junior John Edmonds trails with 13 goals and 7 assists. Cornell has not had the toughest schedule when it comes to facing opposing defenses, but did take on Colgate who is tied for the fourth best scoring defense in the nation.

 

Loyola – Nikko Pontrello is the star of the Greyhounds. In his sophomore year, Pontrello had just 16 goals and 19 assists but one year later, through 10 games the junior has totaled for 37 goals and 6 assists. He has a .536 shot percentage and a .739 shots on goal percentage. Pontrello is second in the country in goals per game at 3.70. Justin Ward is nearing his previous seasons assist number. The Maryland native has 11 goals and 33 assists and is third in the country for assists per game. The third attackman is Brian Schultz. The senior had not started a game until this year but has 18 goals and 9 assists in 2014.

 

Denver – Each of the Pioneers’ attackmen have at least 23 goals and 32 points. Freshman Zach Miller has 23 goals and 9 assist in his first year at Denver. He also sports a .811 shots on goal percentage. Wesley Berg has the same numbers as Miller, with 3 of his goals coming on the EMO. Transfer Jack Bobzien leads the Denver attack. In his freshman year at Hartford he led his team with 48 points. This year with Denver Bobzien leads the team in goals with 25 and also adds 12 assists to his resume.

 

Syracuse – The Orange have maybe the most forgotten attack line in the nation, which can be blamed on Syracuse’s lack of offensive possessions. Syracuse does not have any All-Americans on their attack and while they may not have the same scoring numbers as some of these other lines, it is their efficiency and depth, which make them so impressive. Dylan Donahue leads Syracuse with 21 goals. His 21 have come on just 32 shots, a .656 shooting percentage which puts him first in the nation. 26 of his 32 shots have been on net, and the sophomore has 10 assists to boot. While Donahue leads the numbers game, it is junior Kevin Rice who is the heart of the Syracuse offense. He has a shooting percentage of only .341 but .634 of his shots are on goal. Rice has found the net 14 times and picked up 17 assists leaving him at tenth in the country in assists per game. Derek Maltz is coming off of a 32 goal season. The co-captain of the Orange was relieved at attack to start the season by Randy Staats, but regained his position following an injury to Staats. He has 10 goals and 5 assists on the year. Meanwhile Randy Staats, who has returned to the lineup as a midfielder, has 11 goals and 11 assists.

 

How impressive is the ACC?

 

Syracuse had been the laggard through the first half of ACC play this year, but this past weekend they cleaned up their face-off and possession game to take down Notre Dame. The win over the Irish comes just a week after the Orange took an absolute beating from Duke. Meanwhile, Maryland looks like one of the top teams in the country and has an 8-1 record. They lost a close one against UNC two weeks ago but bounced back to beat UVA on Sunday. UNC’s only losses have come against Duke and Notre Dame. They’ve beaten a very good Johns Hopkins team as well as the Terps.

 

At the end of the year, no one can fault Duke for losing to Loyola. The Blue Devils also have a loss versus Maryland but have wins over UNC, Syracuse and Denver. The other weak link in the ACC appears to be Notre Dame, the only team to struggled in non-conference play. The Irish have fallen to Penn State, Denver and Syracuse but have beaten UNC and UVA. The Cavaliers, who looked so good to start the season, dropped recent matchups with Cornell, UND, and Maryland. UVA does have victories over Loyola, Syracuse, and Hopkins though.

 

Basically the ACC has beaten itself up all year long. Each team has at least one in-conference loss while Syracuse, UNC, and Maryland have only lost to ACC foes. There are 4 teams in D1 that have beaten ACC programs: Cornell, Denver, Penn State, and Loyola.

 

As Syracuse continues to pick up quality wins, the odds of the ACC getting all 6 teams into the NCAA tournament increases. Even the two teams who don’t make the ACCT will get to play in a “showcase” game against each other during the ACCT weekend, giving them both a boost in strength of schedule (not that they need it) and an opportunity to gain another quality win.

 

Poll

 

I still think there are really just ten quality teams in college lacrosse this year. Outside of that top group, teams refuse to win big games. No one leaves my top ten this week, even as Hopkins has put together three straight losses.

  1. Loyola – The Greyhounds got quite a scare against Colgate on Saturday but pulled out the 10-8 win. Nikko Pontrello continues to be very impressive.

  2. Cornell – The Big Red put the screws to Dartmouth this weekend taking Dartmouth for a 19-4 win. Connor Buzcek had a 6-goal game against the Big Green. Not a very impressive win based on the talent of Dartmouth who has just one win on the season, but19 goals will do just fine.  Cornell faces Harvard next week before taking on in-state rival Syracuse.

  3. Maryland – Maryland stumbled two weekends ago, falling to UNC 11-8. No player on either side had more than 2 goals, but Niko Amato put up 11 saves. Sunday they took on Virginia, taking down the Cavaliers 9-6. Against UVA, the Terps got much needed offensive help from sophomore Henry West who picked up his first career hat trick. Maryland has great wins over Syracuse, Duke, and UVA. They get a break this week hosting Robert Morris on Wednesday.

  4. Duke – After demolishing Syracuse two weekends ago, the Blue Devils handled Harvard 17-11. Christian Walsh and Myles Jones led Duke with a combined 9 goals while Jordan Wolf had just 2. Jones is a massive human being and can out-muscle his opponents for position. Duke has Notre Dame next week.

  5. North Carolina – The Tar Heals managed a win over Hopkins Saturday 13-9. Joey Sankey had 5 goals and 2 assists in the matchup. UNC takes on Virginia and Syracuse in their next two games before finishing up their season at High Point.

  6. Denver – The Pioneers have strung together five straight after starting their season 3-2. Denver’s two losses come against Duke and Penn while they have quality wins over Notre Dame and Penn State (which is looking less and less like the team we thought they were). Saturday Denver beat Georgetown handedly but their final four opponents have a combined record of 15-21 and only one has a winning record, so the Pioneers shouldn’t have too much trouble.

  7. Syracuse – After getting shellacked at Duke, the Orange came back and put together a very impressive win over Notre Dame. Syracuse hosts Binghamton on Wednesday before taking on Cornell and UNC. The Orange have to beat North Carolina to have a shot to make the ACC Tournament. With this win, I think it will be very hard for the NCAA tournament committee to not take all six teams, especially considering the mediocrity that follows the top ten teams this year.

  8. Notre Dame – After a 1-goal loss to Syracuse, a game in which they never led, the Irish have to play Duke. To ensure they wont miss out on the ACC Tournament, Notre Dame has to win one more conference game, either against Duke or Maryland. Notre Dame is 4-3 currently but they have a win at UNC and a beat down over Virginia in their back pocket. I can’t see the Irish getting left out of the tournament considering their schedule and their quality wins.

  9. Virginia – The Cavaliers fell to Maryland Sunday. They are 1-2 in ACC play and face UNC and Duke in their next two games. UVA had a big win against Loyola in the first game of the season, but since that really only have a quality wins against Syracuse and Johns Hopkins. On the other side it is really hard to fault UVA for their three losses against Notre Dame, Cornell and Maryland.

  10. Johns Hopkins – The Blue Jays started off the season 5-0 but have since gone 0-3. Their three losses come at the hands of ACC teams, Syracuse, Virginia and UNC and in all three have been loses by 3 or less. After watching how good the ACC is, I don’t think anyone can fault these three losses. Hopkins has an interesting matchup with Albany on Thursday and it will be a good test of where they are. Johns Hopkins still has Maryland to play, and will finish out their regular season with a visit to Baltimore rival Loyola.