The last time the Fairfield men’s lacrosse team took the field, they got pounded. Their opponent that game, of course, was the No. 2 team in the country: the Duke Blue Devils, the eventual national runner-up.
The Blue Devils routed the Stags 23-4 and ended what was perhaps the greatest season in Fairfield sports history – a season in which the Stags won the Great Western Lacrosse League championship, earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, where they fell to Duke in the first round, and were ranked in the top 15 in the countr.
That loss left a bitter taste in the Stags’ mouths, but this year, with almost all of their best players returning, they’re eager to take the field for the first time – soemething they will do against an opponent for the first time when they scrimmage national powerhouse Syracuse on Sunday at the Carrier Dome.
The team will also play Le Moyne College that day.
Head Coach Ted Spencer, the 2005 GWLL Coach of the Year, will look to these scrimmages, particularly against Big East and former National Champion Syracuse, as “measuring points” to see how Fairfield can fare against such a strong program.
Spencer will look for many factors from the team to continue its success and momentum from last year’s GWLL championship and NCAA Tournament appearance into the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference, in which the Stags will play this year for the first time.
“A team is as good as your senior leaders,” said Spencer. “So strong leadership from veteran captains Josh Thornton ’06 and Trevor Kelly ’06 will be important as well as solid goaltending from Michael Kruger ’07. The team will look to institute more complex systems this season as there will be, “less teaching” and more enacting of difficult concepts to compete with the more advanced teams of the ECAC.
With a tougher division ahead, a preseason ranking of No. 20 in the country from two prominent lacrosse publications, Lacrosse Magazine and Inside Lacrosse and 12 freshmen, the Stags have taken to the field in preparation for the upcoming season. In addition to this weekend’s scrimmages, the team will begin its season against non-league opponents Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. on Feb. 25 and Dartmouth at home on March fourth. The Stags first ECAC game will be at Rutgers on March tenth.
Practice Update:
The Stags began practice a few days after move in and have already begun their stringent regimen.
Training from 7 a.m. to just past 10 a.m,. the Stags have been able to take advantage of the nice weather by training outside and practicing on the field.
Spencer said the team came in with, “a hard work ethic and more mature than last season.”
One challenge that lies ahead for Spencer is firming up the offense, particularly by filling the holes left by Tom Werney ’05 and Matt Castele ’05. Defensively however, Spencer noted that the team is much deeper and not only will the returning players such as Matt Bocklet ’08 and Chris Atwell ’08 be more experienced, but freshman newcomers Matt Petre and Billy Honovich will be key assets.
Younger by the Dozen:
Though Spencer acknowledged that many of the freshmen may not be able to have an immediate impact on the field, there is a significant amount of promise amongst this freshmen class. Midfielder Chris Ajemian will be a “future star,” and Petre, Honovich, and Gary Raniolo will all be big parts of the team’s defense, said Spencer.
Other additions include midfielders Andrew Cabrey and Brendan Sinatro, defenders Chris Harbeck, Patrick Hovey and Kevin Reynolds and attackers Dan Hettler, Kevin Wolff and Keith Prifte.
All sorts of Honors
The 2006 season could be one in which the Stags take home a record number of post-season awards.
Of course, any projections about the post-season are more than a bit premature, but last year, in additon to Spencer’s Coach of the Year honor, the Stags’ players cleaned up post-season honors, and many of those players are back for another year, bringing individual expectations to an all-time high.
The pack is led by standout junior Greg Downing, who was named GWLL Offensive Player of the Year and received an Honorable Mention for the STX/Geico All America team.
Downing led three Stags on the All-Nerw England team. He was joined by Werney and Bocklet.
Downing and Bocklet, who finished the 2005 season first and second on the team in scoring, are favoreites to repeat on the All-New England roster and possibly go beyond that. They are joined by goaltender Michael Kruger ’07 as members of one of Spencer’s most talented classes.
Big time opposition
Among the most memorable aspects of last season’s GWLL title run were games againt nationally renowned teams, some of which the Stags beat and some of which they did not.
The high point in the season, at least from a morale standpoint, may have been on April 17, when they stunned then No. 11 nationally ranked Notre Dame 12-11. But the season also included upset wins over Penn State and Hobart, and a 9-6 loss to Maryland at Alumni Field. Though the Stags couldn’t come up with the victory against Maryland, they drew a capacity crowd at Alumni Field despite playing the game on a cold, rainy afternoon.
This year though, should bring more big-name opponents to Alumni and Lessing Fields, where the Stags split their home games.
ECAC opponents Loyola (Md.) and Georgetown come to Alumni Field, as do Penn State and Hobart, whom the Stags beat on the road last year.
The school with the biggest name on the schedule isn’t coming to Fairfield in 2006, but they are in 2007 as part of a multi-year agreement: North Carolina, whom the Stags play on the road April 15. in Chapil Hill, N.C.
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